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Articles 1 - 10 of 10
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Multiple Openings And Competitiveness Of Forward Markets: Experimental Evidence, José Luis Ferreira, Praveen Kujal, Stephen Rassenti
Multiple Openings And Competitiveness Of Forward Markets: Experimental Evidence, José Luis Ferreira, Praveen Kujal, Stephen Rassenti
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
We test the competition enhancing effect of selling forward in experimental Cournot duopoly and quadropoly with multiple forward markets. We find that two forward periods yields competitive outcomes and that the results are very close to the predicted theoretical results for quantity setting duopolies and quadropolies. Our experiments lend strong support to the hypothesis that forward markets are competition enhancing. We then test a new market that allows for endogenously determined indefinitely many forward periods that only close when sellers coordinate on selling a zero amount in a forward market. We find that the outcomes under an endogenous close rule …
Justice And Fairness In The Dictator Game, Karl Schurter, Bart J. Wilson
Justice And Fairness In The Dictator Game, Karl Schurter, Bart J. Wilson
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
This article uses a laboratory experiment to examine the question of whether justice and fairness are different motivational forces in the dictator game. "Justice" and "fairness" are often used interchangeably because their meanings and usages are so closely linked, despite their distinct connotations. Using four different treatments, our experimental design investigates the subtle differences between the two social concepts to explicate generosity in the dictator game. The results indicate that justice, not fairness, legitimizes property rights in the dictator game.
Exchange And Specialisation As A Discovery Process, Sean Crockett, Vernon L. Smith, Bart J. Wilson
Exchange And Specialisation As A Discovery Process, Sean Crockett, Vernon L. Smith, Bart J. Wilson
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
In this article we study the performance of an economy that can support specialisation if the participants develop and follow some system of exchange. We define a closed economy in which the participants must discover the ability to exchange, implement it, and ascertain what they are comparatively advantaged in producing. Many of our participants demonstrate the ability to find comparative advantage, capture gains from trade and effectively choose production that is consistent with the choices of others. We explore various treatments to provide insight into the conditions that foster the growth of specialisation and exchange within this weak institutional framework.
Auction Markets For Evaluations, Cary Deck, Bart J. Wilson
Auction Markets For Evaluations, Cary Deck, Bart J. Wilson
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
When the value of a product or service is uncertain, outcomes can be inefficient. A market for evaluations can theoretically increase efficiency by voluntarily eliciting an evaluation that would otherwise not be provided. This paper uses a controlled laboratory experiment to test the performance of four market mechanisms to provide product evaluations. The mechanisms considered are derived from the oft studied uniform price sealed bid, discriminatory price sealed bid, English clock auction, and Dutch clock auction. Our results indicate for this nonrivalrous product that (i) each of these institutions improves social welfare and (ii) the performances of the four mechanisms …
Human Nature: An Economic Perspective, Vernon L. Smith
Human Nature: An Economic Perspective, Vernon L. Smith
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
An economist writing on the topic of human nature is surely expected to talk about decision making by narrowly self-interested rational agents.
Gatt, Dispute Settlement And Cooperation: A Reply, Dan Kovenock, Marie Thursby
Gatt, Dispute Settlement And Cooperation: A Reply, Dan Kovenock, Marie Thursby
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
In our 1992 paper, we analyzed GATT and its dispute settlement procedure (DSP) in the context of a supergame model of international trade featuring both explicit (GATT) and implicit (non-GATT) agreements. Our paper departed from the previous economics literature on GATT enforcement (see, for instance Hungerford (1991) and Ludema (1990)) by incorporating the ``twin engines of international obligation and retaliation'' (Hudec, 1990). International obligation imposed a cost of violating an explicit international agreement, such as GATT, while retaliation could take place either within the rules stipulated by the international agreement or by punishment outside of the agreement. In Section 2 …
The All-Pay Auction With Complete Information, Michael R. Baye, Dan Kovenock, Casper G. De Vries
The All-Pay Auction With Complete Information, Michael R. Baye, Dan Kovenock, Casper G. De Vries
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
In a (first price) all-pay auction, bidders simultaneously submit bids for an item. All players forfeit their bids, and the high bidder receives the item. This auction is widely used in economics to model rent seeking, R&D races, political contests, and job promotion tournaments. We fully characterize equilibrium for this class of games, and show that the set of equilibria is much larger than has been recognized in the literature. When there are more than two players, for instance, we show that even when the auction is symmetric there exists a continuum of asymmetric equilibria. Moreover, for economically important configurations …
The Primitive Hunter Culture, Pleistocene Extinction, And The Rise Of Agriculture, Vernon L. Smith
The Primitive Hunter Culture, Pleistocene Extinction, And The Rise Of Agriculture, Vernon L. Smith
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
The hypothesis that megafauna extinction some 10,000 years ago was due to "overkill" by Paleolithic hunters is examined using an economic model of a replenishable resource. The large herding animals that became extinct, such as mammoth, bison, camel, and mastodon, presented low hunting cost and high kill value. The absence of appropriation provided incentives for the wastage killing evident in some kill sites, while the slow growth, long lives, and long maturation of large animals increased their vulnerability to extinction. Free-access hunting is compared with socially optimal hunting and used to interpret the development of conservationist ethics, and controls, in …
An Experimental Study Of Competitive Market Behavior, Vernon L. Smith
An Experimental Study Of Competitive Market Behavior, Vernon L. Smith
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in experimental games such as management decision-making games and games designed to simulate oligopolistic market phenomena. This article reports on a series of experimental games designed to study some of the hypotheses of neoclassical competitive market theory.
An Economic Analysis Of Contributions Under The Income Tax Laws, Floyd E. Gillis, Vernon L. Smith
An Economic Analysis Of Contributions Under The Income Tax Laws, Floyd E. Gillis, Vernon L. Smith
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
In this note classical tools are used to examine the treatment of "gifts in kind" under the federal income-tax laws as they were but a few years ago, as they are today, and as they should be, given the objective that the law appears to be trying to achieve. It will be demonstrated that, under certain conditions, firms today can maximize profit after taxes by producing some output to be given to acceptable charities.