Seven Days

Original short story

The Ecological and Civil Mainsprings of Property: An Experimental Economic History of Whalers’ Rules of Capture

This paper uses a laboratory experiment to probe the proposition that property emerges anarchically out of social custom. We test the hypothesis that whalers in the 18th and 19th century developed rules of conduct that minimized the sum of the transaction and production costs of capturing their prey, the primary implication being that different ecological conditions lead to different rules of capture. Holding everything else constant, we find that simply imposing two different types of prey is insufficient to observe two different rules of capture. Another factor is essential, namely that the members of the community are civil-minded.property rights, endogenous rules, whaling, experimental economics

Experimental Evidence on the Cyclicality of Investment

We report laboratory experiments investigating the cyclicality of investment. In our setting, optimal investment is counter-cyclical because investment costs fall following market downturns. However, we do not observe counter-cyclical investment. Instead, heuristic investment models where firms invest a fixed percentage of their liquidity, or a fixed percentage of anticipated market demand, better fit our data on average than does optimal investment. We also report a control treatment without cost changes and a treatment with asymmetric investment liquidity. Both of these extensions support our main result

Testing the Boundaries of the Double Auction: The Effects of Complete Information and Market Power

We report boundary experiments testing the robustness of price convergence in double auction markets for non-durable goods in which there is extreme earnings inequality at the competitive equilibrium (CE). Following up on a conjecture by Smith (1976a), we test whether the well-known equilibrating power of the double auction institution is robust to the presence of complete information about traders’ values and costs and the presence of symmetric market power. We find that complete information is insufficient to impede convergence to CE prices; however, introducing market power consistently causes prices to deviate from the CE, whether or not subjects possess complete information. Our design highlights the value of boundary experiments in understanding how market institutions shape behavior, and our findings help delineate the limits of the double auction institution to generate competitive outcomes

Explorations in Convolutional Synthesis

(Abstract to follow

An Analysis of the Association between Changes in Ambient Temperature, Fuel Economy, and Vehicle Range for Battery Electric and Fuel Cell Electric Buses

This report evaluates the effects of changes in ambient temperature on the fuel efficiency and range of zero emission buses. The report relies on data that was made available from transit agencies that have deployed hydrogen fuel cell and battery electric zero-emission buses. This analysis shows that the fuel economy and range of electric drive buses may vary significantly with changes in outdoor temperature. In planning zero emission fleet development strategy, it is important for transit agencies to understand how their zero-emission bus’s performance may change with temperature. The effects of temperature change on range may be particularly important in planning fleet development, especially for transit agencies located in climates with extreme heat or cold

Exploring the possibilities of Thomson’s fourth paradigm transformation—The case for a multimodal approach to digital oral history?

This article seeks to reorientate ‘digital oral history’ towards a new research paradigm, Multimodal Digital Oral History (MDOH), and in so doing it seeks to build upon Alistair Thomson’s (Thomson, A., 2007, Four paradigm transformations in oral history. Oral History Review, 34(1): 49–70.) characterization of a ‘dizzying digital revolution’ and paradigmatic transformation in oral history (OH). Calling for a recalibration of the current dominance of the textual transcript, and for active engagement with the oral, aural, and sonic affordances of both retro-digitized and born digital OH (DOH) collections, we call for a re-orientation of the digital from passive to generative and self-reflexive in the human–machine study of spoken word recordings. First, we take stock of the field of DOH as it is currently conceived and the ways in which it has or has not answered calls for a return to the orality of the interview by digital means. Secondly, we address the predominant trend of working with transcriptions in digital analysis of spoken word recordings and the tools being used by oral historians. Thirdly, we ask about the emerging possibilities—tools and experimental methodologies—for sonic analysis of spoken word collections within and beyond OH, looking to intersections with digital humanities, sociolinguistics, and sound studies. Lastly, we consider ethical questions and practicalities concomitant with data-driven methods, analyses and technologies like AI for the study of sonic research artefacts, reflections that dovetail with digital hermeneutics and digital tool criticism and point towards a new MDOH departure, a sub-field that has potential to inform the many fields that seek patterns in audio, audio-visual, and post-textual materials, serially and at scale

An Analysis of the Association between Changes in Ambient Temperature, Fuel Economy, and Vehicle Range for Battery Electric and Fuel Cell Electric Buses

This report evaluates the effects of changes in ambient temperature on the fuel efficiency and range of zero emission buses. The report relies on data that was made available from transit agencies that have deployed hydrogen fuel cell and battery electric zero-emission buses. This analysis shows that the fuel economy and range of electric drive buses may vary significantly with changes in outdoor temperature. In planning zero emission fleet development strategy, it is important for transit agencies to understand how their zero-emission bus’s performance may change with temperature. The effects of temperature change on range may be particularly important in planning fleet development, especially for transit agencies located in climates with extreme heat or cold

Finite element model updating using objective-consistent sensitivity-based parameter clustering and Bayesian regularization

Finite element model updating seeks to modify a structural model to reduce discrepancies between predicted and measured data, often from vibration studies. An updated model provides more accurate prediction of structural behavior in future analyses. Sensitivity-based parameter clustering and regularization are two techniques used to improve model updating solutions, particularly for high-dimensional parameter spaces and ill-posed updating problems. In this paper, a novel parameter clustering scheme is proposed which considers the structure of the objective function to facilitate simultaneous updating of disparate data, such as natural frequencies and mode shapes. In a small-scale updating example with simulated data, the proposed clustering scheme is shown to provide moderate to excellent improvement over existing parameter clustering methods, depending on the accuracy of initial model. A full-scale updating example on a large suspension bridge shows similar improvement using the proposed parametrization scheme. Levenberg-Marquardt minimization with Bayesian regularization is also implemented, providing an optimal regularized solution and insight into parametrization efficiency