How does the effect of pre-play suggestions vary with group size? Experimental evidence from a threshold public-good game

Numerous studies have examined factors influencing the likelihood of cooperative outcomes in nonzero-sum games, but there has been little study of the interaction between two of the most important: group size and pre-play cheap talk. We report results from an experiment in which groups of size between 2 and 15 play a one-shot multi-player threshold public-good game. In our random leader treatment, all group members select a suggestion (e.g., “Everyone should choose X”), with one randomly chosen to be broadcast to the group. In a choice only treatment, subjects choose suggestions but none is sent, and in a baseline treatment, there are no suggestions at all. We find a negative interaction between group size and this kind of communication: the beneficial effect of both suggestions overall and cooperative suggestions on cooperation, cooperative outcomes, and payoffs decreases sharply as the group size increases. We find a similar negative interaction in a follow-up treatment in which all group members’ suggestions are broadcast to the group. Our results suggest that care should be taken in generalising conclusions from small-group experiments to large groups.     

Self-regulation and moral awareness among entrepreneurs

Moral awareness underpins moral reasoning and ethical decision making. This mixed methods study investigates a critical feature of these phenomena among entrepreneurs, namely the influence of social cognitive self-regulation on moral awareness. Results suggest that entrepreneurs with stronger self-regulatory characteristics are more morally aware and relate such awareness to maintaining personal integrity and building inter-personal trust. In contrast, entrepreneurs with weaker self-regulatory characteristics appear less morally aware overall, and focus primarily on moral issues relating to failure and loss. I conclude the paper by discussing the implications for future research and practice.     

The use of ex-ante modelling tools in European Impact Assessment: What role does land use play?

Impact Assessment was introduced by the European Commission in 2002 in order to make policy development more transparent and improve the ‘quality’ of European policies. Cross-sectoral consultation, broad participation and the quantitative assessment of the impacts of policies are significant elements of this process. This article specifically addresses the role of tools modelling the impact of policies on land use in Impact Assessment. The choice of a specific modelling tool is conceptualised as an action situation interlinked with other action arenas. The article aims to uncover the institutions structuring the action situation. The outcome of the empirical work suggests that two types of Impact Assessments can be distinguished. Impact Assessments either substantively contribute to the specific policy that the Commission proposes or they legitimise policy choices ex post that have already been adopted. The legislative procedure that applies to a specific policy sector, the policy making culture in the DG and the stakes that are at issue seem to influence whether Impact Assessments contribute to policy development, or legitimise it. Furthermore, the article describes the situation in which desk officers choose a modelling tool throughout Impact Assessment. To advance their careers desk officers aim to produce policy proposals which respond to the issues raised by the actors involved in Impact Assessment and specifically in policy development and, later on, adoption. Therefore, desk officers’ preferences are shaped by the community that is involved in policy development and Impact Assessment. The article describes what role modelling tools play in European Impact Assessment procedures and it names the heuristic of criteria which desk officers use to choose a modelling tool. Besides several technical and data problems of modelling land use impact, it seems to be unlikely that land use will become a significant dimension of Impact Assessment and modelling as it is confronted with an unfavourable institutional environment at the European level.     

新经济中的虚拟一体化组织

虚拟一体化是现代企业有效利用社会资源的一种常用组织形式。它不仅增强了企业的柔性和敏捷性,降低了交易成本和管理成本,而且其协调机制---隐性契约在克服因企业追求降低生产成本而提高资产专用性所引起的垄断租金和专用性准租金方面比纵向一体化和明示契约都具有优势。     

基于村级尺度的农村水贫困评价——以常德澧县梅家港村为例

以WPI为基本框架,结合南方农村社区水资源系统的特点,从水资源状况、供水设施、利用能力、使用效率和环境状况五方面选择24个指标,建立一套南方农村社区水贫困评价指标体系.采用分级打分法量化数据,构建综合指数评价模型,并对湖南澧县梅家港村水贫困水平进行评价.结果表明:梅家港村的WPI指数值为46.567,呈现一定程度的水贫困现象.其水贫困主要表现在水资源使用效率低下、环境状况堪忧以及供水等水利基础设施相对落后等方面.该项研究说明,我国南方自然水资源条件优越的农村地区同样有可能存在不同程度的水贫困问题.     

企业投资项目比选决策方法研究

由于信息不对称或者有些投资项目本身没有先例可循,企业投资项目存在很大风险.为了较全面地考察项目投资所面临的各种因素,作出合理的项目投资决策,采用多属性决策中确定属性权重的熵权法联合决策者对属性重要性认识的主观权重和用于排序比较的TOPSIS法,为企业投资项目的比选决策提供一种新的决策方法.该方法综合考虑了决策者的主观权重和投资项目各影响因素信息之间固有的客观权重、综合考虑了风险和收益的多方面因素对投资项目作出比选决策.最后举一项目投资比选实例加以说明.     

On the informational content of advice: a theoretical and experimental study

This paper examines the market for advice and the underlying perception that advice is useful and informative. We do this by first providing a theoretical examination of the informational content of advice and then by setting up a series of experimental markets where this advice is sold. In these markets we provide bidders with a demographic profile of the “experts” offering advice.The results of our experiment generate several interesting findings. The raw bid data suggest that subjects bid significantly more for data than they do for advice. Second, in the market for advice there appears to be no consensus as to who are the best advisors although on average economists demand the highest mean price and women suffer a discount. In addition, we find that whether a subject suffers from a representativeness bias in the way he or she processes data has an impact on how he or she bids for advice and on his or her willingness to follow it once offered. Finally, we find that on average people impute a low level of informativeness onto advice, consistent with their bidding behavior for data versus advice.This work was done under grant number SES-0425118 of the National Science Foundation. The authors would like to recognize the Center for Experimental Social Science at New York University for its additional support. We also acknowledge the help of Elizabeth Potamites for her research assistance.     

不完全信息下的供应链风险评估方法研究

本文使用多属性决策方法进行供应链风险评估,在风险属性权重信息不完全的情况下,建立非线性规划模型求得各风险属性的权重值,并通过求与理想解之间的加权欧氏距离来评估风险值的大小,解决了评估专家由于知识、经验和偏好不完全相同而意见难以统一的困难,最后用一个例子说明了该方法的有效性和实用性。     

Integrating science and local knowledge in environmental risk management: A decision-focused approach

This paper explores how a structured decision process, based on methods from the decision sciences, can contribute to the integration of local and scientific knowledge in environmental decision making. Emphasis is placed on the use of key decision structuring steps and analytical tools to help ensure the systematic treatment of both fact-based and value-based knowledge claims. Practical methods are discussed for communicating and evaluating values and technical information across participants and cultures in ways that are methodologically rigorous and encourage different sources of credible knowledge to be considered on equal footing. Examples are presented from water use planning in British Columbia, Canada, where stakeholder consultations at 22 hydroelectric facilities demonstrate specific techniques that can be used to clarify values, to explore hypotheses, to clarify uncertainties, to identify and evaluate options, to make value-based choices, and to facilitate mutual learning.