Claremont McKenna College
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
University of Connecticut - Storrs
University of Warwick
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
University of San Francisco
Carrots And Sticks: Optimal Contracting With Skewness Preference And Ambiguity Aversion,
2019
Lafayette College
Carrots And Sticks: Optimal Contracting With Skewness Preference And Ambiguity Aversion, Joaquín Gómez Miñambres, Mark Schneider
ESI Working Papers
Employment contracts often have a three-tiered structure, offering a base salary, a bonus for high performance and a penalty for poor performance. None of the standard models in contract theory generate such a contract. We show that such coarse contracts are optimal in a model where the agent exhibits two of the most robust deviations from expected utility theory: skewness preference and ambiguity aversion. The analysis identifies conditions where the optimal contract is simple and both carrots and sticks are optimal. Our analysis has implications for performance evaluation, corporate compensation structure, prize-linked savings accounts, and the determinants of intrinsic motivation.
A Bias Aggregation Theorem,
2019
Chapman University
A Bias Aggregation Theorem, Mark Schneider
ESI Working Papers
In a market where some traders are rational (maximize expected utility) and others are systematically biased (deviate from expected utility due to some bias parameter, q), do equilibrium prices necessarily depend on q? In this note, focusing on the case where there is an aggregate and systematic bias in the population, we show that market prices can still be unbiased. Hence, we establish that systematically biased agents do not necessarily imply biased market prices. We show that the parametric model we use also predicts observed deviations from expected utility in laboratory and market environments.
Cooperation Among Strangers With And Without A Monetary System,
2019
University of Bologna
Cooperation Among Strangers With And Without A Monetary System, Maria Bigoni, Gabriele Camera, Marco Casari
ESI Working Papers
Human societies prosper when their members move beyond local exchange and cooperate with outsiders in the creation of wealth. Collaboration of this type presents formidable challenges because interaction is impersonal, reciprocity is unfeasible and trust cannot be easily established. Here we study this cooperation problem by modeling strategic interaction among strangers through an Intertemporal Exchange Game. The setup can be easily implemented in the laboratory to study a variety of cooperation-enhancing institutions. In particular, we study the role of a fiat monetary system by introducing intrinsically worthless tokens that can be offered in exchange for cooperation. The experiments show that ...
Money Is More Than Memory,
2018
University of Bologna
Money Is More Than Memory, Maria Bigoni, Gabriele Camera, Marco Casari
ESI Working Papers
Impersonal exchange is the hallmark of an advanced society and money is one key institution that supports it. Economic theory regards money as a crude arrangement for monitoring counterparts’ past conduct. If so, then a public record of past actions—or memory—should supersede the function performed by money. This intriguing theoretical postulate remains untested. In an experiment, we show that the suggested functional equivalence between money and memory does not translate into an empirical equivalence: money removed the incentives to free ride, while memory did not. Monetary systems performed a richer set of functions than just revealing past behaviors.
Modeling Interactions Between Risk, Time, And Social Preferences,
2018
Chapman University
Modeling Interactions Between Risk, Time, And Social Preferences, Mark Schneider
ESI Working Papers
Recent studies have observed systematic interactions between risk, time, and social preferences that constitute violations of `dimensional independence' and are not explained by the leading models of decision making. This note provides a simple approach to modeling such interaction effects while predicting new ones. In particular, we present a model of rational-behavioral preferences that takes the convex combination of `behavioral' System 1 preferences and `rational' System 2 preferences. The model provides a unifying approach to analyzing risk, time, and social preferences, and predicts how these preferences are correlated with reliance on System 1 or System 2 thinking.
A Dual System Model Of Risk And Time Preferences,
2018
Chapman University
A Dual System Model Of Risk And Time Preferences, Mark Schneider
ESI Working Papers
Discounted Expected Utility theory has been a workhorse in economic analysis for over half a century. However, it cannot explain empirical violations of 'dimensional independence' demonstrating that risk interacts with time preference and time interacts with risk preference, nor does it explain present bias or magnitude-dependence in risk and time preferences, or correlations between risk preference, time preference, and cognitive reflection. We demonstrate that these and other anomalies are explained by a dual system model of risk and time preferences that unless models of a rational economic agent, models based on prospect theory, and dual process models of decision making.
Ten Years Of Economic Analyses For The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive: Overview Of Experiences And Lessons Learned,
2018
Rijkswaterstaat
Ten Years Of Economic Analyses For The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive: Overview Of Experiences And Lessons Learned, Rob Van Der Veeren, Ann Kathrin Buchs, Günter Hörmandinger, Soile Oinonen, Conceição Santos, Max Vretborn
Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics
The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive, which came into force in 2008, requires from Member States inter alia to perform various (types of) economic analyses. In order to help Member States to implement this directive, the European working group on Economic and Social Analysis was initiated in 2009. This working group has developed various guidance documents which have been very useful in helping each other to understand the Directive and its requirements, to develop one language, to understand the pros and cons of various approaches, and to share experiences. However, up until now, outside of this working group this information ...
Allisions, Collisions And Groundings: Estimating The Impact Of The Physical Oceanographic Real Time System (Ports(R)) On Accident Reduction,
2018
Dept of Commerce/NOAA/NOS/AAMB
Allisions, Collisions And Groundings: Estimating The Impact Of The Physical Oceanographic Real Time System (Ports(R)) On Accident Reduction, Eric Wolfe, Kenneth N. Mitchell
Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics
Reductions in the rates of domestic allisions, collisions and groundings (ACGs) are the result of technological advances as well as implementation of best practices in the maritime industry. This study estimates long-term gross benefits derived from expanded implementation of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS®) with respect to reductions in ACG rates in the United States. Following PORTS® installations that provided expanded coverage of U.S. ports and adjoining areas, concomitant decreases in accident rates occurred. While previous estimates suggested that between twenty and sixty percent of grounding accident reductions were due to PORTS ...
Using Response Times To Measure Ability On A Cognitive Task,
2018
Chapman University
Using Response Times To Measure Ability On A Cognitive Task, Aleksandr Alekseev
ESI Working Papers
I show how using response times as a proxy for effort coupled with an explicit process-based model can address a long-standing issue of how to separate the effect of cognitive ability on performance from the effect of motivation. My method is based on a dynamic stochastic model of optimal effort choice in which ability and motivation are the structural parameters. I show how to estimate these parameters from the data on outcomes and response times in a cognitive task. In a laboratory experiment, I find that performance on a Digit-Symbol test is a noisy and biased measure of cognitive ability ...
Why Trust Out-Groups? The Role Of Punishment Under Uncertainty,
2018
Bryant University
Why Trust Out-Groups? The Role Of Punishment Under Uncertainty, Xiaofei Pan, Daniel Houser
Economics Faculty Journal Articles
We conducted a hidden-effort trust game, in which we assigned subjects to one of two groups. The groups, which were formed through two different group formation processes, included a “social” group that required sharing and exchange among its members, and a “non-social” group that did not. Once assigned, subjects participated in the game with members from both groups, either with or without the opportunity to punish a trustee who may have defected on them. We found that for investors in the non-social group, the opportunity to punish a trustee worked to promote trust, but only when the trustee was a ...
The Fintech Opportunity,
2018
New York University
The Fintech Opportunity, Thomas Philippon
Wharton Pension Research Council Working Papers
This chapter assesses potential impacts of FinTech on the finance industry. First we show that financial services remain surprisingly expensive in the U.S., which helps explain the emergence of new entrants. We then argue that the current regulatory approach is subject to significant political economy and coordination costs, and therefore it is unlikely to deliver much structural change. FinTech can improve both financial stability and access to services, but this will require important changes in the focus of regulations.
Free Trade And Corporate Social Responsibility: Ethical Dilemmas In Global Economic Development,
2018
California State University, Monterey Bay
Free Trade And Corporate Social Responsibility: Ethical Dilemmas In Global Economic Development, Sarah Papion
Capstone Projects and Master's Theses
Through the lens of the free-trade-optimist, it is black and white: corporations bring jobs, and jobs equal a happy and healthy economy. A major oversight in this neoliberal Utopian ideology is that corporations are not in the business of building communities, nor do they have an interest in keeping their operations stationary enough to allow economic growth to occur over a span of years. Corporations abandon communities as quickly as they arrive to find their next cheap labor hub. Quite contradictory to the original purpose of free trade, economic growth in Free Trade Zones is not long term or secure ...
Slow-Fast Analysis Of A Multi-Group Asset Flow Model With Implications For The Dynamics Of Wealth,
2018
Chapman University
Slow-Fast Analysis Of A Multi-Group Asset Flow Model With Implications For The Dynamics Of Wealth, Mark Desantis, David Swigon
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
The multi-group asset flow model is a nonlinear dynamical system originally developed as a tool for understanding the behavioral foundations of market phenomena such as flash crashes and price bubbles. In this paper we use a modification of this model to analyze the dynamics of a single-asset market in situations when the trading rates of investors (i.e., their desire to exchange stock for cash) are prescribed ahead of time and independent of the state of the market. Under the assumption of fast trading compared to the time-rate of change in the prescribed trading rates we decompose the dynamics of ...
On Booms That Never Bust: Ambiguity In Experimental Asset Markets With Bubbles,
2018
Chapman University
On Booms That Never Bust: Ambiguity In Experimental Asset Markets With Bubbles, Brice Corgnet, Roberto Hernán-González, Praveen Kujal
ESI Working Papers
We study the effect of ambiguity on the formation of bubbles and on the occurrence of crashes in experimental asset markets à la Smith, Suchanek, and Williams (1988). We extend their framework to an environment where the fundamental value of the asset is ambiguous. We show that, when the fundamental value is ambiguous, asset prices tend to be lower than when it is risky although bubbles form in both the ambiguous and the risky environments. Additionally, bubbles do not crash in the ambiguous case whereas they do so in the risky one. These findings regarding depressed prices and the absence ...
Equilibrium Sorting And Moral Hazard In Residential Energy Contracts,
2018
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Equilibrium Sorting And Moral Hazard In Residential Energy Contracts, Jieun Chang
Faculty Articles & Research
Summary
•This paper studies tenant behavior in rental housing when the landlord pays for heating.
•For a fixed cost of heating, households that choose tenant-pay contracts prefer higher thermostat settings than households that choose landlord-pay contracts.
•Eliminating moral hazard by forcing all renters to pay their own bill reduces energy consumption by 25% due to renters turning down the heat (22%) and choosing smaller units (3%).
•Moral hazard in residential energy contracts cost $839 million per year in welfare losses.
Low Income Households Investment In Energy Efficient Appliances,
2018
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Low Income Households Investment In Energy Efficient Appliances, Jieun Chang
Faculty Articles & Research
Introduction
•Does adopting energy efficient appliances reduce electricity consumption among low income households?
•Low income households: households below 150% of the federal poverty level
•Energy efficient appliances:
energy star refrigerators and energy star room air conditioners
Conditional Independence In A Binary Choice Experiment,
2018
Chapman University
Conditional Independence In A Binary Choice Experiment, Nathaniel Wilcox
ESI Working Papers
Experimental and behavioral economists, as well as psychologists, commonly assume conditional independence of choices when constructing likelihood functions for structural estimation. I test this assumption using data from a new experiment designed for this purpose. Within the limits of the experiment’s identifying restriction and designed power to detect deviations from conditional independence, conditional independence is not rejected. In naturally occurring data, concerns about violations of conditional independence are certainly proper and well-taken (for well-known reasons). However, when an experimenter employs contemporary state-of-the-art experimental mechanisms and designs, the current evidence suggests that conditional independence is an acceptable assumption for analyzing ...
Selection In The Lab: A Network Approach,
2018
Chapman University
Selection In The Lab: A Network Approach, Aleksandr Alekseev, Mikhail Freer
ESI Working Papers
We study the selection problem in economic experiments by focusing on its dynamic and network aspects. We develop a dynamic network model of student participation in a subject pool, which assumes that students' participation is driven by the two channels: the direct channel of recruitment and the indirect channel of student interaction. Using rich recruitment data from a large public university, we find that the patterns of participation and biases are consistent with the model. We also find evidence of both short- and long-run selection biases between males and females, as well as between cohorts of students. Males tend to ...
A Theory Of Conservative Revivals,
2018
University of Colorado, Boulder
A Theory Of Conservative Revivals, Murat Iyigun, Jared Rubin, Avner Seror
ESI Working Papers
Why do some societies fail to adopt more efficient political and economic institutions in response to changing economic conditions? And why do such conditions sometimes generate conservative ideological backlashes and, at other times, progressive social and political movements? We propose an explanation that highlights the interplay--or lack thereof--between productivity, cultural beliefs and institutions. In our model, production shocks that benefit one sector of the economy may induce forward-looking elites to provide public goods associated with a different, more traditional sector that benefits their interests. This investment results in more agents generating cultural beliefs complementary to the provision of the ...
Agglomeration And The Extent Of The Market: An Experimental Investigation Into Spatially Coordinated Exchange,
2018
Chapman University
Agglomeration And The Extent Of The Market: An Experimental Investigation Into Spatially Coordinated Exchange, Jordan Adamson
ESI Working Papers
How and why do agglomerations emerge? While economic historians emphasize trade and economic geographers emphasize variety, we still don’t understand the role of coordination. I fill this gap by extending the model of Fudenberg and Ellison (2003) to formalize Smith’s (1776) theory of agglomeration. I then test the model in a laboratory experiment and find individuals tend to coalesce purely to coordinate exchange, with more agglomeration when there is a larger variety of goods in the economy. I also find that tying individuals to the land reduces agglomeration, but magnifies the effect of variety.
