An experimental study of attitudes to changing water charges in Scotland. ESRI Working Paper No.654 March 2020

If an aim of a regulatory body is to act on behalf of the views of its citizenry, then it is important to understand what those views are. This paper, in collaboration with the OECD and the Scottish water industry, presents the results of an online (n= 500) and face-to-face laboratory (n= 100) study that utilised experimental behavioural science to explore how the provision and presentation of future price change information influences Scottish citizens’ acceptance of water price changes. Participants were asked to rate different patterns of price rises for their water charges. The pattern, presentation, magnitude of price rises and the provision of additional cost information (designed to simplify the calculations of future costs) was manipulated across tasks and participants. Results from this study suggest that Scottish citizens are generally accepting of price rises in the short and medium terms. However, the patterns of price rises, and the way in which information is presented, can influence these attitudes, suggesting that consumers do not always accurately integrate sequential price rises over time. Findings from this study are designed to inform the regulatory process of the Scottish water industry and highlight the potential role of behavioural science in regulation more generally

Eliciting trade-offs between water charges and service benefits in Scotland. ESRI Working Paper No. 655 March 2020

If it is the responsibility of a regulatory body to decide where to prioritise future investment, then it is important to understand the priorities of the citizenry it represents. This paper, in collaboration with the OECD and the Scottish water industry, presents the results of an online (n= 500) and face-to-face laboratory (n= 99) study that utilised experimental behavioural science to explore how Scottish citizens trade-off costs and potential improvements to their water service. Participants’ priorities for investment were elicited using a novel ‘slider task’ methodology that forced them to explicitly consider the trade-offs required to allocate limited resources across multiple possible water service improvements. The provision of additional cost and timing information was systematically varied. Results suggest that citizens are increasingly accepting of price rises when provided this information. Results also suggest that citizens’ priorities for specific improvements are not sensitive to the costs of different improvements but are sensitive to the lengths of time improvements take to be made. Findings from this study are designed to inform the regulatory process of the Scottish water industry and highlight the potential role of behavioural science in regulation more generally

International workshop on Time-Variable Phenomena in the Jovian System

Many of the scientifically interesting phenomena that occur in the Jovian system are strongly time variable. Some are episodic (e.g., Io volcanism); some are periodic (wave transport in Jupiters atmosphere); and some are exceedingly complex (magnetosphere - Io - Torus-Auroral interactions) and possibly unstable. To investigate this class of phenomena utilizing Voyager data and, in the future, Galileo results, a coherent program of ground based and earth-orbital observations, and of theory that spans the time between the missions, is required. To stimulate and help define the basis of such a scientific program researchers organized an International Workshop on the subject with the intent of publishing the proceedings which would represent the state of knowledge in 1987

Interventions to increase physical activity in disadvantaged communities: A review of behavioural mechanisms. ESRI Working Paper No. 646 December 2019

Physical inactivity is now a significant driver of health and social inequalities among socioeconomically disadvantaged communities and poses a major challenge to policymakers, worldwide. Although a vast amount of research has focused on designing and evaluating interventions to increase physical activity, there remains little consensus on which interventions are likely to work. In this narrative review, we build on previous reviews by not only examining what interventions tend to work but by trying to understand why certain interventions tend to work, while others do not, through the lens of behavioural science. We present a behavioural framework through which the existing body of physical activity research could be viewed, in order to identify potentially effective mechanisms that would be likely to work in their intended domain. Our analysis finds that while there is evidence that the physical and educational environment matter for increasing levels of physical activity, interventions are more likely to be successful where they involve a social component. We conclude that a behaviourally informed physical activity intervention would thus employ a set of focused educational and socially-mediated behavioural mechanisms, within an appropriate physical environment

Evaluating Methods for Evaluating Instruction: The Case of Higher Education

This paper develops an original measure of learning in higher education, based on grades in subsequent courses. Using this measure of learning, this paper shows that student evaluations are positively related to current grades but unrelated to learning once current grades are controlled. It offers evidence that the weak relationship between learning and student evaluations arises, in part, because students are unaware of how much they have learned in a course. The paper concludes with a discussion of easily-implemented, optimal methods for evaluating teaching.

Body Appreciation, Self-Esteem, and Social Media Engagement

Dissatisfaction with one’s body and low self-esteem are significant issues that many women experience throughout their lives. Researchers have substantiated the relationship between self-esteem and body appreciation, with limited and conflicting correlations reported between body appreciation and engagement with social media. Accordingly, further research was needed to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the ways that self-esteem and engagement with social media may affect body appreciation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between women’s self-reported social media engagement, body appreciation, and self-esteem. This study was guided by three research questions and results were interpreted through the lenses of sociocultural theory and social comparison theory. This quantitative examination followed a correlational design. The sample consisted of 112 female participants between the ages of 18 and 45, who were recruited via Survey Monkey. The online survey consisted of the Body Appreciation Scale-2, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and a demographic questionnaire. Results of the two Pearson correlations and a moderation analysis revealed no significant relationships between body appreciation, self-esteem, and social media engagement. Implications of these findings are discussed

A matrix formulation of quantum stochastic calculus

We develop the theory of chaos spaces and chaos matrices. A chaos space is a Hilbert space with a fixed, countably-infinite, direct-sum decomposition. A chaos matrix between two chaos spaces is a doubly-infinite matrix of bounded operators which respects this decomposition. We study operators represented by such matrices, particularly with respect to self-adjointness. This theory is used to re-formulate the quantum stochastic calculus of Hudson and Parthasarathy. Integrals of chaos-matrix processes are defined using the Hitsuda-Skorokhod integral and Malliavin gradient,following Lindsay and Belavkin. A new way of defining adaptedness is developed and the consequent quantum product Ito formula is used to provide a genuine functional Ito formula for polynomials in a large class of unbounded processes, which include the Poisson process and Brownian motion. A new type of adaptedness, known as $\Omega$-adaptedness, is defined. We show that quantum stochastic integrals of $\Omega$-adapted processes are well-behaved; for instance, bounded processes have bounded integrals. We solve the appropriate modification of the evolution equation of Hudson and Parthasarathy: $U(t)=I+\int_{0}^{t}E(s)\mathrm{d}\Lambda(s)+F(s)\mathrm{d} A(s)+ G(s)U(s)\mathrm{d} A^{\dagger}(s)+H(s)U(s)\mathrm{d} s,$ where the coefficients are time-dependent, bounded, $\Omega$-adapted processes acting on the whole Fock space. We show that the usual conditions on the coefficients, viz. (E,F,G,H)=(W-I,L,-WL^{*},iK+\mbox{\frac{1}{2}}LL^{*}) where $W$ is unitary and $K$ self-adjoint, are necessary and sufficient conditions for the solution to be unitary. This is a very striking result when compared to the adapted case

Smart choices? An experimental study of smart meters and time-of-use tariffs in Ireland. ESRI WP633, July 2019

The introduction of smart technology and dynamic tariffs (such as time-of-use tariffs) provides multiple potential benefits for electricity markets. However, time-of-use tariffs represent an additional complexity for consumer tariff choices in electricity markets. How well consumers may choose between different types of tariffs, and whether certain tools can improve these choices, are therefore important questions for energy regulators and policy makers. This paper presents the results of an exploratory study that used experimental behavioural science to explore the issue of consumer choice in electricity markets for time-of-use tariffs. A representative sample of consumers (n= 145) were given information about smart meters and time-of-use tariffs. Attitudes towards smart meters and comprehension and choice quality between different types of electricity tariffs (judged against participants’ own perceptions of their electricity usage) was measured through a sequence of experimental tasks. Findings suggest that a general aversion to time-of-use tariffs may lead to sub-optimal choices between different types of tariffs. Participants were also asked to choose between different priced time-of-use tariffs via an experimental price comparison site. Tools which facilitate personalised estimated costs were shown to significantly improve decision-making between such tariffs. Potential policy implications, in light of these findings, are discussed