One man, one bid

© 2016 Elsevier Inc. We compare two mechanisms to implement a simple binary choice, e.g. adopt one of two proposals. We show that when neither alternative is ex ante preferred, simple majority voting cannot implement the first best outcome. We introduce a simple bidding mechanism where votes can be bought at a quadratic cost and voters receive rebates equal to the average of others' payments. This mechanism is budget-balanced, individually rational, and fully efficient in the limit. Moreover, the mechanism redistributes from those that gain from the outcome to those that lose and everyone is better off under bidding compared to voting. We test the two mechanisms in the lab using an environment with “moderate” and “extremist” voters. The observed efficiency losses under voting are close to theoretical predictions and significantly larger than under bidding. Because of redistribution, the efficiency gain from bidding benefits mostly the moderate voters

Brief Remarks on Some Linguistic Features of Empathy and Sympathy

The use of words by an individual or culture is subject to the very same psychological forces that drive man\u27s other activities . Hence, the history of a word\u27s usage becomes a telling record of the mental processes of its creators and users, both conscious and unconscious. Etymology, as Freud has observed in his dreambook (1900), contributes significantly to our understanding of the deeper layers of the psyche . Let us take the word rival, for example, and see how we may make use of etymological data. It is derived from the Latin riva lis, I which originally meant one sharing a stream or neighbor, companion, aid (Oxford English Dictionary, 197 1; Shipley, 1984, p. 333). When Shakespeare has Bernardo say: If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus , The rivals of my watch , bid them make haste (Hamlet, Act 1, Sc. i, 11. 13- 14) rival is used in just this sense: companion, help meet, colleague. Yet this meaning is now obsolete. Today to declare someone a rival is to brand him or her a competitor, someone with whom one struggles, a foe, an enemy. The inevitable dark side of human relations is thus revealed: proximity implies danger, friends may betray, neighbors attack

Go Call the Doctor & Be Quick or Anti Calomel

Physicians of the highest rankTo pay their fees would need a bankCombine all wisdom art and skillScience and sense in, science and sense in, science and sense inCalomel, Calomel, Calomel, Calomel When Mr. A or B is sickGo call the doctor and be quickThe doctor comes with much good willBut ne\u27er forgets his Calomel, Calomel, Calomel, Calomel He takes the patient by the handAnd compliments him as his friendHe sits awhile his pulse to feelAnd then takes out his Calomel He then turns to the patient\u27s wifeHave you clean paper spoon and knifeI think your husband would do wellTo take a dose of Calomel He then deals out the precious grainThis ma\u27am I\u27m sure will ease his painOnce in three hours at toll of bellGive him a dose of Calomel The man grows worse quite fast indeedGo call the doctor ride with speedThe doctor comes, like post with mailDoubling his dose of Calomel The man in death begins to groanThe fatal job for him is doneHe dies alas, but sure to tellA sacrifice to Calomel And when I must resign my breathPray let me die a natural deathAnd bid the world a long farewellWithout one dose of Calome

The Root Cause Of Violence In Nigeria: The Niger Delta Crisis, A Reference Point

The world is a puzzle but the puzzle of all puzzles is man. Nothing that shows this nature of man more than his behaviour, which is full of contradictions. He loves and as well hates, builds and as well destroys, gathers and as well scatters, purifies and as well corrupts, refines and as well defiles, praises and as well condemns, etc, in his bid to make one thing or the other out of his wealthy-wretched existence. His whole existence is mostly informed by these contradictory actions of his, which have made him a big riddle. The focus of this work is on violence, one aspect of his behaviours, which exemplifies so much his enigmatic life. Man wherever he is, shows signs of violence either overtly or covertly in words or actions. He is either fighting or preparing to fight; either he is moody counting his loses of past fight or busy celebrating the dividends of his pyrrhic victory. To find him idle without being busy thinking about one ill-will, one complaint, one insult, one offence, one attack, one grudge or another against this or that person, this or that country, this or that idea, this or that opinion, etc, is like expecting a child hale and hearty who is not asleep to remain calm. That is not possible. Nigerians have often been roasted in the flame of violence. What is the root cause of this violence? What prices have Nigerians been paying for it? Is there anything that can be done to avert it completely or reduce the rate at which it occurs? These are main questions to be addressed in this paper

Ergodic transition in a simple model of the continuous double auction

We study a phenomenological model for the continuous double auction, whose aggregate order process is equivalent to two independent M/M/1 queues. The continuous double auction defines a continuous-time random walk for trade prices. The conditions for ergodicity of the auction are derived and, as a consequence, three possible regimes in the behavior of prices and logarithmic returns are observed. In the ergodic regime, prices are unstable and one can observe a heteroskedastic behavior in the logarithmic returns. On the contrary, non-ergodicity triggers stability of prices, even if two different regimes can be seen

Pro-rata matching and one-tick futures markets

We find and describe four futures markets where the bid-ask spread is bid down to the fixed price tick size practically all the time, and which match counterparties using a pro-rata rule. These four markets´ offered depths at the quotes on average exceed mean market order size by two orders of magnitude, and their order cancellation rates (the probability of any given offered lot being cancelled) are significantly over 96 per cent. We develop a simple theoretical model to ex- plain these facts, where strategic complementarities in the choice of limit order size cause traders to risk overtrading by submitting over-sized limit orders, most of which they expect to cancel