Behavioral Economics Commons^™

Law, Environment, And The “Nondismal” Social Sciences, William Boyd, Douglas Kysar, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Over the past 30 years, the influence of economics over the study of environmental law and policy has expanded considerably, becoming in the process the predominant framework for analyzing regulations that address pollution, natural resource use, and other environmental issues. This review seeks to complement the expansion of economic reasoning and methodology within the field of environmental law and policy by identifying insights to be gleaned from various “nondismal” social sciences. In particular, three areas of inquiry are highlighted as illustrative of interdisciplinary work that might help to complement law and economics and, in some cases, compensate for it: the …

Convergence In Models With Bounded Expected Relative Hazard Rates, Carlos Oyarzun, Johannes Ruf

Carlos Oyarzun

We provide a general framework to study stochastic sequences related to an array of models in different literatures, including models of individual learning in economics, learning automata in computer sciences, social learning in marketing, and many others. In this setup, we study the asymptotic properties of a class of stochastic sequences that take values in [0,1] and satisfy a property that we call “bounded expected relative hazard rates.” We provide sufficient conditions for related sequences, which, compared to the original sequence, either move slowly or slow down over time, that yield con- vergence to one with high probability or almost …

Age Differences In Social Discount Rates, Hayden T. Whitfield

Hayden T Whitfield

No abstract provided.

A Critical Examination Of The Climate Engineering Moral Hazard And Risk Compensation Concern, Jesse Reynolds

Jesse Reynolds

Huge Growth Potential In 2015 For Used Books Market - A Surney, Lissa Coffey

LissaCoffey

Selling Buying Used Books - A Market With Huge Potential in 2015 - Selling/buying books online is a great way to earn extra income and an upcoming market having huge growth potential in 2015. Size the US market for used books ... Conduct research on used book selling and buying activities. The starting point for their analysis is the double-edged impact of a used book market ... But there's another effect: the presence of a market for used books ... "The growth reflects how easy is has become to sell used books.The used book market for college textbooks has been …

La Motivación Extrínseca Del Profesorado Universitario En Alemania Y En España: Un Análisis Empírico, Sergio A. Berumen

Sergio A. Berumen

In this work we review the concept of motivation and we stress the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In the process we introduce the variables that have an impact on work motivation and the techniques used for its measurement. Below you will find an original model, used to measure extrinsic motivation. The fieldwork was carried out on a wide selection of professors at the following European universities: Freie Universität and Humboldt Universität in Germany, and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Spain, from March 2013 to August 2013.

Esochoice: The Self-Manipulation Of Tastes By Chameleonic Decision Makers, Brian J. Gibbs

Brian J. Gibbs

No abstract provided.

Willingness To Pay For Flood And Ecological Risk Reduction In An Urban Watershed, David Clark, Diane Novotny, Robert Griffin, Douglas Booth, Alena Bartosova, M Hutchinson

Robert Griffin

Urban watershed managers frequently must address alternative policy goals; flood control and ecological risk reduction. This study combines hydrologic models of flood control and biotic models of ecologic risk with economic models of willingness-to-pay and psychological models of risk processing and planned behavior to evaluate these two alternative policy objectives. The findings reveal that flood risk exposure, especially for those individuals who would remain outside the 100 year flood plain if the project were enacted, does influence the financial support that local residents would be willing to make to a flood control project. Other important determinants include demographic factors such …

Cumulative Dominance In Multi-Attribute Choice: Benefits And Limits, Konstantinos Katsikopolous, Martin Egozcue, Luis Fuentes García

Martin Egozcue

No abstract provided.

The Relation Between Variance And Information Rents In Auctions, Brett Katzman, Julian Reif, Jesse Schwartz

Jesse A. Schwartz

This paper examines the conventional wisdom, expressed in McAfee and McMillan's (1987) widely cited survey paper on auctions, that links increased variance of bidder values to increased information rent. We find that although the conventional wisdom does indeed hold in their (1986) model of a linear contract auction, this relationship is an artifact of that particular model and cannot be generalized. Using Samuelson's (1987) model, which is similar but allows for unobservable costs, we show that increased variance does not always imply increased information rent. Finally, we give the appropriate measure of dispersion (different from variance) that provides the link …

Wage Bargaining Under The National Labor Relations Act, Jesse Schwartz, Quan Wen

Jesse A. Schwartz

Sections 8(a)(3) and 8(a)(5) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) prohibit the management of a firm from unilaterally increasing the wage during contract negotiations without the union's approval. We show how the management can strategically increase the wage during negotiations without violating the NLRA. Increasing the wage during negotiations will upset the union's incentive to strike and decrease the union's bargaining power, thereby shrinking the set of equilibrium contracts in the firm's favor. Indeed, as the union becomes more patient, the set of equilibrium wages converges to the best equilibrium outcome to the firm.

Purchasing Nonprescription Contraceptives: The Underlying Structure Of A Multi-Item Scale, Chris Manolis, Robert Winsor, Sheb True

Robert D. Winsor

The authors develop a multi-item scale measuring attitudes associated with purchasing nonprescription contraceptives. Although contraceptives represent a common as well as consequential purchase for many people, published research has not addressed measures of attitudes associated with this purchase decision. A scale development method is presented measuring both male and female consumer attitudes toward purchasing contraceptives. Ultimately, a multi-item scale demonstrating a high degree of invariance across 2 samples (men and women) is developed.

Agency And Compensation: Evidence From The Hotel Industry, Matthew Freedman, Renata Kosova

Matthew Freedman

The Homo [Not So] Economicus And The Law: A Critique Of Positive Theory Of Rational Choice In The Law [En Español], Daniel A. Monroy

Daniel A Monroy C

From the Behavioral Economics point of view, this paper presents a critic to one dimension of rational choice theory that is widely accepted by Law and Economics scholars. Our hypothesis is that (i) individuals deviate anomalously but predictably of normative assumption of rational choice. We suggests that, (ii) more than –unbounded– rational self interested individuals, in certain contexts, people tend to deviate from this normative behavior and also, tend to judge the behavior of other people, according to the consistency of these behaviors with a hypothetical situation commonly referred to as the "reference transaction".

Desde la perspectiva del Behavioral Economics, …

The Construction Of Morals, Daniel L. Chen, Susan Yeh

Susan Yeh

When do policies generate expressive or backlash effects? Recent economic models suggest that where a proscribed activity is prevalent, permissive laws liberalize attitudes toward partakers while increasing utility. The opposite occurs in communities where the proscribed activity is rare. To test these predictions, we randomize data entry workers to transcribe newspaper summaries of liberal or conservative court decisions about obscenity. We find that liberal obscenity decisions liberalize individual and perceived community standards and increase utility. Yet religious workers become more conservative in their values, identify as more Republican, view community standards as becoming more liberal, and report lower utility. Workers …

A Note On Absolutely Expedient Learning Rules, Carlos Oyarzun

Carlos Oyarzun

I provide a full characterization of the set of absolutely expedient learning rules introduced in Börgers, Morales, and Sarin (2004) [“Expedient and monotone learning rules,” Econometrica, 72, 383–405]. The expected change in the expected payoff can be written as a quadratic form on the vector of relative expected payoffs of the strategies. This permits use of standard linear algebra arguments to provide a characterization in terms of the matrix defining this quadratic form.

Learning Through Experimentation: Creating An Authentic Experiment With Behavioral Economics Students, Stacie Bosley

Stacie Bosley

Crime And Economic Growth In Developing Countries: Evidence From Pakistan, Arsalan Ahmad, Sharafat Ali, Najid Ahmad

Sharafat Ali

This study investigates the impact of crime on economic growth of Pakistan by using time series data from 1980 to 2011. Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test is applied to check the stationary of variables. It is hypothesized that increase in crime leads to less economic growth in Pakistan. Autoregressive Distributive lag (ARDL) to cointegration is used to find short and long run relationship between crime and Economic growth. Results reveal that crime has negative and significant impact on economic growth in the long run, whereas in short run the effect of crime on economic growth is negative but insignificant. ECM …

Behavioral Approaches To Environmental Policy Analysis: A Case Study Of Offshore Wind Energy In The North American Great Lakes, Erik Edward Nordman

Erik Edward Nordman

Behavioral economics, including prospect theory, offers new approaches to environmental policy analysis. The utility of behavioral approaches to environmental policy analysis is illustrated using a case study of offshore wind energy policy in Michigan, USA. Michigan has attempted to clarify the permitting process for offshore wind energy but those efforts have failed. Prospect theory suggests that Michigan legislators are, for the most part, risk averse to policy reforms as the state emerges from its “one-state recession” and into a gains domain. Legislators from some coastal districts perceive offshore wind development as a threat to coastal quality of life, are risk-seeking …

The Mask Of Virtue: Theories Of Aretaic Legislation In A Public Choice Perspective, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Preschoolers And The Endowment Effect, Sergio Da Silva, Bruno Moreira, Newton Da Costa Jr

Sergio Da Silva

We show that preschoolers exhibit the endowment effect as evidenced by experiments where children generally chose to keep their own toys rather than trading them for similar ones. Furthermore, we relate the emergence of this effect to children’s innate psychobiological traits—emotional state, gender, handedness, and digit ratio. The trials were conducted with 141 children across 6 kindergartens. We also found support that children, like adults, exhibit a preference for physical possession as opposed to ownership. As with adults, emotions also seem to matter, as children who were described as quiet and calm were more likely to present the endowment effect. …

Risk Seekers May Be Antisocial After All, Sergio Da Silva, Raul Matsushita, Luiza Ugarte, Mateus De Carvalho

Sergio Da Silva

Undergraduates were given a battery of psychological tests to gauge their degree of antisocial personality traits (psychopathy, Machiavellianism and nihilism). The students also responded to questionnaires to assess their attitudes toward risk and intertemporal choice. Biological attributes of the respondents were also collected. We found a correlation between psychopathic, Machiavellian and nihilistic traits in the sample, and also that risk seekers were antisocial. Additionally, we found, on average, that younger subjects presented higher levels of psychopathy; atheists were more Machiavellian; and atheists who were anxious tend to be nihilists. Moreover, boys born from younger mothers were more risk seeking than …

2d:4d Digit Ratio Predicts Delay Of Gratification In Preschoolers, Sergio Da Silva, Bruno Moreira, Newton Da Costa Jr

Sergio Da Silva

We replicate the Stanford marshmallow experiment with a sample of 141 preschoolers and find a correlation between lack of self-control and 2D:4D digit ratio. Children with low 2D:4D digit ratio are less likely to delay gratification. Low 2D:4D digit ratio may indicate high fetal testosterone. If this hypothesis is true, our finding means high fetal testosterone children are less likely to delay gratification.