5,763 research outputs found

    CP-nets: A Tool for Representing and Reasoning withConditional Ceteris Paribus Preference Statements

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    Information about user preferences plays a key role in automated decision making. In many domains it is desirable to assess such preferences in a qualitative rather than quantitative way. In this paper, we propose a qualitative graphical representation of preferences that reflects conditional dependence and independence of preference statements under a ceteris paribus (all else being equal) interpretation. Such a representation is often compact and arguably quite natural in many circumstances. We provide a formal semantics for this model, and describe how the structure of the network can be exploited in several inference tasks, such as determining whether one outcome dominates (is preferred to) another, ordering a set outcomes according to the preference relation, and constructing the best outcome subject to available evidence

    Reference Point Formation Over Time: A Weighting Function Approach

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    Although the concept of reference point dependent preferences has been adopted to almost all fields of behavioral economics, especially marketing and behavioral finance, we still know very little about how decision makers form their reference points given a sequence of prices. Our paper provides both a theoretical framework on reference point formation over time, based on cumulative prospect theory’s s-shaped weighting function, and a new experimental method for eliciting subjects’ individual reference points in a finance context. Consistent with our model, we document our subjects’ reference points to be best described by the first and the last price of the time series, with the equally weighted average and the highest price receiving smaller weights.. Results, however, vary strongly on the individual level and are also affected by the elicitation question applied.

    THE FORMAL LOGIC OF TESTING STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN MEAT DEMAND: A METHODOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

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    In the past two decades, the profession has expended valuable resources testing structural change in meat demand with mixed results. Overlooked to date is a fundamental methodological problem that transcends all of the methods of testing for structural change. In this study, a formal logic framework is utilized in which methodological problems associated with any hypothesis test can be analyzed. Within this framework, it is proven that there is no valid test of any single hypothesis, including structural change. Because of this result, additional criteria from the methodology literature are then used to evaluate the literature on structural change in meat demand.logic, meat demand, methodology, structural change, Demand and Price Analysis,

    Delegation and Positive-Sum Bureaucracies

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    I develop a formal model of bureaucratic policymaking to investigate why a legislature would choose to delegate authority to a bureaucratic agency whose actions can be controlled, ex post , by an executive with divergent policy preferences. Because the executive and legislature might find different policies to be salient to their constituencies, I demonstrate that executive review of agency rulemaking can benefit both branches of government, relative to legislative delegation without the possibility of such review. In trying to undermine the impacts of executive oversight, agencies propose policies that could benefit the legislature were the executive to choose not to intervene in agency policymaking. Likewise, if the executive does intervene, executive review allows him to implement a policy more desirable than absent such review. This joint-desirability of executive review is more likely when legislative and executive policy preferences are relatively aligned, and when legislative and agency policy preferences are relatively divergent. The broader social welfare consequences of executive review depend on the relative effectiveness of the executive's oversight of agency policymaking. These results provide insight for why mediating lawmaking institutions such as the Office of Information and Regulatory Analysis (OIRA) continue to survive in a separation of powers system despite their potential to advantage one branch of government at the expense of the other.

    Reference Point Formation Over Time: A Weighting Function Approach

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    Although the concept of reference point dependent preferences has been adapted to almost all fields of behavioral economics (especially marketing and behavioral finance), we still know very little about how decision makers form their reference points given a sequence of prices. Our paper provides both a theoretical framework on reference point formation over time, based on cumulative prospect theory's inverse s-shaped weighting function, and a new experimental method for eliciting subjects' individual reference points in a finance context. Consistent with our model, we document our student subjects' reference points to be best described by the first and the last price of the time series, with intermediate prices receiving smaller weights

    Behaviour of Humans and Behaviour of Models in Dynamic Space

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    This paper addresses new trends in quantitative geography research. Modern social science research – including economic and social geography – has in the past decades shown an increasing interest in micro-oriented behaviour of actors. This is inter alia clearly reflected in spatial interaction models (SIMs), where discrete choice approaches have assumed a powerful position. This paper aims to provide in particular a concise review of micro-based research, with the aim to review the potential – but also the caveats – of micro-models to map out human behaviour. In particular, attention will be devoted to interactive learning principles that shape individual decisions. Lessons from cognitive sciences will be put forward and illustrated, amongst others on the basis of computational neural networks or spatial econometric approaches. The methodology of deductive reasoning under conditions of large data bases in studying human mobility will be questioned as well. In this context more extensive attention is given to ceteris paribus conditions and evolutionary thinkin

    Labor Unions and the Scale and Scope of Multi-Product Firms

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    This paper sets up a general oligopolistic equilibrium model with multi-product firms and union wage setting in a subset of industries. By claiming a wage premium, labor unions enforce a decline in firm scale and scope and thus dampen industrial output, with negative feedback effects on the competitive wage and positive ones on firm scale and scope in non-unionized sectors. In this setting, a decline in union density raises labor demand and thus wages in non-unionized as well as unionized industries. This induces a general decline in firm scale and scope, with the respective reduction being more pronounced in non-unionized industries. Aside from analyzing the consequences of deunionization in a closed economy, we also shed light on how multi-product firms respond to a country’s movement from autarky to free trade with a symmetric partner country. Access to international trade stimulates labor demand and raises the competitive as well as the union wage, thereby lowering firm scope in all industries. Since the labor market distortion becomes less severe, unionized and non-unionized firms become more similar in the size of their product range. While scope effects are unambiguous, adjustments in firm scale turn out to be less clearcut and inter alia depend on the degree of product differentiation.Multi-product firms, General oligopolistic equilibrium, Labor unions, International trade
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