Ballot-Box Environmentalism Across The Golden State: How Geography Influences California Voters’ Demand For Environmental Public Goods,
2016
Pomona College
Ballot-Box Environmentalism Across The Golden State: How Geography Influences California Voters’ Demand For Environmental Public Goods, William Skyler Lewis
Pomona Senior Theses
In California, voters frequently face ballot propositions dealing directly or indirectly with environmental protection. Records of these votes provide powerful evidence of the character of voters’ demand and willingness-to-pay for environmental public goods (e.g., air quality, watershed ecosystem services, parks and recreation), and have been used in past environmental econometrics research to produce aggregated income and price effect estimates. Using neighborhood-level voting records on seven environmental-related ballot propositions in California between 2002 and 2010, this econometric study investigates the nature of voters’ demand for environmental public goods, focusing on the effect of household income on pro-environment voting. Unlike previous studies, …
How Can We Have A Better Public Transportation System? –An Exploratory Agent Based Model,
2016
Pomona College
How Can We Have A Better Public Transportation System? –An Exploratory Agent Based Model, Boyu Liu
Pomona Senior Theses
Public transportation plays an integral part in a city's development, but transportation professionals disagree about whether it is feasible to increase the capacity of public transportation systems at a reasonable cost; and if it is, how. This study develops an agent based model that aims to answer this question and provide a framework to compare the effects of improvements in different aspects of the public transportation service. The results of this study show that it is possible to increase ridership enough to compensate for the increased operational cost, but only in certain circumstances. Interesting phenomenon that might have showed up …
Religious Identity And The Provision Of Public Goods: Evidence From The Indian Princely States,
2016
Naval Postgraduate School
Religious Identity And The Provision Of Public Goods: Evidence From The Indian Princely States, Latika Chaudhary, Jared Rubin
ESI Publications
This paper describes a simple model of how a ruler’s religious identity affects public goods provision. Our primary insight is that rulers reduce public goods expenditures to a greater degree when there are privately-provided substitutes excludable by religion.The basic idea is that if the good is provided privately to the ruler’s co-religionists, the ruler faces weaker incentives to provide this public good because his co-religionists receive lower marginal utility from its provision. Testing such a conjecture is an empirical challenge, however, since the religious identity of rulers rarely varies over time and place. We address this problem by exploiting …
Citizen Wellbeing And Gdp: Towards More Appropriate Measures Of Namibia's Success And Progress,
2016
Progress Namibia TAS
Citizen Wellbeing And Gdp: Towards More Appropriate Measures Of Namibia's Success And Progress, Justine Braby Dr, Jessica-Jane Lavelle, Johannes Mulunga, Newman Nekwaya, Fikameni Mathias, Angula Angula
Journal of Sustainable Social Impact
Developing nations like Namibia are aiming to industrialize much like developed nations and use the gross domestic product to measure their progress. However, this development path has been largely unsustainable. For Namibia to develop into a sustainable society, a different approach is needed. This study aimed to find entry points toward such an approach. Surveys were conducted in Windhoek, Namibia's capital, to measure human well-being. Generally, as is expected in a developing country, well-being correlated positively along the income line. However, the indicators did illustrate that a more holistic measure would go a long way toward more effective development planning …
Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness: Measuring What Matters,
2016
Happiness Alliance
Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness: Measuring What Matters, Laura Musikanski, Carl Polley
Journal of Sustainable Social Impact
This essay focuses on ways in which the governments of Bhutan and the United Kingdom are measuring subjective well-being as well as on how other governments including Norway, Spain, China, Canada, and New Zealand, are exploring the development of subjective well-being indicators. It concludes with recommended actions to aid in the formation of a consistent and comparable subjective well-being indicator for use by governments globally. The third in a series for which the purpose is to provide information to grassroots activists to foster the happiness movement for a new economic paradigm, this essay builds on the previous essays, Happiness in …
Insatiability And Crisis: Using Interdisciplinarity To Understand (And Denaturalize) Contemporary Humans,
2016
CUNY New York City College of Technology
Insatiability And Crisis: Using Interdisciplinarity To Understand (And Denaturalize) Contemporary Humans, Sean P. Macdonald, Costas Panayotakis
Publications and Research
This chapter illustrates how collaboration between different social sciences can encourage students to think critically about prevailing assumptions regarding human nature. Both the chapter and the pedagogical experience on which it is based investigate the distinctive type of human created by capitalist society. In so doing, it takes a heterodox approach to analyzing the concept of an insatiable human nature through a case study that invites students to critically assess this perspective. This discussion then leads to an investigation and critique of traditional neoclassical Economic assumptions about human behavior, which forms the basis for a case study on the causes …
Causes And Consequences Of The Protestant Reformation,
2016
University of Warwick
Causes And Consequences Of The Protestant Reformation, Sascha O. Becker, Steven Pfaff, Jared Rubin
ESI Working Papers
The Protestant Reformation is one of the defining events of the last millennium. Nearly 500 years after the Reformation, its causes and consequences have seen a renewed interest in the social sciences. Research in economics, sociology, and political science increasingly uses detailed individual-level, city-level, and regional-level data to identify drivers of the adoption of the Reformation, its diffusion pattern, and its socioeconomic consequences. This survey takes stock of the research so far, tries to point out what we know and what we do not know, and which are the most promising areas for future research.
Payment Scheme Self-Selection In The Credence Goods Market: An Experimental Study,
2016
CIDE
Payment Scheme Self-Selection In The Credence Goods Market: An Experimental Study, Hernan Bejarano, Ellen P. Green, Stephen Rassenti
ESI Working Papers
Given heterogeneity in expert behavior across payment schemes in credence goods markets, it becomes important to understand the consequences of payment scheme selection. To study the effect on customer well being of expert self-selection, we recruited subjects to participate in a real-effort credence good laboratory market. Experts were either randomly assigned or faced with the choice of three payment schemes: fee-for-service, salary, and capitation. We found that experts who selected fee-for-service payment resulted in customers with significantly worse outcomes in comparison with experts who had been randomly assigned to fee-for-service. In contrast, experts who selected salary payment did not change …
Bringing A Natural Experiment Into The Laboratory: The Measurement Of Individual Risk Attitudes,
2016
University of Economics in Bratislava
Bringing A Natural Experiment Into The Laboratory: The Measurement Of Individual Risk Attitudes, Zuzana Brokesova, Cary Deck, Jana Peliova
ESI Working Papers
Controlled laboratory experiments have become a generally accepted method for studying economic behavior, but there are two issues that regularly arise with such work. The first pertains to the ability to generalize experimental results outside the laboratory. While laboratory experiments are typically designed to mimic naturally occurring situations, ceteris paribus comparisons are rare. Using data from a promotional campaign by a bank and a matching laboratory experiment, we find similar patterns of risk taking behavior controlling for gender and age. The second issue pertains to the impact that the payment procedure in an experiment has on observed risk taking behavior. …
The Impact Of Taxes And Wasteful Government Spending On Giving,
2016
Chapman University
The Impact Of Taxes And Wasteful Government Spending On Giving, Roman M. Sheremeta, Neslihan Uler
ESI Working Papers
We examine the impact of taxes and wasteful government spending on charitable giving. In our model, the government collects a flat-rate tax on income net of donations and wastes part of the tax revenue before redistribution. The model provides theoretical predictions which we test in a framed field experiment. The results of the experiment show that the tax rate has a weak and insignificant effect on giving. The degree of waste, however, has a large, negative and significant effect on giving, with the relationship moderated by the curvature in the utility function.
Ambiguity Framed,
2016
Chapman University
Ambiguity Framed, Mark Schneider, Jonathan W. Leland, Nathaniel Wilcox
ESI Working Papers
In his exposition of subjective expected utility theory, Savage (1954) proposed that the Allais paradox could be reduced if it were recast into a format which made the appeal of the independence axiom of expected utility theory more transparent. Recent studies consistently find support for this prediction. We consider a salience-based choice model which explains this frame-dependence of the Allais paradox and derive the novel prediction that the same type of presentation format which was found to reduce Allais-style violations of expected utility theory will also reduce Ellsberg-style violations of subjective expected utility theory since that format makes the appeal …
Random Expected Utility And Certainty Equivalents: Mimicry Of Probability Weighting Functions,
2016
Chapman University
Random Expected Utility And Certainty Equivalents: Mimicry Of Probability Weighting Functions, Nathaniel Wilcox
ESI Working Papers
For simple prospects of the kind routinely used for certainty equivalent elicitation, random expected utility preferences imply a conditional expectation function that can mimic deterministic rank dependent preferences. That is, an agent with random expected utility preferences can have mean certainty equivalents that look exactly like rank dependent probability weighting functions of the inverse-s shape discussed by Quiggin (1982) and later advocated by Tversky and Kahneman (1992) and other scholars. It seems that certainty equivalents cannot nonparametrically identify preferences, at least not in every relevant sense, since their conditional expectation depends on assumptions concerning the source and nature of their …
Axioms For Salience Perception,
2016
National Science Foundation
Axioms For Salience Perception, Jonathan W. Leland, Mark Schneider
ESI Working Papers
Models of salience-based choice have become popular in recent years, although there is still no known set of simple conditions or axioms which implies the existence of a salience function. In this paper, we provide simple and natural axioms that characterize the general class of salience functions. As an application we consider a salience-based model of decision making and show that within that setup the fourfold pattern of risk attitudes is a general property of a salience function and that the properties producing that pattern also account for other anomalies involving risky and intertemporal choice.
Trust And Trustworthiness Under Information Asymmetry And Ambiguity,
2016
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Trust And Trustworthiness Under Information Asymmetry And Ambiguity, Irma Clots-Figueras, Roberto Hernán-González, Praveen Kujal
ESI Working Papers
We introduce uncertainty and ambiguity in the standard investment game. In the uncertainty treatment, investors are informed that the return of the investment is drawn from a publicly known distribution function. In the ambiguity treatment, investors are not informed about the distribution function. We find that both trust and trustworthiness are robust to the introduction of these changes.
What Makes A Good Trader? On The Role Of Intuition And Reflection On Trader Performance,
2016
Chapman University
What Makes A Good Trader? On The Role Of Intuition And Reflection On Trader Performance, Brice Corgnet, Mark Desantis, David Porter
ESI Working Papers
Using simulations and experiments, we pinpoint two main drivers of trader performance: cognitive reflection and theory of mind. Both dimensions facilitate traders’ learning about asset valuation. Cognitive reflection helps traders use market signals to update their beliefs whereas theory of mind offers traders crucial hints on the quality of those signals. We show these skills to be complementary because traders benefit from understanding the quality of market signals only if they are capable of processing them. Cognitive reflection relates to previous Behavioral Finance research as it is the best predictor of a trader’s ability to avoid commonly-observed behavioral biases.
Gender Biases In Delegation,
2016
Chapman University
Gender Biases In Delegation, Eleonora Bottino, Teresa García-Muñoz, Praveen Kujal
ESI Working Papers
We explore gender biases towards delegation in a modified (delegation) dictator game. Under compulsory delegation and no (gender) revelation no significant gender differences are observed for choices made by principals. Male agents share little with the recipients, meanwhile, female (agents) are not responsive to the incentive scheme and return less to the dictator. However, a clear dichotomy in female behavior is observed under gender revelation. As principals, females behave similar to their male counterparts and appoint as agents those who return more to them. On the other hand, as agents’ females show greater redistributive concerns relative to their male counterparts …
The Effects Of Experience, Choice Architecture, And Cognitive Reflection In Individual And Strategic Decisions,
2016
Chapman University
The Effects Of Experience, Choice Architecture, And Cognitive Reflection In Individual And Strategic Decisions, Mark Schneider, David Porter
ESI Working Papers
Cognitive reflection has been shown to be an important trait which is correlated with the propensity to: take risks, delay gratification, and form accurate beliefs about others’ behavior. However, previous research has not cleanly identified whether reflective thinkers make ‘better’ decisions than intuitive thinkers, since inferences of decision quality are confounded by inferences regarding risk preferences, time preferences, and beliefs. We directly test for differences in decision quality between reflective thinkers and intuitive thinkers in both individual and strategic decisions using a design which makes it possible to objectively rank risky and strategic choices, independent of one’s attitudes toward risk …
Money And The Scale Of Cooperation,
2015
University of Bologna
Money And The Scale Of Cooperation, Maria Bigoni, Gabriele Camera, Marco Casari
ESI Working Papers
This study reveals the existence of a causal link between the availability of money and an expanded scale of interaction. We constructed an experiment where participants chose the group size, either a low-value partnership or a high-value group of strangers, and then faced an intertemporal cooperative task. Theoretically, a monetary system was inessential to achieve cooperation. Empirically, without a working monetary system, participants were reluctant to expand the scale of interaction; and when they did, they ended up destroying surplus compared to partnerships, because cooperation collapsed in large groups. This economic failure was reversed only when participants managed to concurrently …
Helminth Infection, Fecundity, And Age Of First Pregnancy In Women,
2015
University of California, Santa Barbara
Helminth Infection, Fecundity, And Age Of First Pregnancy In Women, Aaron D. Blackwell, Marilyne D. Tamayo, Bret Beheim, Benjamin C. Trumble, Jonathan Stieglitz, Paul L. Hooper, Melanie Martin, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven
ESI Publications
Infection with intestinal helminths results in immunological changes that influence the odds of comorbid infections, and might also affect fecundity by inducing immunological states supportive of conception and pregnancy. Here we investigate associations between intestinal helminths and fertility in human females, utilizing nine years of longitudinal data from 986 Bolivian forger-horticulturalists, experiencing natural fertility and a 70% helminth prevalence. We find that different species of helminth are associated with opposing effects on fecundity. Infection with roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides) is associated with earlier first births and shortened interbirth intervals, while infection with hookworm is associated with delayed first pregnancy and extended …
Natural Sleep And Its Seasonal Variations In Three Pre-Industrial Societies,
2015
University of New Mexico
Natural Sleep And Its Seasonal Variations In Three Pre-Industrial Societies, Gandhi Yetish, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven, Brian Wood, Herman Pontzer, Paul R. Manger, Charles Wilson, Ronald Mcgregor, Jerome M. Siegel
ESI Publications
How did humans sleep before the modern era? Because the tools to measure sleep under natural conditions were developed long after the invention of the electric devices suspected of delaying and reducing sleep, we investigated sleep in three preindustrial societies[1–3]. We find that all three show similar sleep organization, suggesting that they express core human sleep patterns, likely characteristic of pre-modern era Homo sapiens. Sleep periods, the times from onset to offset, averaged 6.9–8.5-h, with sleep durations of 5.7–7.1-h, amounts near the low end of those industrial societies[4–7]. There was a difference of nearly 1-h between summer and winter sleep. …
