The impact of endowment heterogeneity and origin on contributions in best-shot public good games

Economists and psychologists have long argued the origin of wealth influences individual behavior. In a previous study (Cherry et al., 2005), we found the origin of endowment did not significantly affect behavior in linear public good games with summation contribution technology. In such games, however, both Nash behavior (everybody gives nothing) and social optimal behavior (everybody gives the entire endowment) call for symmetric levels of contributions. Results from this new study indicate that the origin of wealth might matter in more asymmetric situations, such as in a best-shot public good game with heterogeneous groups. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at . JEL Classification C72, C92, H41     

Using Hicksian Surplus Measures to Examine Consistency of Individual Preferences: Evidence from a Field Experiment

This paper pits neoclassical theory against prospect theory by investigating several clean tests of the competing hypotheses. Consistent with previous work, the field experimental data suggest that prospect theory adequately organizes behavior among inexperienced consumers, whereas consumers with intense market experience behave largely in accordance with neoclassical predictions. The data indicate that the convergence in values occurs entirely because of lower Hicksian equivalent surplus values.     

Endowment effect theory,prediction bias and publicly provided goods: an experimental study

Many studies report on a systematic disparity between the willingness to pay for a certain good (WTP) and the willingness to accept retribution payments in exchange for giving up this good (WTA). Thaler [Thaler RH (1980) J Econ Behav Organ 1:39–60] employs prospect theory to explain this disparity. The literature contains two different interpretations of his endowment effect theory. Accordingly, the disparity is caused either by the disutility from parting with one’s endowment and/or by an extra utility from ownership which is not anticipated by individuals who are not endowed with the good. So far, the empirical evidence on the applicability of endowment effect theory is limited to private goods. This paper reports on an experiment which finds a significant ownership utility effect for a publicly provided good. This result indicates that prospect theory applies to publicly provided goods even though consumers do not have exclusive property rights.      

The endowment effect and intertemporal choice: a laboratory investigation

We present a laboratory investigation of intertemporal choice (i.e., elicited discount rates) allowing for the influence of the endowment effect. Consistent with the previous literature, we hypothesize that the endowment effect in an intertemporal choice setting results in substantially higher discount rates relative to when individuals treat the resources in question as found money. Our results support this hypothesis and our experimental design provides a new protocol for conducting choice experiments wherein the endowment effect is an important determinant of behaviour.     

Biased valuations, damage assessments, and policy choices: The choice of measure matters

Damages from, for example, an oil spill can be measured by how much people are willing to pay to avoid them, or by the minimum compensation they demand to accept them; and decisions to clean up can be justified by the willingness to pay to do it or by the compensation necessary to forgo it. Contrary to the usual official and unofficial conventions that the choice of measure is of no matter, the empirical evidence and intuitions of most people strongly suggest otherwise. The appropriate choice of measure appears to turn, not on legal entitlements, but on the reference state people use to judge negative and positive changes — a criteria that is likely to call into question most estimates of the damages of increased health risks and the value of environmental mitigation efforts.     

Cartels and the Incentive to Cheat: Evidence from the Classroom

Several points about cartel behavior are illustrated, using the curve on an exam.     

国际工程合同的评析与借鉴

国际工程合同为我们提供了建造合同、设计和建造合同、EPC/交钥匙合同等多种可供选择的工程承包模式,探讨国际工程合同的优势和缺陷,明确其应用范围,对于克服我国工程承包合同存在的内容简单;操作性不强等问题有积极的意义。     

汇率波动与国际贸易量的不确定性关系-基于中国的经验证据

对于汇率波动与国际贸易量的关系,学界一直存有很大争议,但经验检验尚不足以为理论分析提供有说服力的证据。本文着重在如下三个细节方面做深做细:第一,更精确地测算汇率波动,发现并注重汇率波动对冲击可能存在的非对称特征;第二,以严格的内生性检验指导工具变量的应用;第三,模型设定采用联立方程同时考察出口需求和供给。文章发现,无论是贸易方向上还是贸易方式上,均没有理由认为汇率波动显著影响了出口需求,但汇率波动却显著抑制了中国的出口供给。     

The Threshold Effect of Exchange Rate Volatility on Trade Volume: Evidence from G-7 Countries

Abstract

This paper uses a threshold model to examine a possible threshold effect in the impact of exchange rate volatility on trade volume for the bilateral trade volumes between the US and other G-7 countries. A grid-searching method is used to obtain the threshold points, and time-series econometric techniques are applied to estimate the long run stable relationships as well as short-run dynamics. The results support the existence of nonlinearity in the effect of exchange rate volatility, and indicate that trade volume tends to increase when exchange rate volatility surpasses a certain threshold point.     

Determinants of pro-environmental consumption: The role of reference groups and routine behavior

This paper investigates the determinants of pro-environmental consumption, focusing on the role of reference groups and routine behavior. We study the factors that explain whether or not people have installed residential solar energy equipment or have subscribed to green-electricity programs, and the factors that influence the intensity of buying organic food. In addition to demographic characteristics and environmental attitudes, we consider the following categories of determinants: economic and cognitive factors (income, estimated price premium, level of information on environmentally-friendly goods); consumption patterns of reference persons; own consumption patterns in the past. Using a unique data set from a survey conducted in the region of Hanover, Germany, we find the following: (1) Economic and cognitive factors are significant covariates of all three kinds of pro-environmental consumption. Their influence is greatest in the case of green electricity. (2) Consumption patterns of reference persons are significant covariates of all three kinds of pro-environmental consumption. Their influence is greatest in the case of organic food. (3) The intensity of buying organic food is greater the longer people have been consumers of these goods.     

动态购买力平价理论:概念、证据与运用

本文探索性地建立动态购买力平价(PPP)理论的分析框架,通过模型化国民经济市场化和开放化以及国际经济一体化的结构性因素,描述实际汇率对传统PPP理论平价水平的系统偏离及其动态演化特征。本文依据国际横截面数据进行动态PPP理论的计量分析,取得动态PPP理论的结构方程和可计算形式,进而情景预测2006—2010年间人民币实际汇率升值趋势,为未来时期人民币汇率的均衡调整提供数值参考。     

Is There a Link Between Exchange Rate Pass-Through and the Monetary Regime: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America

This paper investigates the relationship between the monetary regime: pegged, currency board, dollarization, and the exchange rate pass-through for a sample consisting of 15 Sub-Saharan Africa countries and 12 Latin American countries. The research findings about pass-through rates will shed light on the feasibility of a monetary union for Sub-Saharan Africa. The inclusion of the latter country group was deemed desirable to explore pass-through behavior in several monetary regime options not often used in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Re-Exploring the Enlargement of the Eurozone: Evidence from the New Member-States

The debt crisis of the Euro Area in 2010 raised plenty of doubts concerning the sustainability of the monetary union. Eurozone includes economies which have different structural characteristics. This event does not allow the establishment of an optimal currency area. The present research attempts to explore if the join of Cyprus, Malta, Latvia, Slovenia and Slovakia in the Eurozone was in favor of their economies. We used the nominal exchange rates as a financial instrument by combing the Error Correction Model with the Threshold GARCH, ECM-TGARCH. The empirical findings highly support that the EU membership influenced positively the relationship between the euro and the Cypriot Pound, the Latvian Lats and the Slovenian Tolar. On the contrary, we discovered that the join of Malta in the EU had a slightly negative and a long-term impact in the relationship between the euro and the Maltese currency. Finally, the entrance of Slovakia in the EU influenced positively the Slovakian currency. However, the relationship between the euro and the Slovakian Koruna remained negative.     

外汇风险对冲和公司价值:基于中国跨国公司的实证研究

2005年7月人民币汇改以来,人民币升值,特别是相对于美元大幅升值,其不利影响开始显现,我国不少跨国公司使用外汇衍生品来对冲人民币汇率升值带来的风险。然而,尽管不少国外学者对金融衍生品使用和公司价值的关系进行了深入研究,但以中国公司为样本的研究仍很少见。中信泰富等衍生品投机事件和2008年金融危机的发生使得我国学者对金融衍生工具的作用和性质争议不断,使用外汇衍生品对冲外汇风险是否增加公司价值仍是一个有待深入研究的问题。本文基于2007年至2009年968家中国跨国公司的数据,实证检验了外汇衍生品使用和公司价值的关系,发现外汇衍生品使用带来了约10%的价值溢价,这一重要发现和基于发达国家的不少研究相一致。该研究成果支持了外汇衍生品在汇率风险管理中的积极作用和加快发展我国外汇衍生品市场特别是交易所市场以掌握人民币汇率定价权的重要性和紧迫性。     

Gift giving and worker productivity: Evidence from a firm-level experiment

We present results from a field experiment, designed to measure worker response to a monetary gift from their employer. The experiment took place inside a tree-planting firm paying its workforce incentive contracts. Firm managers told a crew of tree planters they would receive a pay raise for one day as a result of a surplus not attributable to past planting productivity. We compare planter productivity—the number of trees planted per day—on the day the gift was handed out with productivity on previous and subsequent days of planting on the same block, and thus under similar planting conditions. We find direct evidence that the gift had a significant and positive effect on daily planter productivity, controlling for planter-fixed effects, weather conditions and other random daily shocks.     

The enfranchisement of women and the welfare state

We offer a rationale for the decision to extend the franchise to women within a politico-economic model where men are richer than women, women display a higher preference for public goods, and women's disenfranchisement carries a societal cost. Men and women are matched within households which are the center of the decision process. We derive the optimal tax rate under two alternative regimes: a males-only enfranchisement regime and a universal enfranchisement regime. The latter is associated with a higher tax rate but, as industrialization raises the reward to intellectual labor relative to physical labor, women's relative wage increases, thus decreasing the difference between the tax rates. When the cost of disenfranchisement becomes higher than the cost of the higher tax rate which applies under universal enfranchisement, the male median voter is better off extending the franchise to women. A consequent expansion of the size of government is only to be expected in societies with a relatively high cost of disenfranchisement.We empirically test the implications of the model over the 1870–1930 period. We proxy the gender wage gap with the level of per capita income and the cost of disenfranchisement with the presence of catholicism, which is associated with a more traditional view of women's role and thus a lower cost. The gender gap in the preferences for public goods is proxied by the availability of divorce, which implies marital instability and a more vulnerable economic position for women. Consistently with the model's predictions, women's suffrage is correlated positively with per capita income and negatively with the presence of catholicism and the availability of divorce, while women's suffrage increases the size of government only in non-catholic countries.     

The Fisher effect: new evidence and implications

Using monthly data in the 1980s and early 1990s, our results do not support the short-run Fisher effect since short-term interest rates are associated with negligible changes in expected inflation. However, inflation and nominal interest rates exhibit common stochastic trends in the long run. Consequently, the correlation between nominal interest rates and inflation rates increases with maturity until they move in a one-to-one relation at long horizon. This is evident by the correlation coefficients of the Johansen test for cointegration that increase with the maturity of US government securities from 2 to 5 years.     

Professional forecasts of interest rates and exchange rates: Evidence from the Wall Street Journal’s panel of economists

We analyze economists’ forecasts of interest rates and exchange rates from the Wall Street Journal. We find that a majority of economists produced unbiased forecasts but that none predicted directions of changes more accurately than chance. Most economists’ forecast accuracy is statistically indistinguishable from a random walk model in forecasting the Treasury bill rate, but many are significantly worse in forecasting the Treasury bond rate and the exchange rate. We also find systematic forecast heterogeneity, support for strategic models predicting the industry employing the economist matters, and evidence that economists deviate less from the consensus as they age.     

Tax morale affects tax compliance: Evidence from surveys and an artefactual field experiment

Our working hypothesis is that cross-cultural differences in tax compliance behavior have foundations in the institutions of tax administration and citizen assessment of the quality of governance. Tax compliance being a complex behavioral issue, its investigation requires use of a variety of methods and data sources. Results from artefactual field experiments conducted in countries with substantially different political histories and records of governance quality demonstrate that observed differences in tax compliance levels persist over alternative levels of enforcement. The experimental results are shown to be robust by replicating them for the same countries using survey response measures of tax compliance.     

产业发展中的本地市场效应——基于我国2004-2009年面板数据的实证

本文利用我国2004-2009年29个省区市22个制造业细分行业的面板数据,检验了我国产业发展中的本地市场效应的存在性及其特点。研究结果显示,在省际层面上并没有发现我国产业发展中存在着本地市场效应,这或许是由于我国产业发展的空间异质性和行业差异性较强所致;而在细化的分省层面上,所得研究支持本地市场效应的存在性,且发现其具有地区和行业的选择性,即只有部分地区部分行业存在着本地市场效应,且主要集中于中东部地区与资本和技术密集型的行业。这可以为我国各省区市转变产业发展方式,提升产业发展质量和效益提供政策启示:如可通过培育具有本地市场效应的产业来转变传统的以资源密集型或劳动密集型为特征的产业发展方式,通过发掘和利用产业发展中的规模效应来加快技术创新和产业升级的步伐。