Redistributive Politics and Market Efficiency: An Experimental Study

We study the interaction between competitive markets that produce large but unequally distributed welfare gains and elections through which the poor majority can redistribute income away from the rich minority. In our simple laboratory democracy, subjects first earn their income by trading in a double auction market and thereafter vote on redistributive policies in two-candidate elections. In addition, in one of the treatments subjects can attempt to influence the candidates’ policy choices by transferring money to them. We observe very high levels of redistribution - even when transfers to candidates are possible - with little effect on market efficiency. Overall, the experimental results are explained by our equilibrium predictions.

Redistributive Politics and Market Efficiency: An Experimental Study

We study the interaction between competitive markets that produce large but unequally distributed welfare gains and elections through which the poor majority can redistribute income away from the rich minority. In our simple laboratory democracy, subjects first earn their income by trading in a double auction market and thereafter vote on redistributive policies in two-candidate elections. In addition, in one of the treatments subjects can attempt to influence the candidates’ policy choices by transferring money to them. We observe very high levels of redistribution – even when transfers to candidates are possible – with little effect on market efficiency. Overall, the experimental results are explained by our equilibrium predictions.redistribution, double auction, elections, lobbying

When Do Groups Perform Better than Individuals? A Company Takeover Experiment

It is still an open question when groups will perform better than individuals in intellectual tasks. We report that in a company takeover experiment, groups placed better bids than individuals and substantially reduced the winner’s curse. This improvement was mostly due to peer pressure over the minority opinion and to group learning. Learning took place from interacting and negotiating consensus with others, not simply from observing their bids. When there was disagreement within a group, what prevailed was not the best proposal but the one of the majority. Groups underperformed with respect to a “truth wins” benchmark although they outperformed individuals deciding in isolation.

Spartan Daily, November 20, 1990

Volume 95, Issue 56https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/8055/thumbnail.jp

Amalgam Fillings: Do Dental Patients Have a Right to Informed Consent

Recent animal studies have shown significant mercury absorption from dental fillings and resulted in unfavorable media attention. Yet, an FDA advisory committee has found no evidence of Risk to dental patients, and many dentists believe that patients are being unnecessarily alarmed. The paper reviews the history of amalgam fillings through the recent animal studies and concludes that the Risk, whatever it may prove to be, is sufficiently high to warrant permitting patients to choose between amalgam and alternative dental filling materials

Social decision-making driven by artistic explore-exploit tension

We studied social decision-making in the rule-based improvisational dance $There$ $Might$ $Be$ $Others$, where dancers make in-the-moment compositional choices. Rehearsals provided a natural test-bed with communication restricted to non-verbal cues. We observed a key artistic explore-exploit tension in which the dancers switched between exploitation of existing artistic opportunities and riskier exploration of new ones. We investigated how the rules influenced the dynamics using rehearsals together with a model generalized from evolutionary dynamics. We tuned the rules to heighten the tension and modeled nonlinear fitness and feedback dynamics for mutation rate to capture the observed temporal phasing of the dancers' exploration-versus-exploitation. Using bifurcation analysis, we identified key controls of the tension and showed how they could shape the decision-making dynamics of the model much like turning a "dial" in the instructions to the dancers could shape the dance. The investigation became an integral part of the development of the dance

New Mexico Daily Lobo, Volume 078, No 96, 2/18/1975

New Mexico Daily Lobo, Volume 078, No 96, 2/18/1975https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/daily_lobo_1975/1022/thumbnail.jp