2,966 research outputs found
Subjective Performance Evaluation and Inequality Aversion
Many firms use subjective performance appraisal systems due to lack of objective performance measures. In these cases, supervisors usually have to rate the performance of their subordinates. Using such systems, it is a well established fact that many supervisors tend to assess the employees too good (leniency bias) and that the appraisals hardly vary across employees of a certain supervisor (centrality bias). We explain these two biases in a model with a supervisor, who has preferences for the utility of her inequality averse subordinates, and discuss determinants of the size of the biases. Extensions of the basic model include the role of supervisor’s favoritism of one particular agent and the endogenous effort choice of agents. Whether inequality averse agents exert higher efforts then purely self-oriented ones, depends on the size of effort costs and inequality aversion.appraisals, inequality aversion, performance evaluation, centrality bias, leniency bias
Rejoinder: Harold Jeffreys's Theory of Probability Revisited
We are grateful to all discussants of our re-visitation for their strong
support in our enterprise and for their overall agreement with our perspective.
Further discussions with them and other leading statisticians showed that the
legacy of Theory of Probability is alive and lasting. [arXiv:0804.3173]Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-STS284REJ the
Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Testing hypotheses via a mixture estimation model
We consider a novel paradigm for Bayesian testing of hypotheses and Bayesian
model comparison. Our alternative to the traditional construction of posterior
probabilities that a given hypothesis is true or that the data originates from
a specific model is to consider the models under comparison as components of a
mixture model. We therefore replace the original testing problem with an
estimation one that focus on the probability weight of a given model within a
mixture model. We analyze the sensitivity on the resulting posterior
distribution on the weights of various prior modeling on the weights. We stress
that a major appeal in using this novel perspective is that generic improper
priors are acceptable, while not putting convergence in jeopardy. Among other
features, this allows for a resolution of the Lindley-Jeffreys paradox. When
using a reference Beta B(a,a) prior on the mixture weights, we note that the
sensitivity of the posterior estimations of the weights to the choice of a
vanishes with the sample size increasing and avocate the default choice a=0.5,
derived from Rousseau and Mengersen (2011). Another feature of this easily
implemented alternative to the classical Bayesian solution is that the speeds
of convergence of the posterior mean of the weight and of the corresponding
posterior probability are quite similar.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, 2 table
Asymptotic Properties of Approximate Bayesian Computation
Approximate Bayesian computation allows for statistical analysis in models
with intractable likelihoods. In this paper we consider the asymptotic
behaviour of the posterior distribution obtained by this method. We give
general results on the rate at which the posterior distribution concentrates on
sets containing the true parameter, its limiting shape, and the asymptotic
distribution of the posterior mean. These results hold under given rates for
the tolerance used within the method, mild regularity conditions on the summary
statistics, and a condition linked to identification of the true parameters.
Implications for practitioners are discussed.Comment: This 31 pages paper is a revised version of the paper, including
supplementary materia
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