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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Beating A Live Horse: Effort’S Marginal Cost Revealed In A Tournament, Michael T. Maloney, Bentley Coffey
Beating A Live Horse: Effort’S Marginal Cost Revealed In A Tournament, Michael T. Maloney, Bentley Coffey
Michael T. Maloney
There is ample evidence that incentive pay structures such as tournaments result in increased performance, but whether this is due to selection or increased individual effort is less clear. We show that empirical specification is the key. Misspecification masks individual effort and interprets it as selection. Looking at data on horse racing, we compare a pure selection model to the Lazear-Rosen tournament model. While both models organize the data, the tournament model does a better job, and it says that nearly two-thirds of the increased performance associated with higher prizes is due to increased individual effort. This estimate is very …
Is Nuclear Power Viable In Russia?, Michael T. Maloney, Oana Diaconu
Is Nuclear Power Viable In Russia?, Michael T. Maloney, Oana Diaconu
Michael T. Maloney
A careful analysis casts doubt on the economic viability of expanded nuclear generation capacity in the Russian homeland. Given Russia’s vast reserves of natural gas and modern turbine generation technology, it seems unlikely that nuclear power will emerge as the low-cost generation alternative.
Economies And Diseconomies: Estimating Electricity Cost Functions, Michael T. Maloney
Economies And Diseconomies: Estimating Electricity Cost Functions, Michael T. Maloney
Michael T. Maloney
This paper presents estimates of the variable cost function of electricity generation. The cost function is estimated using a two dimensional definition of capacity utilization. Because electricity cannot be conveniently stored, generation facilities follow the load across demand cycles. Capacity utilization can be captured empirically in two ways. One is generation relative to capacity when a unit is connected to the system; the other is the percent of time the unit is disconnected. The estimated cost function shows that both dimensions affect average cost, which generally declines as capacity utilization increases.