A Tale of Two Tails

We present a three-player game in which a proposer makes a suggestion on how to split $10 with a passive responder. The offer is accepted or rejected depending on the strategy profile of a neutral third-party whose payoffs are independent from his decisions. If the offer is accepted the split takes place as suggested, if rejected, then both proposer and receiver get$0. Our results show a decision-maker whose main concern is to reduce the inequality between proposer and responder and who, in order to do so, is willing to reject both selfish and generous offers.This pattern of rejections is robust through a series of treatments which include changing the "flat-fee" payoff of the decision-maker, introducing a monetary cost for the decision-maker in case the offer ends up in a rejection, or letting a computer replace the proposer to randomly make the splitting suggestion between proposer and responder. Further, through these different treatments we are able to show that decision- makers ignore the intentions behind the proposers suggestions, as well as ignoring their own relative payoffs, two surprising results given the existing literature

Motivated Beliefs, Social Preferences, and Limited Liability in Financial Decision-Making

Using a new experimental design, we compare how subjects form beliefs in an investorclient setup under varying degrees of liability. Our results re ect the importance of social preferences when making investment decisions for others. We show that when investors have no liability, those with stronger social preferences are more optimistic about the probability that their investment results in a gain. In other words, we nd that social preferences appear to be correlated with motivated beliefs. This nding suggests the existence of cognitive biases in nancial decision-making and supports the recent literature on the formation of motivated beliefs under limited liability (Barberis, 2015; B enabou and Tirole, 2016)

Non-Standard Errors

In statistics, samples are drawn from a population in a data-generating process (DGP). Standard errors measure the uncertainty in estimates of population parameters. In science, evidence is generated to test hypotheses in an evidence-generating process (EGP). We claim that EGP variation across researchers adds uncertainty: Non-standard errors (NSEs). We study NSEs by letting 164 teams test the same hypotheses on the same data. NSEs turn out to be sizable, but smaller for better reproducible or higher rated research. Adding peer-review stages reduces NSEs. We further find that this type of uncertainty is underestimated by participants

Los "Bandos". La lucha por el individualismo agrario en Cataluña. Primeras hipótesis (Siglos XVII-XIX)

En este artículo se presentan los primeros resultados de un proyecto de investigación (el estudio de los "bandos" sobre cerramientos de tierras concedidos a lo largo de los siglos XVII, XVIII Y XIX) Y se reivindica un tema de estudio: la lucha por el individualismo agrario, en la línea iniciada por Marc Bloch hace más de sesenta años. El estudio de los "bandos" -documentos solícitados por particulares y concedidos por autoridades públicas-: revela un proceso de cerramiento de propiedades anterior a las primeras disposiciones legislativas sobre el tema. El análisis de este tipo de documentos aporta noticias sobre una conflictividad rural latente que va más allá de la dicotomía señores-campesinos y sobre prácticas unilaterales de defensa de "la propiedad" que anticipan el futuro cuerpo de la guardia rural.The aim of this article is to present the first results of a research project (the study of the "bans" about enclosures conceded during the 17th, 18lh and 19th centuries) and to lay claim to a subject of study: the fight for agrarian individualism in the line trend started by Marc Bloch more than sixty years ago. The study of the "bans" –documents requested by individuals and conceded by public authorities-, shows a process of enclosure that precedes the former laws about this subject. The analysis of this kind of documents offers information about a latent rural conflictivity that goes further from the dichotomy lords-peasants and about unilateral Practices of defense of "the property" that precedes the future corps of the Rural Guard

Intertemporal Consumption and Debt Aversion: A Replication and Extension

We replicate Meissner (2016) where debt aversion was reported for the first time in an intertemporal consumption and saving problem. While Meissner (2016) uses a German sample, our subjects are US undergraduate students. All of the main findings from the original study replicate with similar effect sizes. Additionally, we extend the original analysis by correlating a new individual index of debt aversion on individual characteristics such as gender, cognitive ability, and risk aversion. The findings suggest that gender and risk aversion are not correlated with debt aversion. However, cognitive ability is positively correlated with debt aversion. Overall, this paper confirms the importance of debt aversion in intertemporal consumption problems and validates the approach of Meissner (2016)

a replication and extension

We replicate Meissner (2016) where debt aversion was reported for the first time in an intertemporal consumption and saving problem. While Meissner (2016) uses a German sample, our subjects are US undergraduate students. All of the main findings from the original study replicate, with similar effect sizes. Additionally, we extend the original analysis by correlating a new individual index of debt aversion on individual characteristics such as gender, cognitive ability, and risk aversion. The findings suggest that gender and risk aversion are not correlated with debt aversion. However, cognitive ability is positively correlated with debt aversion. Overall, this paper confirms the importance of debt aversion in intertemporal consumption problems and validates the approach of Meissner (2016)

Intertemporal consumption and debt aversion: a replication and extension

We replicate Meissner (Exp Econ 19:281–298, 2016), where debt aversion was reported for the first time in an intertemporal consumption and saving problem. While Meissner (2016) uses a German sample, our participants are US undergraduate students. All of the original study’s main findings replicate with similar effect sizes. Additionally, we extend the original analysis by introducing a new individual index of debt aversion, which we use to compare debt aversion across countries. Interestingly, we find no significant differences in debt aversion between the original German and the new US sample. We then test whether debt aversion correlates with individual characteristics such as gender, cognitive reflection ability, and risk aversion. Overall, this paper confirms the importance of debt aversion in intertemporal consumption and saving problems and validates the approach of Meissner (2016)