Trust and the Law

This chapter provides a selective review of the literature on trust and the law. We highlight the psychological and game theoretic mechanisms underpinning the role of trust in relationships with incomplete contracts. We also discuss evidence on whether behavioral trust and the strength of legal institutions act as substitutes or complements for the purposes of overcoming moral hazard

Energy Consumption and Habit Formation: Evidence from High Frequency Thermostat Data

Using minute-by-minute data from over 60,000 smart thermostats in households distributed across the United States, we analyze the persistence of energy consumption behaviors in response to external weather shocks. The analysis examines habitual behavior and provides insight into what affects long term change and what triggers the decision to reconsider one’s passive choices. Our preferences for indoor temperatures demonstrate habituation to outdoor temperatures. This habituation is asymmetrical between positive and negative changes and non-linear at the extremes. While our indoor temperature preferences habituate to match small outdoor changes, our preferences revert to long term means in response to extreme temperature change. We also find people are more likely to make active choices when outdoor temperature is salient. Finally, we show there is heterogeneity in how preferences respond as a function of social norms, political preferences, and change costs. Results provide guidance on how conservation policies impact energy use–failure to understand the influence of habit on decision making can lead us to over-estimate the impact of short term policy nudges but underestimate the long run impact of small changes. Our results also inform how changing average temperatures and changing cultural attitudes may affect energy conservation behaviors

Culpability and Willingness to Pay to Reduce Negative Externalities: A Contingent Valuation and Experimental Economics Study

Financial Economics,

Anisotropic sub-Doppler laser cooling in dysprosium magneto-optical traps

Magneto-optical traps (MOTs) of Er and Dy have recently been shown to exhibit population-wide sub-Doppler cooling due to their near degeneracy of excited and ground state Lande g factors. We discuss here an additional, unusual intra-MOT sub-Doppler cooling mechanism that appears when the total Dy MOT cooling laser intensity and magnetic quadrupole gradient increase beyond critical values. Specifically, anisotropically sub-Doppler-cooled cores appear, and their orientation with respect to the quadrupole axis flips at a critical ratio of the MOT laser intensity along the quadrupole axis versus that in the plane of symmetry. This phenomenon can be traced to a loss of the velocity-selective resonance at zero velocity in the cooling force along directions in which the atomic polarization is oriented by the quadrupole field. We present data characterizing this anisotropic laser cooling phenomenon and discuss a qualitative model for its origin based on the extraordinarily large Dy magnetic moment and Dy's near degenerate g factors.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

China's Political Worldview and Chinese Exceptionalism

This book uses the notion of "Chinese exceptionalism" as a framework to analyze China's international politics and foreign policy. It argues that China's approach to international relations is best understood in the context of these claims to exceptionalism and China's broader political world view. In doing so, it fosters a more comprehensive understanding of China's actions within the realms of foreign policy and international politics, and in the context of the preferred world order, norms and rules that the country seeks to promote