Is Discrimination Against Women Really Declining? The Puzzle of Survey Reports

This paper seeks to explain why young women are much more likely to report being harmed by gender discrimination than older women. Using a recent sample of job seekers, we conclude that the answer does not lie in higher "objective" discrimination, as usually measured by economists, since measured discrimination is not higher against young women on any dimension we can measure. Because young women are also more likely to report that they were the beneficiaries of labor market discrimination than older women, and because young men are more likely than older men to report that they were harmed by discrimination, we conclude that the answer is also unlikely to lie in a higher overall level of unmeasured discrimination against young women. Using a formal model of the reporting decision, we conclude that the most likely cause of young women's higher reports is a difference in reporting behavior between young and old workers of both sexes: young workers are more willing to interpret departures in either direction from gender-neutral treatment as discriminatory than older workers.

Should Personality Testing Be Part of the Hiring Process?

KEY FINDINGS · Job candidates who fail a personality test the first time often change their responses dramatically on the second test—even though adult personality is known to be generally stable and unlikely to change in the short interval (in this study, one year) between tests. · Internal candidates are more likely than external candidates to retest, a tendency companies themselves may unwittingly encourage by providing test-specific feedback

On the Determinants of Cross Border Co-operation of Austrian Firms with Central and Eastern European Partners

I analyse cross-border co-operation of Austrian firms with CEEC partners. Firm size, previous experience with co-operation and depth of integration with the most important partner are more important determinants of co-operation than distance to the closest potential partner. Firms with experience of co-operation are more likely to enter business relationships and less likely not to co-operate. Small firms are unlikely to co-operate in incentive contracts, while firms which are part of production networks typically co-operate in business and ownership relationships. Distance to the closest potential partner increases the probability of not co-operating and reduces the probability of ownership relationships.

Cat and mouse search: the influence of scene and object analysis on eye movements when targets change locations during search

We explored the influence of early scene analysis and visible object characteristics on eye movements when searching for objects in photographs of scenes. On each trial, participants were shown sequentially either a scene preview or a uniform grey screen (250 ms), a visual mask, the name of the target and the scene, now including the target at a likely location. During the participant's first saccade during search, the target location was changed to: (i) a different likely location, (ii) an unlikely but possible location or (iii) a very implausible location. The results showed that the first saccade landed more often on the likely location in which the target re-appeared than on unlikely or implausible locations, and overall the first saccade landed nearer the first target location with a preview than without. Hence, rapid scene analysis influenced initial eye movement planning, but availability of the target rapidly modified that plan. After the target moved, it was found more quickly when it appeared in a likely location than when it appeared in an unlikely or implausible location. The findings show that both scene gist and object properties are extracted rapidly, and are used in conjunction to guide saccadic eye movements during visual search

A triple origin for the lack of tight coplanar circumbinary planets around short-period binaries

Transiting circumbinary planets are more easily detected around short-period than long-period binaries, but none have yet been observed by {\it Kepler} orbiting binaries with periods shorter than seven days. In triple systems, secular Kozai-Lidov cycles and tidal friction (KLCTF) have been shown to reduce the inner orbital period from $\sim 10^4$ to a few days. Indeed, the majority of short-period binaries are observed to possess a third stellar companion. Using secular evolution analysis and population synthesis, we show that KLCTF makes it unlikely for circumbinary transiting planets to exist around short-period binaries. We find the following outcomes. (1) Sufficiently massive planets in tight and/or coplanar orbits around the inner binary can quench the KL evolution because they induce precession in the inner binary. The KLCTF process does not take place, preventing the formation of a short-period binary. (2) Secular evolution is not quenched and it drives the planetary orbit into a high eccentricity, giving rise to an unstable configuration, in which the planet is most likely ejected from the system. (3) Secular evolution is not quenched but the planet survives the KLCTF evolution. Its orbit is likely to be much wider than the currently observed inner binary orbit, and is likely to be eccentric and inclined with respect to the inner binary. These outcomes lead to two main conclusions: (1) it is unlikely to find a massive planet on a tight and coplanar orbit around a short-period binary, and (2) the properties of circumbinary planets in short-period binaries are constrained by secular evolution.Comment: Revised to match MNRAS publication. 24 pages, 22 figure

Investor Competence, Trading Frequency, and Home Bias

People are more willing to bet on their own judgments when they feel skillful or knowledgeable (Heath and Tversky (1991)). We investigate whether this "competence effect" influences trading frequency and home bias. We find that investors who feel competent trade more often and have a more internationally diversified portfolio. We also find that male investors, and investors with higher income or more education, are more likely to perceive themselves as competent investors than are female investors, and investors with lower income or less education. Our results are unlikely to be explained by other hypotheses, such as overconfidence or information advantage. Finally, we separately establish a link between optimism towards the home market and international portfolio diversification.

Truck, barter and exchange versus the endowment effect: virtual field experiments in an online game environment.

We examine the feasibility of using a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) to test economic theories. As a test vehicle we use the well-known hypothesis about the relationship between market experience and the endowment effect. Our results confirm earlier field experiments that individuals with more trading experience are less likely to exhibit status quo behaviour in trade. However, we also find evidence that highly experienced individuals are more likely to swap the item rather than keep it – i.e. there appears to be a propensity to ‘truck, barter and exchange’. A further experiments suggests that this feature is robust and is unlikely to be due to subject misperception or experimenter demand effects. We conclude that virtual economies may be a useful venue for field experiments.Endowment effect; virtual field experiment; Runescape; MMORPG

Patterns of ADR Use in Corporate Disputes

[Excerpt] Is it reasonable to expect that the use of ADR by U.S. corporations will continue to grow in the future? We asked the respondents in our survey a series of questions designed to determine their view on this issue....In general, a large majority of the respondents in our survey believe that they are likely or very likely to use mediation in the future—38% and 46%, respectively. They were more cautious about the use of arbitration. Only 24% said they were very likely to use it in the future, while 47% said they were likely to do so. More than 29% said they were unlikely or very unlikely to use arbitration in the future, whereas only 16% answered similarly in the case of mediation. Nevertheless, if these projections are accurate, the use of ADR by U.S. corporations will grow significantly