12,392 research outputs found
Choice Overload, Satisficing Behavior, and Price Distribution in a Time Allocation Model
Recent psychological research indicates that consumers that search exhaustively for the best option of a market productâknown as maximizersâeventually feel worse than consumers who just look for something good enoughâcalled satisficers. We formulate a time allocation model to explore the relationship between different distributions of prices of the product and the satisficing behavior and the related welfare of the consumer. We show numerically that, as the number of options becomes large, the maximizing behavior produces less and less welfare and eventually leads to choice paralysisâthese are effects of choice overloadâwhereas satisficing conducts entail higher levels of satisfaction and do not end up in paralysis. For different price distributions, we provide consistent evidence that maximizers are better off for a low number of options, whereas satisficers are better off for a sufficiently large number of options. We also show how the optimal satisficing behavior is affected when the underlying price distribution varies. We provide evidence that the mean and the dispersion of a symmetric distribution of pricesâbut not the shape of the distributionâcondition the satisficing behavior of consumers. We also show that this need not be the case for asymmetric distributions
Harmful Freedom of Choice: Lessons from the Cellphone Market
This article focuses on the relationship between provider and customer, specifically on the complexity of available contracts in the cellphone market and the ways this complexity might be harmful to consumers. This article aims to elucidate the issues, fleshing them out both as a general phenomenon and as a specific implementation in the cellphone context. The aim is not to provide ultimate solutions, but to show the directions these solutions might take and the difficulties involved
On the Essential Multidimensionality of an Economic Problem: Towards Tradeoffs-Free Economics
The foundation of welfare economics is the assumption of Pareto-efficiency and its concept of tradeoffs. Also the production possibility frontier, efficiency frontier, nondominated set, etc., belong to the plethora of tools derived from the Pareto principle. The assumption of tradeoffs does not address the issue of system design or redesign in order to reduce or eliminate tradeoffs as a sure characteristic of suboptimal, inefficient system configuration. In this paper we establish that tradeoffs are not attributes of objectives, criteria or dimensions, as it is habitually assumed, but are the properties of the very sets of possibilities, alternatives or options they purport to value and measure. We use De novo programming, through which the so called feasible set of opportunities can be redefined towards optimal, tradeoffs-free configuration. The implications of tradeoff-free economics are too vast to foresee and elaborate in a single paper; they do touch the very foundations of economic thought. So me numerical examples are given in order to illustrate system-design calculations in linear systems.Tradeoffs, multiple criteria, decision making, tradeoffs-free, optimization, De novo programming, Pareto-efficiency, added value
Does graph disclosure bias reduce the cost of equity?
Research on disclosure and capital markets focuses primarily on the amount of
information provided but pays little attention to the presentation format of this
information. This paper examines the impact of graph utilization and graph quality
(distortion) on the cost of equity capital, controlling for the interaction between
disclosure and graph distortion. Despite the advantages of graphs in communicating
information, our results show that graph utilization does not have a significant impact
on usersâ decisions. However we observe a significant (negative) association between
graph distortion and the exante
cost of equity. This effect though, disappears if we use
realised returns as a measure of expost
cost of equity. Moreover, we find that
disclosure and graph distortion interact so that the impact of disclosure on the cost of
capital depends on graph integrity. For low level of overall disclosure, graph distortion
reduces the exante
cost of equity. However for high level of disclosure graph distortion
increases the exante
cost of equity
The management of academic workloads: full report on findings
The pressures on UK higher education (from explicit
competition and growth in student numbers, to severe
regulatory demands) are greater than ever, and have
resulted in a steady increase in measures taken by
universities to actively manage their finances and overall
quality. These pressures are also likely to have impacted on staff and, indeed, recent large surveys in the sector have indicated that almost half of respondents find their
workloads unmanageable. Against this background it would
seem logical that the emphasis on institutional interventions to improve finance and quality, should be matched by similar attention given to the allocation of workloads to staff, and a focus on how best to utilise peopleâs time - the single biggest resource available within universities.
Thus the aim of this piece of research was to focus on the
processes and practices surrounding the allocation of staff
workloads within higher education. Ten diverse organisations were selected for study: six universities in the UK, two overseas universities and two non higher education (but knowledge-intensive) organisations. In each, a crosssection of staff was selected, and in-depth interviews carried out. A total of 59 such interviews were carried out across the ten organisations. By identifying typical practices, as well as interesting alternatives, views on the various strengths and weaknesses of each of their workload allocation approaches was collated; and associated factors requiring attention identified. Through an extensive process of analysis, approaches which promoted more equitable loads for individuals, and which might provide synergies for institutions were also investigated
Optimal menu when agents make mistakes
This paper studies how an optimal menu chosen by a social planner depends on whether agents receive imperfect signals about their true tastes (imperfect self-knowledge) or the properties of available alternatives (imperfect information). Under imperfect self-knowledge, it is not optimal to offer fewer alternatives than the number of different tastes present in the population, unless noise is infinite (agents have no clue about their true preferences). As noise increases, the social planner offers menu items that are closer together (more similar). However, under imperfect information, as noise increases, it could be optimal to construct a menu with more distinct alternatives, restrict the number of options, or, for some finite noise, offer a single item
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