Behavioral Economics Commons^™

Customer Racial Discrimination In The Professional Sports Card Market: The Case Of League Majority Versus Minority, Tyler Forrest

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

Previous research finds that customer racial discrimination decreases the price of a non-white baseball player’s card but does not decrease the price of a non-white basketball player’s card. This paper seeks to examine if racial minority or league minority affects the value of a trading card. Using disaggregated player performance data from 1977 we explore this question with baseball cards (in which non-white players are the league minority) and basketball cards (in which white non-players are the league majority). Using Tobit regressions, we find that customer discrimination exists against non-white players in both baseball and basketball leagues.

Housing Preferences Of Spanish-Speaking Migrants, Pueo Keffer

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

In this research I attempt to model and investigate the housing decisions of Spanish-speaking migrants. I use methods developed by Bajari and Kahn (2002) to obtain willingness to pay measurements for the migrant groups in samples drawn from three major California cities. I then apply these results to several hypotheses that attempt to describe current migration patterns of Hispanics into increasingly segregated communities characterized by high levels of crowding, low educational attainment, and high levels of Spanish speakers. This research finds that spoken language plays a significant role in a migrant’s decision process. Spanish-speaking migrants demonstrate a significant preference for …

On The Proper Motives Of Corporate Directors (Or, Why You Don't Want To Invite Homo Economicus To Join Your Board), Lynn A. Stout

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

One of the most important questions in corporate governance is how directors of public corporations can be motivated to serve the interests of the firm. Directors frequently hold only small stakes in the companies they manage. Moreover, a variety of legal rules and contractual arrangements insulate them from liability for business failures. Why then should we expect them to do a good job?

Conventional corporate scholarship has great difficulty wrestling with this question, in large part because conventional scholarship usually adopts the economist's assumption that directors are rational actors motivated purely by self-interest. This homo economicus model of behavior may …

Denying Human Homogeneity: Eugenics & Making Of Post-Classical Economics, Sandra J. Peart, David M. Levy

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The question we propose to address is how did economics move from the classical period characterized by the hardest possible doctrine of initial human homogeneity—all the observed differences among people arise from incentives, luck, and history¹—to become comfortable with accounts of human behavior which alleged foundational differences among and within races of people? (Darity 1995) In this paper, we shall argue that early British eugenics thinkers racialized economics in the post-classical period.²

An Analysis Of Student Credit Card Debt Determinants And Factors, James Paton

Masters Theses

The Permanent Income Hypothesis (PIH) derived by Milton Friedman in 1957 states that individuals will base their current consumption on what they consider to be their "normal income." Normal income is derived by the individual's current and expected future income.

Credit cards have become prevalent among college campuses. Credit card issuers seek out students because of market saturation and the idea that students, are generally in independence limbo; still being supported by parents, yet regarded as legal adults.

This study seeks to find if the PIH is valid amongst college students by using student credit card debt as a sort …

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

State Regulations Of Smoking In Public Places: Determinants And Implications On The Demand For Smoking And Consumers' Behavior, Ioana Raluca Mazare

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Economic Cost Of Depressive Disorders: Evidence From A Large Midwest Public University, Alketa Hysenbegasi

Dissertations

This dissertation aims to estimate the total cost of depression and the benefits of its treatment per diagnosed depressed student in Western Michigan University. To accomplish this, first, I measure the overall impact of depression and the effectiveness of its treatment on the student school performance. The empirical evidence show that diagnosed depression decreases student GPA by 0.48 points (almost a half grade), but this impairment is reduced by treatment about 0.43 points. Further, I develop and validate different measurements of student school performance and I observe that the negative effect of diagnosed depression and the positive effect of treatment …

Time-Shifted Rationality And The Law Of Law's Leverage: Behavioral Economics Meets Behavioral Biology, Owen D. Jones

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

A flood of recent scholarship explores legal implications of seemingly irrational behaviors by invoking cognitive psychology and notions of bounded rationality. In this article, I argue that advances in behavioral biology have largely overtaken existing notions of bounded rationality, revealing them to be misleadingly imprecise - and rooted in outdated assumptions that are not only demonstrably wrong, but also wrong in ways that have material implications for subsequent legal conclusions. This can be remedied. Specifically, I argue that behavioral biology offers three things of immediate use. First, behavioral biology can lay a foundation for both revising bounded rationality and fashioning …

Self-Injurious Behavior As A Window To The Soul: Support For A Will To Power?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes a rationale for self-injurious behavior in the political world

The Evolution Of Irrationality, Owen D. Jones

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The place of the rational actor model in the analysis of individual and social behavior relevant to law remains unresolved. In recent years, scholars have sought frameworks to explain: a) disjunctions between seemingly rational behavior and seemingly irrational behavior; b) the origins of and influences on law-relevant preferences, and c) the nonrandom development of norms. This Article explains two components of an evolutionary framework that, building from accessible insights of behavioral biology, can encompass all three. The components are: "time-shifted rationality" and "the law of law's leverage."

Mapping The Discipline Of The Olympic Games: An Author Cocitation Analysis, Peter Warning, Rosie Ching, Kristine Toohey

Research Collection School Of Economics

The authors conducted an author cocitation analysis on prominent authors writing about the Olympics during the 1990s. Author cocitation is an established bibliometric technique that can be used to measure the relative similarities of topics written about by the cited authors. This enables a visual representation of the “intellectual space” of the discipline, in this case the Olympics, to be created for the period under review. So core and peripheral research areas are identified, along with their major contributors. The representation appears as a two-dimensional cluster-enhanced map. Subject expertise was then applied to the results to place labels on the …

Risk, Death And Time: A Comment On Judge Williams’ Defense Of Cost-Benefit Analysis, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Why Do We Consume So Much?, Juliet B. Schor

Clemens Lecture Series

No abstract provided.

Altruistically Inclined?: The Behavioral Sciences, Evolutionary Theory, And The Origins Of Reciprocity, Alexander J. Field

Faculty Book Gallery

Altruistically Inclined? examines the implications of recent research in the natural sciences for two important social scientific approaches to individual behavior: the economic/rational choice approach and the sociological/anthropological. It considers jointly two controversial and related ideas: the operation of group selection within early human evolutionary processes and the likelihood of modularity—domain-specific adaptations in our cognitive mechanisms and behavioral predispositions.

Experimental research shows that people will often cooperate in one-shot prisoner's dilemma (PD) games and reject positive offers in ultimatum games, contradicting commonly accepted notions of rationality. Upon first appearance, predispositions to behave in this fashion could not have been favored …

Redefining The U.S. Hispanic Market: Generation N And American Society, Cindy L. Pino

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Evolution Of Philippine Businesses: Response To Internal And External Turbulence: Review Of Literature And A Framework For A Research Program, Ma. Andrea L. Santiago

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

The Philippine business environment undoubtedly is characterized as having a boom and bust cycle. It has not been able to take off as compared to its neighboring countries (Lim, 1999). Now more than ever, the political and economic environment has become a big challenge for many local businesses.

In spite, or because, of the current environment there are businesses that continue to prosper. On the one extreme are the large conglomerates that have the muscle to withstand major shocks and the on other are the smaller entrepreneurial ventures that are flexible and able to seize upon opportunities quickly.

In trying …

Interstate Cooperation And Educational Development In Nigeria., Bankole Oni

Bullion

The paper highlights on interstate cooperation and educational development in Nigeria. Education is a major instrument for economic and social development. The process of allocating resources to the sector vis-a-vis other sectors depends again on the political priorities of the decision makers. Whether or not different states, which belong to the same ideological camp, can and will cooperate in the field of education in future is not certain. The empirical analysis of existing facts have further strengthened the hypothesis that there exists a structural and cause - effect relationship between education and other aspects of the social structure. Political competition …

Beyond Efficiency And Procedure: A Welfarist Theory Of Regulation, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

Normative scholarship about regulation has been dominated by two types of theories, which I term "Neoclassical" and "Proceduralist." A Neoclassical theory has the following features: it adopts a simple preference-based view of well-being, and it counts Kaldor-Hicks efficiency as one of the basic normative criteria relevant to the evaluation of regulatory programs. A Proceduralist theory is concerned, not solely with the quality of regulatory outcomes, but also with the governmental procedures that produce these outcomes: it gives intrinsic significance to the procedures that regulatory bodies follow. (One example of a Proceduralist theory is the civic republican theory of regulation advanced …

Implementing Cost-Benefit Analysis When Preferences Are Distorted, Matthew D. Adler, Eric A. Posner

Faculty Scholarship

Cost-benefit analysis is routinely used by government agencies in order to evaluate projects, but it remains controversial among academics. This paper argues that cost-benefit analysis is best understood as a welfarist decision procedure and that use of cost-benefit analysis is more likely to maximize overall well-being than is use of alternative decision-procedures. The paper focuses on the problem of distorted preference. A person's preferences are distorted when his or her satisfaction does not enhance that person's well-being. Preferences typically thought to be distorted in this sense include disinterested preferences, uninformed preferences, adaptive preferences, and objectively bad preferences; further, preferences may …

Introduction, To Cost-Benefit Analysis, Matthew D. Adler, Eric A. Posner

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.