Behavioral Economics Commons^™

Collusive Bidding In The Fcc Spectrum Auctions, Peter Cramton, Jesse Schwartz

Jesse A. Schwartz

This paper describes the bid signaling that occurred in many of the FCC spectrum auctions. Bidders in these auctions bid on numerous spectrum licenses simultaneously, with bidding remaining open on all licenses until no bidder is willing to raise the bid on any license. Simultaneous open bidding allows bidders to send messages to their rivals, telling them on which licenses to bid and which to avoid. This “code bidding” occurs when one bidder tags the last few digits of its bid with the market number of a related license. We examine how extensively bidders signaled each other with retaliating bids …

Tb185: Designing A Labeling Policy For Genetically Modified Food: Results Of Focus Group Research, Mario F. Teisl, Lynn Halverson, Kelly O'Brien, Brian Roe

Technical Bulletins

The labeling of genetically modified foods is a topic of growing, and sometimes cantankerous, public debate—a debate whose outcome could dramatically alter the operation of the U.S. production agriculture, processing, distribution and retailing sectors. The debate surrounding the labeling of genetically modified foods is largely about how much information to supply to consumers to facilitate effective choice and how that information should be supplied. Although there seems to be empirical evidence of a mainstream desire for the labeling of genetically modified foods, we know of no study that has provided guidance to policy makers as to the best method of …

An Analysis Of Auction Volume And Market Competition For The Coastal Forest Regions In British Columbia, Peter Cramton, Susan Athey, Allan Ingraham

Peter Cramton

US-Canada Softwood Lumber Trade Dispute, On behalf of British Columbia Ministry of Forests.

Reserve Prices, Stumpage Fees, And Efficiency, Peter Cramton, Susan Athey, Allan Ingraham

Peter Cramton

US-Canada Softwood Lumber Trade Dispute, On behalf of British Columbia Ministry of Forests.

Setting The Upset Price In British Columbia Timber Auctions, Peter Cramton, Susan Athey, Allan Ingraham

Peter Cramton

US-Canada Softwood Lumber Trade Dispute, On behalf of British Columbia Ministry of Forests.

The General Dominance Of Lottery Over Waiting-Line Auction, Winston T. H. Koh, Zhenlin Yang, Lijing Zhu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper examines the allocative efficiency of two popular non-price allocation mechanisms — the lottery (random allocation) and the waiting-line auction (queue system) — for the cases where consumers possess identical time costs (the homogeneous case), and where time costs are correlated with time valuations (the heterogeneous case). We show that the relative efficiency of the two mechanisms depends critically on the scarcity factor (measured by the ratio of the number of objects available for allocation over the number of participants) and on the shape of the distribution of valuations. We obtain a set of analytical results showing that the …

Unions, Bargaining And Strikes, Peter Cramton, Joseph Tracy

Peter Cramton

Labor disputes are an intriguing feature of the landscape of industrialized economies. Economists have had a long-standing interest in formulating a framework for understanding and analyzing labor disputes. The development of noncooperative bargaining theory provided the tools for a theory of collective bargaining and labor disputes. A general aim of this theoretical development is to inform policy makers of the efficiency and equity effects associated with different labor laws and institutions that govern and shape the collective bargaining process. While this new literature is still evolving, it can already offer many insights into the interplay between policy and the bargaining …

Demand Reduction And Inefficiency In Multi-Unit Auctions, Peter Cramton, Lawrence M. Ausubel

Peter Cramton

Auctions typically involve the sale of many related goods. Treasury, spectrum and electricity auctions are examples. In auctions where bidders pay the market-clearing price for items won, large bidders have an incentive to reduce demand in order to pay less for their winnings. This incentive creates an inefficiency in multiple-item auctions. Large bidders reduce demand for additional items and so sometimes lose to smaller bidders with lower values. We demonstrate this inefficiency in an auction model which allows interdependent values. We also establish that the ranking of the uniform-price and pay-as-bid auctions is ambiguous in both revenue and efficiency terms. …

Optimal Organizational Design In A Dichotomous-Choice Project Selection Model, Winston T. H. Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies collective decision making in the context of a project selection model. We derive the optimal decision architecture when marginal decision costs are present, and investigate the circumstances under which the hierarchy and polyarchy exist as optimal sequential architectures. Our analysis extends previous results on optimal committee decision-making to a sequential setting, and further demonstrates the fragility of the hierarchy and polyarchy as optimal architectures.

Auctioning Timber To Maximize Revenues In British Columbia, Peter Cramton, Susan Athey, Allan Ingraham

Peter Cramton

US-Canada Softwood Lumber Trade Dispute, On behalf of British Columbia Ministry of Forests.

Comments On Alternative Policy Options For Managing Capacity And Mitigating Congestion And Delay At Laguardia Airport, Peter Cramton

Peter Cramton

Recommending auctions to manage congestion at LaGuardia.

The Search For Stock Market Bubbles: An Examination Of The Nyse Index, Andrew J. Economopoulos, Avinash G. Shetty

Business and Economics Faculty Publications

Many have put forth reasons why the stock market has climbed to new and unprecedented heights. Two reasons are examined: (1) investors are expecting prices to increase and are bidding up price irrationally; (2) investors have moved to a long-term strategy and are requiring a lower risk premium. For the latter reason, the rise in stock prices is due to a change in the fundamentals, and for the former reason the rise represents the classical bubble. The evidence indicates that risk preferences have changed while price momentum does not appear during bubble periods.

A Comparison Of Equation-Based And Parity Pricing Of Stumpage Fees For British Columbia Timber Under Long-Term Tenures, Peter Cramton, Susan Athey, Allan Ingraham

Peter Cramton

US-Canada Softwood Lumber Trade Dispute, On behalf of British Columbia Ministry of Forests.

Arkansas Research And Technology Park: A Strategic Analysis, Jeffery T. Collins

Publications and Presentations

This study is a detailed strategic plan and economic impact analysis for development of a university related research and technology park to be located in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Arkansas Research and Technology Park (ARTP) is an essential component of the state’s overall strategy for equipping Arkansans to compete in the new economy.

It is critical to the economic vitality of the state that new and different types of employment be created. The ARTP is an effort to jumpstart formation of the knowledge-based economy in Arkansas by creating the clusters of expertise necessary to achieve critical mass in knowledge-based industry. This …

Testing For Anti-Competitive Bidding In Auction Markets, Peter Cramton, Susan Athey, Allan Ingraham

Peter Cramton

US-Canada Softwood Lumber Trade Dispute, On behalf of British Columbia Ministry of Forests.

Auction-Based Timber Pricing And Complementary Market Reforms In British Columbia, Peter Cramton, Susan Athey, Allan Ingraham

Peter Cramton

US-Canada Softwood Lumber Trade Dispute, On behalf of British Columbia Ministry of Forests.

Declaration Of Peter Cramton, Peter Cramton

Peter Cramton

Comments in support of wireless number portability. For Leap Wireless.

Affidavit Of Peter Cramton, Peter Cramton

Peter Cramton

Comments on proposed changes to how the energy clearing price is calculated. For ISO New England.

Priming The Pump: Research As A Catalyst For Economic Growth, Jeffery T. Collins, Craig T. Schulman

Publications and Presentations

This analysis is designed to answer several important questions regarding the impact of research dollars invested in the state of Arkansas. We begin by discussing the state of the state in terms of income measures and measures of educational attainment levels. Throughout this analysis, the state of Arkansas is compared to the U.S., to a group of peer states , and, initially, to the state of Mississippi.

Next, we examine the linkage between income and education. We also examine higher education in the state in terms of spending, access and research dollars. From this general description we examine the present …

Mixed Signals: Rational-Choice Theories Of Social Norms And The Pragmatics Of Explanation, W. Bradley Wendel

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The question of how societies secure cooperation and order in the absence of state enforced sanctions has long vexed law and economics scholars. Recently the concept of social norms--informally enforced rules of behavior--has occupied the attention of a large number of these theorists, who are concerned with understanding why economically rational actors would bother to follow rules whose costs seem to outweigh their benefits. Because of the prestige (or at least trendiness) of law and economics, it seems that now everyone in the legal academy is talking about social norms. This burgeoning scholarship is closely related to a wider concern …

Tradeable Carbon Permit Auctions: How And Why To Auction Not Grandfather, Peter Cramton, Suzi Kerr

Peter Cramton

An auction of carbon permits is the best way to achieve carbon caps set by international negotiation to limit global climate change. To minimize administrative costs, permits would be required at the level of oil refineries, natural gas pipe lines, liquid sellers, and coal processing plants. To maximize liquidity in secondary markets, permits would be fully tradable and bankable. The government would conduct quarterly auctions. A standard ascending-clock auction in which price is gradually raised until there is no excess demand would provide reliable price discovery. An auction is preferred to grandfathering (giving polluters permits in proportion to past pollution), …

Spectrum Auctions, Peter Cramton

Peter Cramton

Auctions have emerged as the primary means of assigning spectrum licenses to companies wishing to provide wireless communication services. Since July 1994, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has conducted 33 spectrum auctions, assigning thousands of licenses to hundreds of firms. Countries throughout the world are conducting similar auctions. I review the current state of spectrum auctions. Both the design and performance of these auctions are addressed.

The Bias Against New Innovations In Health Care:Value Uncertainty And Willingness To Pay, Surrey M. Walton, Philip E. Graves, Peter R. Mueser, Jay K. Dow

PHILIP E GRAVES

This paper offers a model for the bias found in willingness-to-pay valuations against new treatments. For example, this bias provides an explanation for patient preferences that make it difficult for formularies to take treatments off their lists, even when newer treatments would appear to be clearly preferable. The appeal of the model, which is based on imperfect information, is that it is consistent with rational preferences and rational behavior by patients, which are necessary for standard models and methods related to decision theory, costeffectiveness, and efficiency.

Can Law And Economics Be Both Practical And Principled?, David A. Hoffman, Michael P. O'Shea

All Faculty Scholarship

This article describes important recent developments in normative law and economics, and the difficulties they create for the project of efficiency-based legal reform. After long proceeding without a well articulated moral justification for using economic decision procedures to choose legal rules, scholars have lately begun to devote serious attention to developing a philosophically attractive definition of well-being. At the same time, the empirical side of law and economics is also being enriched with an improved understanding of the complexities of individuals' decision-making behavior. That is where the problems begin. Scholars may have better, more plausible conceptions of well-being in hand, …

The Positive Political Theory Of Cost-Benefit Analysis: A Comment On Johnston, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Czech Voucher Privatization: A Case Of Decision Making Under Uncertainty, Katia Hristova

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

In my study, I plan to analyze voucher privatization in the Czech Republic. This process is best characterized as decision making under both risk and uncertainty, where the thousands of individuals who initially received vouchers were operating under near total uncertainty while larger institutional investors who later seized control of the vouchers were operating under conditions of risk. I will analyze the resulting patterns of ownership in comparison to the goals of the process. I will also discuss the role of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank as institutions which affect the conditions under which voucher privatization was conducted. …

How Does Spousal Education Matter? Some Evidence From Cambodia, Tomoki Fujii, Sophal Ear

Research Collection School Of Economics

An econometric analysis of the World Food Programme Civil Insecurity Baseline Survey (1998) and Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey (1999) data is undertaken to examine the role of education and literacy in explaining household expenditure, as hypothesized in human capital theory where education is an investment with returns in the form of income. Explanatory variables were selected from a large set of observed variables by a systematic procedure to avoid the bias arising from arbitrary model selection. Spousal education and literacy are found to be significant explanatory variables in the determination of household expenditure, exceeding even the coefficients attached to the head …

Are Art Students Nicer Than Economics Students? A Discussion Of How Economic Game Theory Predicts That Art And Economics Students Differ In Terms Of Reciprocity, Abigail Claiborne

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

Neoclassical economic game theory predicts that a player’s goal is to maximize her income regardless of others. In playing the Ultimatum Game this means that Allocators will allocate the minimum amount and the Responders will accept that amount because something is better than nothing. Economics students behave differently because they self-select into that field already thinking as economists do and while studying economics they adapt their behaviors to economic theory. Therefore it is natural to assume that Economics students will act according to theory and that non-economics students will not. The Smith College study between Art students and Economics students …

The Shield Of Achiles, State, Security And New Wars (El Escudo De Aquiles, Estado, Seguridad Y Nuevas Guerras) Spanish, Fernando Estrada

Fernando Estrada

At this stage of the manifestation of irregular warfare conflicts becomes porous, bottom to top and back. The security of states depends on a weak shield vulnerable to unforeseen terrorist actions. This will not come labeled by a single identity but multiplied their masks, may be a timid bystander who walks the streets at noon sweater dress with a teacher dressed and slow. The security policy imposes severe restrictions on basic freedoms, including perhaps most importantly, individual privacy or family.