Economic Theory Commons^™

Your Money Or Your Time? Experimental Evidence On Overbidding In All-Pay Auctions, Adriana Breaban, Charles N. Noussair, Andreea Victoria Popescu

ESI Working Papers

Competition for a prize frequently takes the form of dedicating time toward winning a contest. Those who spend the most time become more likely to obtain the prize. We model this competition as an all-pay auction under incomplete information, and report an experiment in which expenditures and rewards are in terms of time. In the experiment, subjects must stay in the laboratory doing nothing for an initially prespecified length of time. However, they can bid, in terms of time, to leave early. The auction has an allpay structure so that if an individual does not submit the highest bid within …

Experimental Evidence On The Cyclicality Of Investment, Cortney S. Rodet, Andrew Smyth

ESI Working Papers

We report laboratory experiments investigating the cyclicality of investment. In our setting, optimal investment is counter-cyclical because investment costs fall following market downturns. However, we do not observe counter-cyclical investment. Instead, heuristic investment models where firms invest a fixed percentage of their liquidity, or a fixed percentage of anticipated market demand, better fit our data on average than does optimal investment. We also report a control treatment without cost changes and a treatment with asymmetric investment liquidity. Both of these extensions support our main result.

Indefinitely Repeated Contests: An Experimental Study, Philip Brookins, Dmitry Ryvkin, Andrew Smyth

ESI Working Papers

We experimentally explore indefinitely repeated contests. Theory predicts more cooperation, in the form of lower expenditures, in indefinitely repeated contests with a longer expected time horizon, yet our data do not support this prediction. Theory also predicts more cooperation in indefinitely repeated contests compared to finitely repeated contests of the same expected length, but we find no significant difference empirically. When controlling for risk and gender, we actually find significantly higher long-run expenditure in some indefinite contests relative to finite contests. Finally, theory predicts no difference in cooperation across indefinitely repeated winner-take-all and proportional-prize contests. We find significantly less cooperation …

Contracts And Hierarchies: A Moral Examination Of Economic Theories Of The Firm, Jooho Lee

All Faculty Open Access Publications

An influential set of economic theories argue that the firm is a nexus of contracts that institute a hierarchy to overcome the problems of incomplete contracting in the market. However, the economic theory of the firm as a hierarchy violates the moral requirement to respect the autonomy of those who contract into the firm. The internal logic of the theory depends on a morally unacceptable abdication of a part of the employee’s capacity to set her own ends in the future. So a different theory is needed to understand the nature and purpose of the firm. The development of such …

Measuring Health Outcomes Of Uncovered Employment: A Study Of Income, Social Mobility, Equality, And Health Indicators In An Under-Looked Segment Of The Labor Force, Zakariya Kmir

Undergraduate Economic Review

Economists have strongly supported the idea that unemployment causes many undesirable health outcomes. However, how does belonging to a different sector of employment tied closely to changes in minimum wage and inflation relate to overall health? To properly understand the numerical significance of health disparities in the uncovered sector of employment, this research is targeted at quantifying the relationship between the insured and non-insured within the uncovered sector. By substantiating the existence of severe health disparities as a function of the labor force dynamic, this research subsequently estimates the amount of inefficiency and negative health outcomes in the US economy …

Nebraska Business And Consumer Confidence Indexes: February 2, 2018, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

Consumer and business confidence rebounded in Nebraska during January 2018. The Consumer Confidence Index – Nebraska (CCI-N) rose to 115.2, well above the neutral level of 100.0 and a value of 93.3 in December 2017. This is the highest level recorded for the CCI-N since it was first released in February of 2016. The Business Confidence Index – Nebraska (BCI-N) rose to 112.2 in January from 107.5 in December. Both monthly readings were well above the neutral value of 100.0. When asked about the most important issue facing their business, customer demand was mentioned by 40 percent of respondents. The …

A Large Class Of Strategy-Proof Exchange Rules With Single-Peaked Preferences, Peng Liu

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the classical house exchange problem (Shapley and Scarf (1974)) and identified a large class of rules, each of which is strategy-proof, efficient, and individually rational with single-peaked preferences. These rules are generalisations of Gale’s top trading cycles rule: In each step a subset of houses are allowed to be traded along top trading cycles and in particular, the next step subset of trading houses may depend on the exchanges happened already. We believe that the flexibility introduced by this class of rules is desirable when the designer faces some context-specific requirements.

On Random Social Choice Functions With The Tops-Only Property, Shurojit Chatterji, Huaxia Zeng

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the standard voting model with randomization. A Random Social Choice Function (or RSCF) satisfies the tops-only property if the social lottery under each preference profile depends only on the peaks of voters' preferences. We identify a general condition on domains of preferences (the Interior Property and the Exterior Property) which ensures that every strategy-proof RSCF satisfying unanimity has the tops-only property. We show that our condition applies to important classes of voting domains which include restricted connected domains (Sato, 2013) and the multi-dimensional single-peaked domain (Barberà et al., 1993). As an application of our result, we show that …

Industrial Output Fluctuations In Developing Countries: General Equilibrium Consequences Of Agricultural Productivity Shocks, Iona Hyojung Lee

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper shows that a negative shock to agricultural productivity may increase food prices, and labor and capital can move away from manufacturing into agriculture to meet the subsistence requirement for food. This effect depends on income levels and openness to trade. Using annual manufacturing data and rainfall shocks as the instrument for crop yields (proxy for agricultural productivity), I find that an exogenous decline in yield decreases manufacturing output as well as employment and capital investment in manufacturing. Overall, crop yield variation can explain up to 44% of industrial output fluctuations in developing countries (rainfall shocks cause 31% of …

On Random Social Choice Functions With The Tops-Only Property, Shurojit Chatterji, Huaxia Zeng

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the standard voting model with randomization. A Random Social Choice Function (or RSCF) satisfies the tops-only property if the social lottery under each preference profile depends only on the peaks of voters' preferences. We identify a general condition on domains of preferences (the Interior Property and the Exterior Property) which ensures that every strategy-proof RSCF satisfying unanimity has the tops-only property. We show that our condition applies to important classes of voting domains which include restricted connected domains (Sato, 2013) and the multi-dimensional single-peaked domain (Barberà et al., 1993). As an application of our result, we show that …

Limit Theory For Mildly Integrated Process With Intercept, Yijie Fei

Research Collection School Of Economics

Some asymptotic results are given for first-order autoregressive (AR(1)) time series with two features: (i). a nonzero constant intercept (ii). a root moderately deviating from unity. Both stationary and explosive sides are studied. It is shown that the inclusion of intercept will change drastically the large sample properties of the least-squares (LS) estimator obtained in Phillips and Magdalinos (2007, PM hereafter). For near-stationary case, only an unusual convergence of a linear combination of intercept and AR coefficient can be derived. For near-explosive case, on the other hand, the limiting distributions of two estimators will be independent and Gaussian, with conventional …

Low Perceived Control Over Health Is Associated With Lower Treatment Uptake In A High Mortality Population Of Bolivian Forager-Farmers, Sarah Alami, Jonathan Stieglitz, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven

ESI Publications

Indigenous people worldwide suffer from higher rates of morbidity and mortality than neighboring populations. In addition to having limited access to public health infrastructure, indigenous people may also have priorities and health perceptions that deter them from seeking adequate modern healthcare. Here we propose that living in a harsh and unpredictable environment reduces motivation to pursue deliberate, costly action to improve health outcomes. We assess whether variation in Health Locus of Control (HLC), a psychological construct designed to capture self-efficacy with respect to health, explains variation in treatment uptake behavior among Tsimane Amerindians (N=690; age range: 40–89 years; 55.8% female; …

Testing The Boundaries Of The Double Auction: The Effects Of Complete Information And Market Power, Erik O. Kimbrough

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We report boundary experiments testing the robustness of price convergence in double auction markets for non-durable goods in which there is extreme earnings inequality at the competitive equilibrium (CE). Following up on a conjecture by Smith (1976a), we test whether the well-known equilibrating power of the double auction institution is robust to the presence of complete information about traders’ values and costs and the presence of symmetric market power. We find that complete information is insufficient to impede convergence to CE prices; however, introducing market power consistently causes prices to deviate from the CE, whether or not subjects possess complete …

Nebraska Business And Consumer Confidence Indexes: January 5, 2018, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

Consumer and business confidence declined in Nebraska during December 2017. The Consumer Confidence Index – Nebraska (CCI-N) fell to 93.3 in December, well below the neutral level of 100.0. The index had reached a record level of 106.2 in November, but that high level of confidence was not sustained. The Business Confidence Index – Nebraska (BCI-N) fell from 114.1 in November to 107.5 in December. While lower, the December reading remains well above the neutral value of 100.0. When asked about the most important issue facing their business, customer demand was mentioned by 38 percent of respondents. The availability and …

The Tug-Of-War In The Laboratory, Cary Deck, Roman Sheremeta

ESI Working Papers

The tug-of-war is a multi-battle contest often used to describe extended interactions in economics, operations management, political science, and other disciplines. While there has been some theoretical work, to the best of our knowledge, this paper provides the first experimental study of the tug-of-war. The results show notable deviations of behavior from theory derived under standard assumptions. In the first battle of the tug-of-war, subjects often bid less, while in the follow-up battles, they bid more than predicted. Also, contrary to the prediction, bids tend to increase in the duration of the tug-of-war. Finally, extending the margin necessary to win …

Time Delay And Investment Decisions: Evidence From An Experiment In Tanzania, Plamen Nikolov

Economics Faculty Scholarship

Attitudes toward risk underlie virtually every important economic decision an individual makes. In this experimental study, I examine how introducing a time delay into the execution of an investment plan influences individuals’ risk preferences. The field experiment proceeded in three stages: a decision stage, an execution stage and a payout stage. At the outset, in the Decision Stage (Stage 1), each subject was asked to make an investment plan by splitting a monetary investment amount between a risky asset and a safe asset. Subjects were informed that the investment plans they made in the Decision Stage are binding and will …

Cacao Together: A Model For True Sustainability In The Chocolate Industry, Kerstin Roos

Capstone Collection

This Course Linked Capstone provides a critical analysis of the concept of sustainable development and then uses this analysis to create a social venture plan for a non-profit called Cacao Together. This capstone project will identify challenges in the sustainable use of cacao by first critiquing the mainstream sustainable development initiatives of certification schemes and corporate sustainability programs. It then offers an alternate framework through the 5 Capital Livelihood assessment tool which when applied, shows the gaps in cacao sustainability initiatives generally. I then propose a social venture that will addresses the needs of many parts of the chocolate supply …

The Effects Of An Increasing Federal Minimum Wage On Federal Unemployment And Job Automation Levels, Kiana Krayeski

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The industrial revolution was the start of increasing technological advancements that are continuing to grow today. Technology improves accuracy, efficiency and is more productive in comparison to human labor as it does not require breaks and cannot violate any labor laws. With many innovations available today, firms have more options to choose from and can select the relatively cheaper solution. The push for a fifteen-dollar minimum wage affects the firm's options, and the use of technology might increasingly become the more viable choice. This study took data from the years 1993 to 2016 and created two regressions using the unemployment …

Economics Of Recruiting Interactions In Collegiate Sport: An Analysis In Game Theory And Matching Markets, Jessica Twaddle

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

This paper seeks to explain the interactions involved in recruiting prospective student-athletes to universities, particularly in the sport of softball. By employing the concepts of Game Theory, Prisoner’s Dilemma, and Matching Markets, the market for recruiting is explored and explained. Recent legislative changes in the market are then examined as well as possible outcomes as a result. Research on commitments in softball and lacrosse was collected in order to make claims in regard to incentives. The market for recruiting is compared to the residency placement matching system. Ideas are presented on ways to achieve a market that clears where outcomes …

Io Eigenvalue, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

24-32_LTV RE Adj Notes.pdf You said: as an archivist detailing a new entry, analyze the uploaded file and give an outline of the material with all dates standardized, all bullet-point item formatting, and sentence case for titles, and italics for all titles, 1.5 spacing between paragraphs, and expand the published items into full apa references with publisher details and journal information but without internet links, or any further description of the different items, standardize the handwritten notes, emails, and comments into full apa-style manuscript citations so they match the level of formality of the published papers, with all handwritten notes …

Mechanism Design, Matching Theory And The Stable Roommates Problem, Yashaswi Mohanty

Honors Theses

This thesis consists of two independent albeit related chapters. The first chapter introduces concepts from mechanism design and matching theory, and discusses potential applications of this theory, particularly in relation to dorm allocations in colleges. The second chapter investigates a subset of the dorm allocation problem, namely that of matching roommates. In particular, the paper looks at the probability of solvability of random instances of the stable roommates game under the condition that preferences are not completely random and exogenous but endogenously determined through a dependence on room choice. These probabilities are estimated using Monte-Carlo simulations and then compared with …

Assorted Loose Notes, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Notes on dependency theory, trade, and sub-saharan Africa macroeconomics by Shaikh, A. (Unpublished work) (23-14_Asso... p. 2)
• Comments on history of economic thought, Marx, and Sraffa by Shaikh, A. (Unpublished work) (23-14_Asso... p. 3)
• Student questions on endogenous money and credit systems by Shaikh, A. (Unpublished work) (23-14_Asso... p. 4)
• Notes on macro foundations and mathematical formulations of production by Shaikh, A. (Unpublished work) (23-14_Asso... p. 5)
• Notes on economic sociology, history of capitalism, and game theory by Shaikh, A. (Unpublished work) (23-14_Asso... p. 6)
• Lecture outlines on early growth models and real business cycle theory by …

Convergence Towards An Optimal Currency Area In The European Union, Santiago Botto Tornielli

Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

This essay uses the European Union as a case study to analyze the conditions for an optimal currency area, the regional differences that give rise to divergences from optimal conditions, and how to measure divergence. The essay reviews the extensive body of theoretical literature on optimal currency areas (OCA), analyzes the historical evidence and documents that outline the economic institutions of the EU, and performs an empirical factor analysis on different possible indicators of convergence to identify to the most important variables. In the absence of adjustment mechanisms, economic geography plays an essential role in forming an OCA because members …

Econophysics, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Vmi data set patterns by Anwar Shaikh (unpublished work).
• Shaikh, A. (2008, March 19). 1953–2005, all year, quality 1-2 chart notes. (Unpublished manuscript note).
• Shaikh, A. (2007, April 1). Elasticity of poverty headcount. (Unpublished manuscript note).
• Shaikh, A. (2007, April 1). Growth & inequality of econophysics. (Unpublished manuscript note).
• Yakovenko, V. M. (2007, January 19). Re: amazing support for your argument. (Unpublished email to Anwar Shaikh).
• Bloomquist, K. M. (2007, January 26). Pareto distribution of U.S. wage and salary income. (Unpublished conference abstract).
• Shaikh, A. (2006, April 17). V. Yakovenko: Econophysics lecture …

Marx Now Conference, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Marx now conference, goethe institut plenary panel by Shaikh, A. (Unpublished work) (p. 1)
• Marx's 'economics' by Shaikh, A. (Unpublished work) (p. 2)
• What does it matter? by Shaikh, A. (Unpublished work) (p. 3)
• Made to forget by Shaikh, A. (Unpublished work) (p. 4)

Estimating Risk Preferences In The Field, Levon Barseghyan, Francesca Molinari, Ted O'Donoghue, Joshua C. Teitelbaum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

We survey the literature on estimating risk preferences using field data. We concentrate our attention on studies in which risk preferences are the focal object and estimating their structure is the core enterprise. We review a number of models of risk preferences—including both expected utility (EU) theory and non-EU models—that have been estimated using field data, and we highlight issues related to identification and estimation of such models using field data. We then survey the literature, giving separate treatment to research that uses individual-level data (e.g., property insurance data) and research that uses aggregate data (e.g., betting market data). We …

Welfare-To-Work: The Effect Of Childcare Subsidies On Labor Force Participation Rates For Low-Income Single Mothers, Ariana Cubela

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The allocation of funding toward childcare has historically been debated due to conflicting views on the effect childcare subsidies have on low-income, single mothers. Some suggest that federal, state and local funding could put the money allocated for childcare subsidies to better use – or perhaps that there is no need for additional federal, state and/or local funding. However, there is sufficient evidence that children raised in a family structure with low-income single mothers may face long-term negative consequences not only socially, but also economically. An increase in labor force participation rates as a result of childcare subsidies not only …

Opioids And Unemployment, David Robinson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

There has been a ton of research in economics about the effects of drugs on the employment status of individuals. These papers have looked at the effects mainly pertaining to Marijuana and Cocaine, however this paper will be examining the effects of the opioid Heroin. As a first of its kind paper I will examine the relationship between employment and heroin use. To test this connection I have compiled data from the National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health. Through the use of two econometric models: OLS and Two Stage Least Squares models I will uncover the connection we can …

Wage And Rop Distributions, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Folder Cover Label
  Shaikh, A. (2018). Wage & ROP distributions (File No. NA-24-11). Department of Economics, New School for Social Research.This item is a label on a red folder that marks research materials exploring wages and profit rates.
• Handwritten Research Notes
  Shaikh, A. (2018). Mathematical properties of relative portfolios and property income. Department of Economics, New School for Social Research.This item contains handwritten formulas outlining how capital movements alter asset portfolio values.
• Handwritten Seminar Notes
  Shaikh, A. (2018, December 3). Wage dynamics and adjustment system stability. Department of Economics, New School for Social Research.This item …

The Effect Of Fast Food Restaurants On Type 2 Diabetes Rates, Grace Bailey

CMC Senior Theses

This paper conducts an analysis of county level data to determine the effect of fast food restaurants on type 2 diabetes rates. Due to endogeneity concerns with respect to the location of fast food restaurants, this paper follows the work of Dunn (2010) and uses the number of interstate exits in a given county to serve as an instrument for fast food restaurants. The strength of the instrument, which is theoretically and empirically tested in this paper, imposes some restraints on the interpretation of the findings. Using the Two-Stage Least Squares estimation method, I find that the presence of fast …