The automobile industry and new trade theory: A classroom experiment

In this study, the author describes a classroom experiment on new trade theory appropriate for undergraduate international economics and trade courses. Students portray U.S. and Japanese automobile manufacturers with different average cost schedules. There are five rounds in the experiment, starting with autarky in the 1960s and ending with the Great Recession of 2008–9. In each round, the instructor announces a market price and quantity and then each producer calculates its market share, average cost and profit; and makes its shutdown decision. By varying the market price and size, the experiment illustrates the gains from intra-industry trade and also how efficiency gains and economic recession impact individual firm performance.     

Dirty dining: how exemplification affects food safety perceptions

News outlets recurrently publish stories depicting restaurants in a negative light by using vivid exemplars based on a reporter’s personal testimony rather than detailing food safety reports. This magnifies the most severe violations and may impact the public’s perception of the issue as well as influence behavioral intentions. Using exemplification theory, a between-subject experiment (N = 286) revealed that participants exposed to exemplars with personal testimonies considered food safety risks to be higher and declared being less likely to eat at a restaurant than those exposed to exemplars without testimonies. Practical applications for food safety messages are discussed.     

Bidding for nothing? The pitfalls of overly neutral framing

Neutral framing is a standard tool of experimental economics. However, overly neutral instructions, which lack any contextual clues, can lead to strange behaviour. In a contextless second-price auction for a meaningless good, a majority of subjects enter positive bids – likely a case of cognitive experimenter demand effect. Subjects may interpret the lack of context as being tasked with bidding in the experiment. Adding another auction that has a context drastically reduces the positive bids in the meaningless auction.     

Attributes of nuclear imaging centers impacting physician referrals for single-photon emission computed tomography myocardial perfusion imaging tests

Aim: To evaluate nuclear imaging center attributes that cardiologists and primary care physicians (PCPs) consider when referring patients for single-photon emission computed tomography myocardial perfusion imaging (SPECT-MPI) tests, and how these attributes impact physician referral decisions in the United States.

Methods: A targeted literature review and seven one-to-one interviews with physicians and imaging center directors were conducted to identify attributes that could impact physicians’ referral decisions. The impact of the identified attributes was assessed via an online discrete choice survey among eligible PCPs and cardiologists randomly selected from a nationally representative panel, and quantified with an odds ratio (OR) scale estimated with a multivariable logistic regression.

Results: Nine two-level attributes were identified: ease of the referral process, waiting time for tests, insurance preauthorization assistance, time to receive results, conclusive test reports, patient satisfaction, a protocol for rapid conversion from an exercise to a pharmacological stress test, patient communication, and assistance with parking/wheelchair access. A total of 410 physicians, including 208 (50.7%) cardiologists and 202 (49.3%) PCPs completed the survey. Among all physicians, a protocol that allows for a rapid conversion from an exercise to a pharmacological stress test (OR?=?2.9) and preauthorization assistance (OR?=?2.6) were the most impactful attributes. Additionally, cardiologists preferred imaging centers that provide an easy referral process (OR?=?2.7), while PCPs favored centers offering a conclusive test report (OR?=?2.4).

Limitations: Some center features that might impact physician referral decision were not evaluated in this study, if they were not easily changeable from an imaging center’s perspective.

Conclusions: The availability of a protocol for rapid conversion from an exercise to a pharmacological stress test and preauthorization assistance had the most significant impact on physician referral decisions for SPECT-MPI. Additionally, cardiologists preferred centers providing an easy referral process, while PCPs favored those offering a concluding statement and actionable steps in test reports.     

基于中央选择性控制的试验——中国改革“实践”机制的一种新解释

关于中国改革机制有众多的解释,新近提出的试验说被视为切中改革实践的一种理论。本文从内容到方法论层面对试验说进行评析,在此基础上提出替代性解释：试验是基于中央选择性控制的。中央对怎么改革并不预先设定一个原则和目标,而是通过对试验的不确定态度,实现对地方的选择性控制。改革过程中,除了维护政治权力秩序（地方服从于中央）的意识非常清晰之外,对怎么改革并没有明确的意识。实践的形式可以多种多样,至于采用哪种形式完全取决于中央的需要及对中央的功效如何,在根源上则受制于整个权力体系结构所受的约束。基于中央选择性控制的试验有利于中央化解危机但又不失对秩序的控制权,但客观上却使得试验难以充分发挥和推广,最终趋于同质化。     

Does irritation induced by charitable direct mailings reduce donations?

Charities rely mainly on direct mailings to attract the attention of potential donors. Individuals may feel irritated by these mailings, in particular when they receive many mailings. This might harm the revenues charities receive from their mailing activities. Moreover, target selection by charities likely results in many mailings being sent to the best donors, and hence they might become most irritated. As such, irritation with direct mailings could well be endogenously determined. To ensure exogenous variation in irritation, we performed a unique controlled field experiment in cooperation with five of the largest charities in the Netherlands. Our analysis reveals that direct mailings do result in irritation, but surprisingly, this irritation affects neither stated nor actual donating behavior.     

Computerizing audit studies

This paper briefly discusses the history, benefits, and shortcomings of traditional audit field experiments to study market discrimination. Specifically it identifies template bias and experimenter bias as major concerns in the traditional audit method and demonstrates through an empirical example that computerization of a resume or correspondence audit can efficiently increase sample size and greatly mitigate these concerns. Finally, it presents a useful meta-tool that future researchers can use to create their own resume audits.     

In-Store Valuation of Steak Tenderness

Experimental methods were used to examine consumer willingness-to-pay for steak tenderness in a grocery store setting. When relying on a taste test alone to determine product quality, the participants paid an average premium of $1.23/lb for a tender versus tough steak. Fifty-one percent of the participants were willing to pay an average of $1.84/lb when they had completed a taste test and were also provided information about the steak's tenderness. Results indicate that most consumers prefer more tender steaks and that many are willing to pay a premium for tender steaks.     

Domestic tourism destination choices — a choice modelling analysis

Tourism destinations compete with each other to attract visitors. Although international tourism has received a lot of attention, domestic tourism remains the mainstay for many destinations. To inform the basis on which destinations compete, an understanding of the determinants of destination choices is required. In this paper, the discrete choice modelling method is applied to investigate the determining factors underlying the short‐break holiday destination choices of prospective tourists from Melbourne, Australia. The results from an estimated nested logit model indicate the relative importance of a number of destination and trip attributes and respondent characteristics. The model results are used to simulate the effects on destinations' market shares resulting from various changes in attributes and tourist characteristics. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Consumer willingness-to-pay to reduce the probability of retail foodborne pathogen contamination

The US Department of Agriculture applies a cost-of-illness approach to value reductions in morbidity, which may understate the projected benefits from proposed food-safety improvements by ignoring costs such as pain, suffering and worry. We use a national survey with a hypothetical food-choice experiment to estimate a more comprehensive measure of consumer willingness-to-pay for food-safety improvements. Our approach differs from previous evaluations of food-safety improvements because we: (1) provide the respondent with information about the promised change in the probability of pathogen contamination in retail food packages rather than changes in the probability of becoming ill, (2) elicit changes in respondents’ subjective probability of becoming ill, and (3) elicit predicted changes in the quantity demanded for products that have enhanced food-safety properties. We estimate the consumer’s choice between a safety-enhanced and an existing product, the change in subjective probability of contracting foodborne illness associated with the enhanced product and the change-in-demand for the enhanced product in a manner that recognizes the correlation among unobserved elements. The aggregated results suggest benefit estimates that are significantly larger than previous estimates for similar improvements.