Unit-Consistent Poverty Indices

This paper characterizes unit-consistent poverty indices. The unit consistency axiom requires that poverty rankings (not poverty indices) remain unaffected when all incomes and the poverty lines are expressed in different measuring units. We consider two general frameworks of poverty measurement: the semi-individualistic framework that includes all decomposable indices and all rank-based indices; and the Dalton–Hagenaars framework that contains a subset of decomposable indices. Within the semi-individualistic framework, classes of unit-consistent poverty indices can be characterized for different value judgements about poverty measurement. Within the Dalton-Hagenaars framework, unit-consistent poverty indices are completely characterized without invoking any value judgement a priori. I thank Peter Lambert, Mike Hoy, Thesia Garner and an anonymous referee for their very helpful comments and suggestions.     

Unemployment and labour force participation in Turkey

This article investigates the relationship between labour force participation rate and unemployment rate in Turkey a developing country. Cointegration analysis is carried out for the aggregate and gender-specific series. The findings indicate that there is no long-run relationship between labour force participation and unemployment rates in Turkey. Thus, unlike in the case of the developed countries, the unemployment invariance hypothesis is supported in Turkey.     

Procedural invariance as a result of commitment costs: evidence from an economic experiment on farmers’ willingness to pay for digestate

We offer a conceptual explanation for some of the procedural invariance witnessed in experimental studies related to the concept of commitment costs, which is confirmed in a field experiment with Sicilian farmers valuing a renewable soil conditioner.     

Dilatation monotone risk measures are law invariant

We prove that on an atomless probability space, every dilatation monotone convex risk measure is law invariant. This result, combined with the known ones, shows the equivalence between dilatation monotonicity and important properties of convex risk measures such as law invariance and second-order stochastic monotonicity. We would like to thank Johannes Leitner for helpful discussions. The second author made contributions to this paper while being affiliated to Heriot-Watt University and would like to express special thanks to Mark Owen, whose project (EPSRC grant no. GR/S80202/01) supported this research.     

Does the unemployment invariance hypothesis hold for Romania?

This article questions whether the unemployment invariance hypothesis of Layard et al. (2005), which states that movements in labour force do not significantly affect unemployment rates, holds true for Romania. Using quarterly labour force data for the 1996–2012 period, we explore the time-series properties of the two variables. We find that unemployment rates and participation rates have unit roots, and that they are not cointegrated, meaning that no significant long-term relationship exists between them. The analysis carried out on the first differences of unemployment rates and participation rates shows discouraged and added worker effects for Romania’s female labour force. This conclusion diverges from findings that point out to a stable, long-term relationship between unemployment and participation in several developed countries (Japan, Sweden, USA) and shows that Romanian labour market is highly adaptive, where changes in labour force participation do not lead to increases in unemployment. This finding can help model the influence of adverse developments such as ageing and emigration, and show their true impact beyond demographic doom scenarios. It also points out the role played by labour demand in shaping the evolution of the Romanian labour market.     

Preference Reversal

Preference reversal concerns a systematic divergence between prices of lotteries and subjects' expressed preferences for playing the respective lotteries. This article surveys the discovery of preference reversal by psychologists, its re–examination and corroboration both by psychologists and later on by (first sceptical) economists, as well as the causes of preference reversal. The preference reversal phenomenon has been explained to be caused by four determinants, viz. by the mode of elicitation of certainty equivalents, by intransitivity of preferences, by overpricing and/or underpricing of lotteries, and by nonlinear probabilities. JEL classification: D81     

Tests of Bivariate Exchangeability

We discuss the hypothesis of bivariate exchangeability and show that testing bivariate exchangeability is related to the two-sample testing of equality of distribution functions. We consider three test statistics based on the ordering of the Euclidean interpoint distances. The runs test of exchangeability counts the runs among the observations and their mirror images on the minimal spanning tree. The nearest neighbour test of exchangeability is based on the number of nearest neighbour type coincidences among the observations and their folded images on the plane. The rank test of exchangeability compares the within and between ranks of the interpoint distances. We also consider the sign test of exchangeability, which uses the signs of the observations in specific regions, and a bootstrap test of exchangeability based on the maximum distance between the mirror images. We compare the power of these methods in a Monte Carlo study which shows different power orderings of the methods, depending on the alternative hypothesis.     

Prelec权重函数及其不同先验行为假设的比较分析

自从前景理论提出以来,人们已经普遍认识到决策者会高估低概率事件、低估高概率事件。在提出的诸多权重函数之中,Prelec权重函数由于其简单,与大部分实证证据一致以及有一个理论化基础而备受关注。Luce提出了一种相对于复合不变性而言更简单的,基于还原不变性的推导,而Al-Nowaihi和Dhami在此基础上提出了幂不变性。文中对Prelec权重函数进行了简单描述以及利用其对金融异象的解释,再就复合不变性、还原不变性和幂不变性这三种能推导出Prelec权重函数的先验行为假设进行了总结,并对其进行了简单比较分析。     

Scaling limits of two-dimensional percolation: an overview

We present a review of the recent progress on percolation scaling limits in two dimensions. In particular, we consider the convergence of critical crossing probabilities to Cardy's formula and of the critical exploration path to chordal stochastic Loewner evolution (SLE₆), the full scaling limit of critical cluster boundaries, and near-critical scaling limits.