Bargaining efficiency and screening: An experimental investigation

This paper investigates whether information about fairness types can be useful in lowering dispute costs and enhancing bargaining efficiency. An experiment was conducted in which subjects were first screened using a dictator game, with the allocations chosen used to separate participants into two types. Mutually anonymous pairs of subjects then bargained, with a dispute cost structure imposed. Sorting with identification reduces dispute costs; there are also significant differences in bargaining efficiency across pairing types. Information about types is crucial for these differences and also strongly affects the relative bargaining success of the two types and the hypothetical optimal bargaining strategy.Bargaining efficiency, dispute resolution, experiment, fairness, sorting, Leex

Quantitative conditional quantum erasure in two-atom resonance fluorescence

We present a conditional quantum eraser which erases the a priori knowledge or the predictability of the path a photon takes in a Young-type double-slit experiment with two fluorescent four-level atoms. This erasure violates a recently derived erasure relation which must be satisfied for a conventional, unconditional quantum eraser that aims to find an optimal sorting of the system into subensembles with particularly large fringe visibilities. The conditional quantum eraser employs an interaction-free, partial which-way measurement which not only sorts the system into optimal subsystems with large visibility but also selects the appropriate subsystem with the maximum possible visibility. We explain how the erasure relation can be violated under these circumstances.Comment: Revtex4, 12pages, 4 eps figures, replaced with published version, changes in Sec. 3, to appear in Physical Review

Master of Science

thesisMagnetic separation technology has been utilized for many years in the scrap sorting industry. Ferrous metal scrap is easily sorted using magnetic separation while sorting nonferrous scrap is a tricky process. Currently available technology to sort nonferrous material using mechanical eddy current sorters have limitations in terms of the capability to sort material larger than a quarter inch. Moving parts are subjected to wear and tear and they are also incapable of sorting different nonferrous metals and alloys like aluminum, aluminum alloys, copper, copper alloys, titanium, and so forth, from one another. The research work presented in this thesis reveals various nonferrous metals and alloy sorting test results using solid state, variable-frequency eddy current technology. The setup for this technology consists of a ferrite core with a V-shaped cut for the air gap wound with wire to produce an alternating magnetic field in the gap when supplied with alternating current. Nonferrous particles, when fed into the gap, interact with the external magnetic field which induces eddy currents into the material, and based on Lenz’s law, material tends to deflect away from the source of external magnetic field. Frequency determination for the selective sorting of material from the mixture of nonferrous material was done based on the ejection velocity experiments performed on size, ranging 4mm to 12mm at a frequency range of 1kHz - 8 kHz on aluminum, copper, brass, and titanium. Ejection velocity results were used to determine an optimal strategy and sorting experiments of nonferrous metals and alloy mixtures were conducted using a double stacked core of ferrite material having a 2mm inner gap and 33 mm outer gap. Also, experiments were conducted to sort zorba scrap using a larger size NiZn ferrite core with a 10mm inner gap and 20 mm outer gap. The pendulum experiment showed a trend of increasing ejection velocity with respect to increasing frequency, but the magnitude of velocity for different materials differ at a particular frequency is not the same, this allowed for an optimal frequency to be determined for optimal sorting. Nonferrous materials were sorted very well using both single and double stacked ferrite cores, but grade and recovery was slightly better when the double core was used. Promising results were also achieved for aluminum alloy sorting. All the results strongly indicate that capability for the solid state eddy current sorting technique is to be used to sort various nonferrous metals and alloys when operated at the optimal frequency

Performance Pay and Multidimensional Sorting - Productivity, Preferences and Gender

This paper studies the impact of incentives on worker self-selection in a controlled laboratory experiment. Subjects face the choice between a fixed and a variable payment scheme. Depending on the treatment, the variable payment is a piece rate, a tournament or a revenue-sharing scheme. We find that output is higher in the variable pay schemes (piece rate, tournament, and revenue sharing) compared to the fixed payment scheme. This difference is largely driven by productivity sorting. In addition personal attitudes such as willingness to take risks and relative self-assessment as well as gender affect the sorting decision in a systematic way. Moreover, self-reported effort is significantly higher in all variable pay conditions than in the fixed wage condition. Our lab findings are supported by an additional analysis using data from a large and representative sample. In sum, our findings underline the importance of multi-dimensional sorting, i.e., the tendency for different incentive schemes to systematically attract people with different individual characteristics

Discovering predictive variables when evolving cognitive models

A non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm is used to evolve models of learning from different theories for multiple tasks. Correlation analysis is performed to identify parameters which affect performance on specific tasks; these are the predictive variables. Mutation is biased so that changes to parameter values tend to preserve values within the population's current range. Experimental results show that optimal models are evolved, and also that uncovering predictive variables is beneficial in improving the rate of convergence

Social Preferences and Strategic Uncertainty: An Experiment on Markets and Contracts

This paper reports experimental evidence on a stylized labor market. The experiment is designed as a sequence of three phases. In the rst two phases, P1 and P2; agents face simple games, which we use to estimate subjects social and reciprocity concerns, together with their beliefs. In the last phase, P3; four principals, who face four teams of two agents, compete by o¤ering agents a contract from a xed menu. Then, each agent selects one of the available contracts (i.e. he "chooses to work" for a principal). Production is determined by the outcome of a simple effort game induced by the chosen contract. We nd that (heterogeneous) social preferences are signi cant determinants of choices in all phases of the experiment. Since the available contracts display a trade-of between fairness and strategic uncertainty, we observe that the latter is a much stronger determinant of choices, for both principals and agents. Finally, we also see that social preferences explain, to a large extent, matching between principals and agents, since agents display a marked propensity to work for principals with similar social preferences