CSMA Local Area Networking under Dynamic Altruism

In this paper, we consider medium access control of local area networks (LANs) under limited-information conditions as befits a distributed system. Rather than assuming "by rule" conformance to a protocol designed to regulate packet-flow rates (e.g., CSMA windowing), we begin with a non-cooperative game framework and build a dynamic altruism term into the net utility. The effects of altruism are analyzed at Nash equilibrium for both the ALOHA and CSMA frameworks in the quasistationary (fictitious play) regime. We consider either power or throughput based costs of networking, and the cases of identical or heterogeneous (independent) users/players. In a numerical study we consider diverse players, and we see that the effects of altruism for similar players can be beneficial in the presence of significant congestion, but excessive altruism may lead to underuse of the channel when demand is low

Incomplete Punishment Networks in Public Goods Games: Experimental Evidence

Abundant evidence suggests that high levels of contributions to public goods can be sustained through self-governed monitoring and sanctioning. This experimental study investigates the effectiveness of decentralized sanctioning institutions in alternative punishment networks. Our results show that the structure of punishment network significantly affects allocations to the public good. In addition, we observe that network configurations are more important than punishment capacities for the levels of public good provision, imposed sanctions and economic efficiency. Lastly, we show that targeted revenge is a major driver of anti-social punishment

Is the genie out of the bottle? Digital platforms and the future of clinical trials

This is the final version. Available on open access from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this recordIs it possible to conduct impartial clinical trials in a world full of digital networking tools that patients can use to coordinate themselves and act against research protocols? This paper builds on an ethnography of PatientsLikeMe, a company running an Internet social media network where patients with different conditions share their clinical data with standardised questionnaires. The company faced a serious dilemma in 2011 when some ALS patients, members of the site, started sharing data about a phase II clinical trial of an experimental drug (NP001) in which some of them were participating, to anticipate the experiment’s outcomes and understand each one’s allocation over trial arms. In parallel, some other patients were using the site and other web tools to coordinate and run their own replication of the trial with homebrew mixes of industrial grade chemicals. PatientsLikeMe researchers reflected on their position as networks managers and eventually decided to use the collected data to develop their own analysis of the efficacy of the original compound, and of the homebrewers’ compound. They presented the NP001 events as a case in point for articulating a new social contract for clinical research. This paper analyses these events, first, by understanding the clinical trial as an experiment organisation form that can succeed only as long as its protocol can be enforced; second, we observe how web networks make it dramatically easier for the trial protocol to be violated; finally, we point out how a potentially dangerous confluence of interests over web networks could incubate developments that disrupt the status quo without creating a robust and safe alternative for experimentation. We conclude by warning about the interests of the pharmaceutical industry in exploiting patients’ methodological requests to its own advantage.European Research CouncilEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

Preschoolers are sensitive to free riding in a public goods game

Despite the benefits of cooperation, selfish individuals often produce outcomes where everyone is worse off. This “tragedy of the commons” has been demonstrated experimentally in adults with the public goods game. Contributions to a public good decline over time due to free-riders who keep their endowments. Little is known about how children behave when confronted with this social dilemma. Forty-eight preschoolers were tested using a novel non-verbal procedure and simplified choices more appropriate to their age than standard economic approaches. The rate of cooperation was initially very low and rose in the second round for the girls only. Children were affected by their previous outcome, as they free rode more after experiencing a lower outcome compared to the other group members

Giving to Be Seen: the Influence of Facebook Charitable Advertisements on Conspicuous Donation Behavior

The arduous financial environments that nonprofit organizations face today motivate nonprofits to continuously search and leverage new communication platforms such as social media to approach a wider individual donor base. This thesis examines whether a Facebook charitable appeal promoting a donation via Facebook Gifts may attract Facebook users to give for conspicuousness (a public display of a donation behavior). Findings of this thesis revealed a gender difference in responses to the Facebook charitable appeal due to the gender difference in self-construals such that men were more likely to give via Facebook Gifts when the ad promoting the donation via Facebook Gifts signaled a lower level of popularity (with fewer Likes ) whereas women tended to give via Facebook Gifts when the ad signaled a higher level of popularity (with more Likes ). This thesis has theoretical contributions to existing literature on self-construals and prosocial behavior as well as significant practical implications for nonprofits to design compelling, effective charitable appeals to attract male and female social media users respectively

Working in the profit versus not for profit sector: what difference does it make? An inquiry on preferences of voluntary and involuntary movers

We investigate what is behind the profit/not for profit wage differential by comparing judgments on job caracteristics of workers who voluntarily or involuntarily moved from the first to the second sector. We define voluntary movers those who applied for a job in a not for profit organization and, when successful, resigned from the for profit one, while involuntary movers can either have been laid off by the company or have resigned without already having a job offer in the not for profit sector when leaving the firm. We observe that almost half of voluntary movers end up with non higher wages and, surprisingly, higher job satisfaction after the change. A vast majority of them exhibit significantly higher time flexibility, improved relationships with stakeholders, closer consistence with educational skills and higher satisfaction of intrinsic motivations in the new job. Our findings support the profit/no profit compensating differential hypothesis and shed light on mechanisms which are beyond the job donation behavior of intrinsically motivated workers.Social enterprises, wage differentials, intrinsic motivations, changing job, dissatisfaction

Hume\u27s Penguin, or, Yochai Benkler and the Nature of Peer Production

This Article examines \u27peer production, a term coined and a concept explicated by Yochai Benkler. My own interest in peer production stems from its importance as a new form of user-generated content. User-generated content is particularly interesting if Benkler is right in his claim that the positive analysis of peer-produced content may have normative implications with respect to copyright law--in particular, the implication that copyright law may play a deleterious role in the formation and maintenance of this potentially significant new form of user-generated content. We are in need of a theory of collective action for the social world that is emerging in cyberspace. Benkler\u27s theory of peer production makes an important contribution to this project. The present Article seeks to expand on Benkler\u27s account by demonstrating that collective-action problems are not synonymous with the tragedy of the commons. In particular, one important type of solution to a collective-action problem of a sort not countenanced by Benkler is the convention or coordination norm. This Article will show that not only would a more comprehensive theory of collective action in cyberspace need to fit conventions into its account but also that even Benkler\u27s examples of peer production must take account of conventions as well

The effect of long-term care public benefits and insurance on informal care from outside the household: Empirical evidence from Italy and Spain

This article uses cross-sectional data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) database to test the effect of both long-term care (LTC) public benefits and insurance on the receipt of informal care provided by family members living outside the household in Italy and Spain. The choice of Italy and Spain comes from the fact that informal care is rather similar in these two countries while their respective public LTC financing systems are different. Our results support the hypothesis of LTC public support decreasing the receipt of informal care for Spain while reject it for Italy. They tend to confirm that the effect of public benefits on informal care depends on the typology of public coverage for LTC whereby access to proportional benefits negatively influences informal care receipt while access to cash benefits exerts a positive effect. Our results also suggest that private LTC insurance complements the public LTC financing system in place

Pro-environmental behavior : social norms, intrinsic motivation and external conditions

Altres ajuts: Acord transformatiu CRUE-CSICPro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) have been linked in the literature to social norms, intrinsic motivation and external conditions. However, no study has jointly analyzed these factors on a cross-country dataset and given a holistic explanation of the variance observed in the adoption rates of PEBs across countries. Using a dataset measuring individual adoption of eight PEBs in the European Union's 28 member states (in 2018), we econometrically test these three groups of factors on a wider scale. We assess the importance of intrinsic motivation as a dominant factor and show how differing levels of intrinsic motivation influence the effectiveness of external conditions, such as monetary incentives and green infrastructures. The results suggest that two-pronged policies, which take into account intrinsic motivation and external conditions, are needed to reach a high observance rate in the population in the short and in the long term. The wider significance of these results for policy is discussed