Economic Theory Commons^™

Political Influence Associates With Cortisol And Health Among Egalitarian Forager-Farmers, Christopher Von Rueden, Benjamin C. Trumble, Melissa Emery Thompson, Jonathan Stieglitz, Paul L. Hooper, Aaron D. Blackwell, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven

ESI Publications

Background and objectives: Low social status increases risk of disease due, in part, to the psychosocial stress that accompanies feeling subordinate or poor. Previous studies report that chronic stress and chronically elevated cortisol can impair cardiovascular and immune function. We test whether lower status is more benign in small-scale, relatively egalitarian societies, where leaders lack coercive authority and there is minimal material wealth to contest.

Methodology: Among Tsimane’ forager-horticulturalists of lowland Bolivia, we compare informal political influence among men with urinary cortisol, immune activation (innate and acquired), and morbidity as assessed during routine medical exams.

Results: After …

Cost Share Adjustment Processes For Cooperative Group Decisions About Shared Goods: A Design Approach, Edna T. Loehman, Richard Kiser, Stephen Rassenti

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

For group decision about shared goods, the nature of the shared good and how its cost is to be shared among group members must be determined. Complexity arises from heterogeneity in preferences and endowments and nonlinear cost. To facilitate group decision, this paper proposes special type of group decision support system, a cost share adjustment process (CSAP), in which cost shares are adjusted iteratively via algorithmic rules until unanimity is reached, ideally producing a socially optimal, cost feasible, and fair outcome. In contrast to public good literature, our designs apply for situations of nonlinear cost, with economies of scale and …

Mountain Monitor - 2nd Quarter 2014, Kenan Fikri, Mark Muro

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

Economic growth returned to the 10 major metro areas of the Mountain West in the second quarter of 2014 after slippage in the first quarter of the year. The resumption of vitality progressed unevenly, however. Denver and Salt Lake City pulled ahead as the fastest-growing metro areas in the region. Ogden and Provo’s days of above-average growth appeared to be fading. Las Vegas’ economic recovery advanced strongly, but Sun Belt peers Phoenix and Tucson had more difficulty moving beyond the first quarter’s slowdown. Albuquerque, for its part, welcomed a return to employment and output growth.

Across the region’s 10 major …

A Characterization Of Single-Peaked Preferences Via Random Social Choice Functions, Shurojit Chatterji, Arunava Sen, Huaxia Zeng

Research Collection School Of Economics

The paper proves the following result: every path-connected domain of preferences that admits a strategy-proof, unanimous, tops-only random social choice function satisfying a compromise property, is single-peaked. Conversely, every single-peaked domain admits a random social choice function satisfying these properties. Single-peakedness is defined with respect to arbitrary trees. We also show that a maximal domain that admits a strategy-proof, unanimous, tops-only random social choice function satisfying a stronger version of the compromise property, is single-peaked on a line. A converse to this result also holds. The paper provides justification of the salience of single-peaked preferences and evidence in favour of …

A Study On The Upsizing Trend Of Containerships In International Shipping Industry, Mu Xie

Maritime Safety & Environment Management Dissertations (Dalian)

No abstract provided.

Expanding Human Capabilities Through The Adoption And Utilization Of Free, Libre, And Open Source Software, James D. Simpson

Theses & Dissertations

Free, libre, and open source software (FLOSS) is software that is collaboratively developed. FLOSS provides end-users with the source code and the freedom to adapt or modify a piece of software to fit their needs (Deek & McHugh, 2008; Stallman, 2010). FLOSS has a 30 year history that dates to the open hacker community at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where information and knowledge was freely shared among a community of programmers and end-users (Lessig, 2006; Stallman, 2010; Sullivan, 2011). The advent of a proprietary or closed software development model in the late 1970s and early 1980s prompted FLOSS …

Unrecognized States: A Theory Of Self-Determination And Foreign Influence, Kristina Buzard, Benjamin A.T. Graham, Ben Horne

Economics - All Scholarship

Unrecognized states are characterized by stagnant or crumbling economies and political instability, often serve as havens for illicit trade, and challenge the territorial sovereignty of recognized states. Their persistence is both intellectually puzzling and normatively problematic, but unrecognized statehood can be a remarkably stable outcome, persisting for decades. Our four-player model reveals that unrecognized statehood emerges as an equilibrium outcome when a patron state is willing and able to persistently invest resources to sustain it. We assess options available to actors in the international community who seek to impose their preferred outcomes in these disputes and find that, although sanctions …

Ageism, Honesty, And Trust, Eric Schniter, Timothy W. Shields

ESI Publications

Age-based discrimination is considered undesirable, yet we know little about age stereotypes and their effects on honesty and trust. To investigate this aspect of ageism, we presented older adults (over age 50) and younger adults (under age 25) with incentivized belief elicitation tasks about anticipated interaction behaviors and then a series of same, different, and unknown-aged group interactions in a strategic-communication game. All adults shared consensual stereotypes about uncooperative younger adults and cooperative older adults that demonstrated “wisdom of crowds”. While the out-group was consistently stereotyped as relatively different and more dishonest and suspicious than observed to be, the in-group …

Unilateral Emissions Mitigation, Spillovers, And Global Learning, Shurojit Chatterji, Sayantan Ghosal, Sean Walsh, John Whalley

Research Collection School Of Economics

What's the role of unilateral measures in global climate change mitigation in a post-Durban, post 2012 global policy regime? We argue that under conditions of preference heterogeneity, unilateral emissions mitigation at a subnational level may exist even when a nation is unwilling to commit to emission cuts. We establish that under certain assumptions, in a global strongly connected network of countries, learning the costs of switching to a low emissions activity can result in a universal adoption of such activities. We analyze the features of a policy proposal that could accelerate convergence to a low carbon world in the presence …

Econometric Analysis Of Continuous Time Models: A Survey Of Peter Phillips' Work And Some New Results, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

Econometric analysis of continuous time models has drawn the attention of Peter Phillips for 40 years, resulting in many important publications by him. In these publications he has dealt with a wide range of continuous time models and the associated econometric problems. He has investigated problems from univariate equations to systems of equations, from asymptotic theory to finite sample issues, from parametric models to nonparametric models, from identification problems to estimation and inference problems, from stationary models to nonstationary and nearly nonstationary models. This paper provides an overview of Peter Phillips' contributions in the continuous time econometrics literature. We review …

Economic Voting In The Developing World, Rafael Oganesyan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A plethora of ink has been spilled demonstrating the relationship between economics and voter behavior. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of scholarship has concentrated on the empirical assessment of economic voting within the context of developed countries. The present thesis widens the scope of study by testing the applicability of the classic economic voting theory (CEVT) strictly within developing countries. The results suggest that while voters in developing countries do take the economy into account, they do so in a manner that's partially different from what CEVT predicts. Voters in developing countries simultaneously assume both retrospective sociotropic and prospective sociotropic characteristics. …

Atherosclerosis: A Longue Durée Approach, L. Samuel Wann, Randall C. Thompson, Adel H. Allam, Caleb E. Finch, Albert Zink, Hillard Kaplan, Bruno Frohlich, Guido P. Lombardi, M. Linda Sutherland, James D. Sutherland, Lucia Watson, Samantha L. Cox, Michael I. Miyamoto, Alexandre F. R. Stewart, Jagat Narula, Gregory S. Thomas

ESI Publications

Fernand Braudel popularized the longue durée approach to scholarly investigation in the mid-20th century. The longue durée approach can be loosely translated to mean “look for the big picture, synthesize data collected using all available methodology over the long periods of time to identify fundamental principles, rather than becoming preoccupied with isolated observations.” Braudel, a historian and economist, emphasized observation of enduring historical structures and analysis of long-term, panoramic economic trends rather than concentrating on detailed descriptions of particular events or individuals. He also urged the use of insight gained from many scholarly disciplines to identify the essential underpinnings of …

Why Did Ancient People Have Atherosclerosis?: From Autopsies To Computed Tomography To Potential Causes, Gregory S. Thomas, L. Samuel Wann, Adel H. Allam, Randall C. Thompson, David E. Michalik, M. Linda Sutherland, James D. Sutherland, Guido P. Lombardi, Lucia Watson, Samantha L. Cox, Clide M. Valladolid, Gomaa Abd El-Maksoud, Muhammad Al-Tohamy Soliman, Ibrahem Badr, Abd El-Halim Nur El-Din, Emily M. Clarke, Ian G. Thomas, Michael I. Miyamoto, Hillard Kaplan, Bruno Frohlich, Jagat Narula, Alexandre F. R. Stewart, Albert Zink, Caleb E. Finch

ESI Publications

Computed tomographic findings of atherosclerosis in the ancient cultures of Egypt, Peru, the American Southwest and the Aleutian Islands challenge our understanding of the fundamental causes of atherosclerosis. Could these findings be true? Is so, what traditional risk factors might be present in these cultures that could explain this apparent paradox? The recent computed tomographic findings are consistent with multiple autopsy studies dating as far back as 1852 that demonstrate calcific atherosclerosis in ancient Egyptians and Peruvians. A nontraditional cause of atherosclerosis that could explain this burden of atherosclerosis is the microbial and parasitic inflammatory burden likely to be present …

Genomic Correlates Of Atherosclerosis In Ancient Humans, Albert Zink, L. Samuel Wann, Randall C. Thompson, Andreas Keller, Frank Maixner, Adel H. Allam, Caleb E. Finch, Bruno Frohlich, Hillard Kaplan, Guido P. Lombardi, M. Linda Sutherland, James D. Sutherland, Lucia Watson, Samantha L. Cox, Michael I. Miyamoto, Jagat Narula, Alexandre F. R. Stewart, Gregory S. Thomas, Johannes Krause

ESI Publications

Paleogenetics offers a unique opportunity to study human evolution, population dynamics, and disease evolution in situ. Although histologic and computed x-ray tomographic investigations of ancient mummies have clearly shown that atherosclerosis has been present in humans for more than 5,000 years, limited data are available on the presence of genetic predisposition for cardiovascular disease in ancient human populations. In a previous whole-genome study of the Tyrolean Iceman, a 5,300-year-old glacier mummy from the Alps, an increased risk for coronary heart disease was detected. The Iceman’s genome revealed several single nucleotide polymorphisms that are linked with cardiovascular disease in genome-wide association …

Funerary Artifacts, Social Status, And Atherosclerosis In Ancient Peruvian Mummy Bundles, M. Linda Sutherland, Samantha L. Cox, Guido P. Lombardi, Lucia Watson, Clide M. Valladolid, Caleb E. Finch, Albert Zink, Bruno Frohlich, Hillard Kaplan, David E. Michalik, Michael I. Miyamoto, Adel H. Allam, Randall C. Thompson, L. Samuel Wann, Jagat Narula, Gregory S. Thomas, James D. Sutherland

ESI Publications

Background: Evidence of atherosclerotic plaques in ancient populations has led to the reconsideration of risk factors for heart disease and of the common belief that it is a disease of modern times.

Methods: Fifty-one wrapped mummy bundles excavated from the sites of Huallamarca, Pedreros, and Rinconada La Molina from the Puruchuco Museum collection in Lima, Peru, were scanned using computed tomography to investigate the presence of atherosclerosis. Funerary artifacts contained within the undisturbed mummy bundles were analyzed as an attempt to infer the social status of the individuals to correlate social status with evidence of heart disease in …

Capital In The Twenty-First Century: A Tale Without Morality, Bruce D. Baker

SPU Works

Thomas Piketty has given economists a lot to argue about, but their arguments miss the point of the book’s success. “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” is not a bestseller based on its economic merits. It’s a bestseller because it speaks to a deep moral anxiety. Confidence in capitalism has been shaken. The crisis of 2008 exposed weaknesses in the financialization of our economy. Piketty makes a valiant contribution to economic theory and history, but his empiricism succumbs ultimately to the same flaw John Paul II diagnosed in Marxism—it leads to an incoherent statement of moral order.

Random Dictatorship Domains, Shurojit Chatterji, Arunava Sen, Huaxia Zeng

Research Collection School Of Economics

A domain of preference orderings is a random dictatorship domain if every strategy-proof random social choice function satisfying unanimity defined on the domain is a random dictatorship. Gibbard (1977) showed that the universal domain is a random dictatorship domain. We ask whether an arbitrary dictatorial domain is a random dictatorship domain and show that the answer is negative by constructing dictatorial domains that admit anonymous, unanimous, strategy-proof random social choice functions which are not random dictatorships. Our result applies to the constrained voting model. Lastly, we show that substantial strengthenings of linked domains (a class of dictatorial domains introduced in …

The Fair And Laissez-Faire Markets: From A Neoliberal Laissez-Faire Baseline To A Fair Market, Eric L. Dixon

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

The essay begins with a brief overview of the role of the neoliberal conception of the laissez-faire market in modern political economy. The essay then goes on to defend three claims: 1) the laissez-faire version of a market should not be considered the economic ideal or baseline version of a market because often the fundamental conditions required to reach a genuine equilibrium are unfulfilled under a laissez-faire environment, 2) a distribution resultant from a laissez-faire market should not be considered the ultima facie just distributive baseline because an unregulated market may allocate commodities according to morally arbitrary factors and requires …

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 New Economic Growth Theory: An Obstacle To Economic Growth, Paul Kim

Economics Papers and Presentations

This paper deals with the steps what a nation must be prepared to take in order to sustain its economic growth rate when it enters the advanced stage. It is expected that a nation’s growth rate will decline as it enters the advanced stage, according a theory which the author introduces in this paper. It would be effective to avoid the obstacles if they know the kind of obstacles they might face in the advanced stage. Once the obstacles that hinder economic growth are engraved in institutions, it would be difficult to change the nature of existing institutions to remove …