The role of cognitive ability and personality traits for men and women in gift exchange outcomes

We examine the role of cognitive ability and personality traits in a gift exchange experiment. Controlling for cognitive ability and personality characteristics, men offer higher wages than women, and men and women with greater cognitive ability and greater agreeableness on the Big Five personality scale offer higher wages as well. Men provide greater effort than women do, and respond to higher wage rates with greater increases in effort. For both genders, one standard deviation increases in agreeableness and in wages generate similar increases in effort. Serious biases arise from omitting cognitive ability and pooling men and women.     

Equilibrium selection in similar repeated games: experimental evidence on the role of precedents

We report on an experiment examining behavior and equilibrium selection in two similar, infinitely repeated games, Stag Hunt and Prisoner’s Dilemma under anonymous random matching. We are interested in the role that historical precedents may play for equilibrium selection between these two repeated games. We find that a precedent for efficient play in the repeated Stag Hunt game does not carry over to the repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma game despite the possibility that efficient play can be sustained as an equilibrium of the indefinitely repeated game. Similarly, a precedent for inefficient play in the repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma game does not extend to the repeated Stag Hunt game. We conclude that equilibrium selection between similar repeated games may have less to do with historical precedents and might instead depend more on strategic considerations associated with the different payoffs of these similar repeated games.     

Integrated bio-economic models as tools to support land-use decision making: a review of potential and limitations

Bio-economic modelling has become a useful tool for anticipating the outcomes of policies and technologies before their implementation. Advances in mathematical programming have made it possible to build more comprehensive models. In an overview of recent studies about bio-economic models applied to land-use problems in agriculture and forestry, we evaluated how aspects such as uncertainty, multiple objective functions, system dynamics and time have been incorporated into models. We found that single objective models were more frequently applied at the farm level, while multiple objective modelling has been applied to meet concerns at the landscape level. Among the objectives, social aspects are seldom represented in all models, when being compared to economic and environmental aspects. The integration of uncertainty is occasionally a topic, while stochastic approaches are more frequently applied than non-stochastic robust methods. Most multiple-objective models do not integrate uncertainty or sequential decision making. Static approaches continue to be more recurrent than truly dynamic models. Even though integrating multiple aspects may enhance our understanding of a system; it involves a tradeoff between complexity and robustness of the results obtained. Land-use models have to address this balance between complexity and robustness in order to evolve towards robust multiple-objective spatial optimization as a prerequisite to achieve sustainability goals.     

Interethnic relations,informal trading networks,and social integration: imitation,habits, and social evolution

The ethnically homogeneous middleman groups (EHMGs), which are informal trading networks, are ubiquitous in less-developed economies where the legal infrastructure for contract enforcement is not well developed. This paper develops a formal model of social interaction among members of the EHMG as well as in more general situations in a multi-ethnic or multi-cultural society consisting of identifiable ethnic or linguistic groups. Behavioral patterns are transmitted between generations and altered via imitation in social contacts. The model demonstrates how different discriminatory behavioral patterns can evolve and persist over time. One result is that the trust between such groups can increase due to a higher frequency of inter-group contacts. In concluding the paper, we speculate about how the model can be expanded to include changes in legal structures, especially contract law. This could lead to an increase in the trust between the different groups.     

Balancing Power Markets in Germany: Timing Matters

This paper analyzes timing issues on the German balancing power market. We focus the analysis on the length of the bidding period, i.e. the length of the time period a supplier has to provide balancing power capacities, and the question of how far before the beginning of a bidding period the auction should be carried out. We show that different load levels require different plants for the optimal provision of balancing power. In a longer bidding period, the power plants that have the lowest average cost in the bidding period are unlikely to be efficient in all hours of the bidding period. Hence, shortening bidding periods can increase efficiency. Furthermore, we show that an early commitment on a power plant’s mode of operation (when uncertainty about resulting spot prices is still relatively high) also reduces efficiency. This suggests that the auction should be held relatively close to the beginning of the bidding period. Furthermore, we discuss some advantages of a liquid real time market.     

玩偶服饰设计影响因素分析

Doll,玩偶娃娃,是一种具有悠久历史的玩具。服饰作为玩偶设计、展示与欣赏的一个重要元素,是以特定的艺术形式为前提,根据玩偶所处的年代、扮演的角色进行设计的。随着时代的发展以及人们对服饰和视觉冲击的不断追逐,玩偶服饰的设计影响因素、表现形态以及与消费者的关系也在不断地发展变化。由此而引起的独特的视觉现象,越来越为人们所关注。主要从人文社会因素、服饰材料因素、服饰结构因素等几个方面,探讨影响玩偶服饰设计的因素。     

服务业和制造业企业法人绩效比较

本文运用累积分布曲线分析经济普查数据发现,服务业和制造业企业法人相比,前者装备一个劳动力所需的资产量更多;前者的财务和经济效益比后者差;进入前者的投资门槛不比后者低。这些经验证据与大量理论和政策分析中的流行认识存在巨大反差。本文的经验发现提醒我们:在目前国情之下,大量资金投入服务业(尤其是生产性服务业和现代服务业)企业的机会成本,大于投入制造业企业的机会成本。所以,服务业发展应该分门别类、实事求是地推进。把发展服务业作为产业结构“升级”和经济增长方式转变重要途径的看法,也需要进一步深入分析。     

县(市)级土地利用总体规划中耕地需求量预测方法及其应用

科学准确地预测耕地需求量,是制定县(市)级土地利用总体规划的基础.文章根据中国南方某县1996-2005年来的耕地变更调查统计数据,分别采用趋势分析法、回归分析法、指数平滑法、GM(1,1)模型法和灰色-马尔柯夫链模型的方法,对该地区耕地总量进行了模拟和预测.不同方法的预测结果表明,基于灰色-马尔柯夫链方法的预测结果更加准确可靠,更有利于土地管理决策者的经济决策行为.在当前耕地利用方式的背景下,灰色-马尔柯夫链模型可以作为县(市)级土地利用总体规划中耕地需求量预测方法的一种好选择.     

Investment and the soft budget constraint in China

This paper examines the incentive effects of the soft budget constraint on the investment behavior of firms in general and on the investment-cash flow sensitivity in particular. To this end, we develop a simple model of moral hazard that takes the soft budget constraint into account. Within this moral hazard environment, we show that investment is positively related to the amount of internal funds. We further show that the presence of the soft budget constraint deteriorates the moral hazard problem, thereby making the investment level less sensitive to the amount of internal funds. This is the case irrespective of whether the soft budget constraint renders the firm more or less liquidity constrained. To test the model's empirical implications, we employ data of China's listed companies for the period from 1997 to 2003. We use the share of state ownership as a proxy for the severity of the soft budget constraint. We find strong evidence that firms with larger shares of state ownership exhibit lower investment-cash flow sensitivities than firms with smaller shares of state ownership.     

The short and long-run interdependencies between the Eurozone and the USA

We estimate quarterly cointegrating vector autoregressive models for the Eurozone and the USA based on long-run restrictions derived from a dynamic open economy model. Three long-run relations between the Eurozone and the USA emerge: relative purchasing power parity, international interest parity and a stationary output gap between the two economies. Generalized impulse response functions show differences in the dynamic adjustment of the two economies. Due to the I(1)-characteristic of both output series and the stability conditions imposed by the long-run equilibrium relationships, shocks to the model produce level effects only, while growth rates converge to their long-run averages.