Behavioral Economics Commons^™

Infant Mortality: Cross Section Study Of The United State, With Emphasis On Education, Daniel C. Sheets-Poling

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

On the surface infant mortality is usually thought of as just a unfortunate part of life in what can happen to an individual family, but infant mortality is part of the factors that affect social capital, which can lead back to overall trust in a community. When that trust starts to wither within a community, economic activity will be affected as community members will not behave as they usually do within their given economic boundaries. While social capital is not solely affected by infant mortality, it does show what type of health status an area has. As a community, state, …

The Impact On Consumer Behavior Of Energy Demand Side Management Programs Measurement Techniques And Methods, Jeffrey L. Pursley

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Much effort has gone into measuring the impact of Demand Side Management (DSM) programs on energy usage, particularly in regards to electric usage. However, there are potential biases in such measurements. This paper explores one of these potential biases, the rebound effect. This effect is caused by changes in consumer behavior as a result of DSM programs. The work of Steven Braithwaite and Douglas Caves provide the starting point for this analysis, although the rebound effect is referenced in many other works in this field.

In an effort the estimate this effect, data from the Nebraska Energy Office’s DSM programs …

The Business Of Coupons-Do Coupons Lead To Repeat Purchases?, Margaret P. Ross

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

In recent years, couponing has emerged as a pop culture phenomenon. Businesses of all types are taking advantage of this resource by revamping their out-dated programs and turning them into something fresh to excite customers. Many questions remain unanswered concerning the viability, profitability, and usefulness of coupons. This study is an analysis of the effectiveness of coupons in enticing return purchases in the soft-drink category and the effectiveness of price discriminating at this grocery store chain. The dataset is comprised of household level grocery store transactions compiled by dunnhumby USA for 2,500 households over a period of two years. An …

How Portable Is Level-0 Behavior? A Test Of Level-K Theory In Games With Non-Neutral Frames, Shaun Hargreaves Heap, David Rojo Arjona, Robert Sugden

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We test the portability of level‐0 assumptions in level‐k theory in an experimental investigation of behavior in Coordination, Discoordination, and Hide and Seek games with common, non‐neutral frames. Assuming that level‐0 behavior depends only on the frame, we derive hypotheses that are independent of prior assumptions about salience. Those hypotheses are not confirmed. Our findings contrast with previous research which has fitted parameterized level‐k models to Hide and Seek data. We show that, as a criterion of successful explanation, the existence of a plausible model that replicates the main patterns in these data has a high probability of …

A Piece Of The Puzzle: Can Behavioral Insights Help Understand Currency Returns?, Samuel D. Russell

Senior Theses and Projects

This paper finds further evidence using a Cointegrated Vector Autoregression to support claims against the Uncovered Interest Rate Parity (UIP) ex post, referred to as the Forward Discount Anomaly (Fama, 1984). This anomaly suggests predictable profits simply from investing in a country with a higher interest rate. Potential explanations could be attributed to risk or deviations from the rational expectations hypothesis. UIP ex ante is tested using survey data. These results indicate a time-­‐ varying risk premium. Further it is found that this premium is related to the gap between the exchange rate and Purchasing-­‐Power-­‐Parity value. Additionally it is determined …

Incidental Emotions And Trust Decisions: Visceral Influences On Economic Behavior, Idan Aviv Elmelech

Senior Projects Spring 2014

In recent years, trust has emerged as a key concept in the understanding of cooperation between individuals and organizations. It has been implicated as an important variable in topics ranging from individual decision-making in finance, to macroeconomic growth and stability in developing countries. This thesis employs an experimental design to investigate the impact of emotions on trust behavior. In the experiment, emotion was induced in participants who then played a basic trust game originally proposed by Berg, Dickhaut, & McCabe (1995). Results indicate that emotions do impact trust, with anger decreasing trust behavior. However, the data also reveal that individual …