The Role of Equality and Efficiency in Social Preferences

Engelmann and Strobel (AER 2004) claim that a combination of efficiency seeking and minmax preferences dominates inequity aversion in simple dictator games. This result relies on a strong subject pool effect. The participants of their experiments were undergraduate students of economics and business administration who self-selected into their field of study and learned early on that efficiency is desirable. We show that for non-economists the preference for efficiency is much less pronounced. We also find a gender effect indicating that women are more egalitarian than men. However, perhaps surprisingly, the dominance of equality over efficiency is unrelated to political attitudes

The Role of Equality and Equity in Social Preferences

Engelmann and Strobel (AER 2004) question the relevance of inequity aversion in simple dictator game experiments claiming that a combination of a preference for efficiency and a Rawlsian motive for helping the least well-off is more important than inequity aversion. We show that these results are partly based on a strong subject pool effect. The participants of the E&S experiments were undergraduate students of economics and business administration who self-selected into their field of study (economics) and learned in the first semester that efficiency is desirable. We show that for non-economists the preference for efficiency is much less pronounced. We also find a non-negligible gender effect indicating that women are more egalitarian than men. However, perhaps surprisingly, the dominance of equality over efficiency is unrelated to political attitudes

The Role of Equality and Efficiency in Social Preferences

Engelmann and Strobel (AER 2004) claim that a combination of efficiency seeking and minmax preferences dominates inequity aversion in simple dictator games. This result relies on a strong subject pool effect. The participants of their experiments were undergraduate students of economics and business administration who self-selected into their field of study and learned early on that efficiency is desirable. We show that for non-economists the preference for efficiency is much less pronounced. We also find a gender effect indicating that women are more egalitarian than men. However, perhaps surprisingly, the dominance of equality over efficiency is unrelated to political attitudes.Social Preferences; Inequity Aversion; Efficiency Preferences

The Role of Equality and Equity in Social Preferences

Engelmann and Strobel (AER 2004) question the relevance of inequity aversion in simple dictator game experiments claiming that a combination of a preference for efficiency and a Rawlsian motive for helping the least well-off is more important than inequity aversion. We show that these results are partly based on a strong subject pool effect. The participants of the E&S experiments were undergraduate students of economics and business administration who self-selected into their field of study (economics) and learned in the first semester that efficiency is desirable. We show that for non-economists the preference for efficiency is much less pronounced. We also find a non-negligible gender effect indicating that women are more egalitarian than men. However, perhaps surprisingly, the dominance of equality over efficiency is unrelated to political attitudes.Social Preferences; Inequity Aversion; Efficiency Preferences

Bone substitute effect on vascularization and bone remodeling after application of phVEGF165 transfected BMSC

VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) promotes vascularization and remodeling of bone substitutes. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of distinct resorbable ceramic carriers on bone forming capacities of VEGF transfected bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC). A critical size defect of the radius in rabbits was filled either by a low surface scaffold called beta-TCP (tricalciumphsphate) or the high surface scaffold CDHA (calcium deficient hydroxy-apatite) loaded with autologous BMSC, which were either transfected with a control plasmid or a plasmid coding for phVEGF165. They were compared to unloaded scaffolds. Thus, six treatment groups (n = 6 in each group) were followed by X-ray over 16 weeks. After probe retrieval, the volume of new bone was measured by micro-CT scans and vascularization was assessed in histology. While only minor bone formation was found in both carriers when implanted alone, BMSC led to increased osteogenesis in both carriers. VEGF promoted vascularization of the scaffolds significantly in contrast to BMSC alone. Bone formation was increased in the beta-TCP group, whereas it was inhibited in the CDHA group that showed faster scaffold degradation. The results indicate that the interaction of VEGF transfected BMSC with resorbable ceramic carrier influences the ability to promote bone healing

Die verdeckten Verteilungswirkungen des bundesdeutschen Finanzausgleichs

Was sind die Ursachen der aktuellen kommunalen Finanzkrise? Welche Aufkommensverluste stellen sich bei den Gemeinden bei einer Abschaffung der Gewerbesteuer ein? Üblicherweise werden solche Fragen im Rahmen des primären Finanzausgleichs diskutiert, der die aufkommensstärksten Steuern auf Bund, Länder und Gemeinden verteilt. Die indirekten Verteilungswirkungen werden dabei ausgeklammert. Der vorliegende Beitrag erläutert zunächst die zentralen ökonomischen Mechanismen und quantifiziert dann die verdeckten Effekte anhand einiger ausgewählter Maßnahmen der Steuerreform. --

Fiat–Shamir Transformation of Multi-Round Interactive Proofs (Extended Version)

The celebrated Fiat–Shamir transformation turns any public-coin interactive proof into a non-interactive one, which inherits the main security properties (in the random oracle model) of the interactive version. While originally considered in the context of 3-move public-coin interactive proofs, i.e., so-called Σ-protocols, it is now applied to multi-round protocols as well. Unfortunately, the security loss for a (2μ+1)-move protocol is, in general, approximately Q$^μ$, where Q is the number of oracle queries performed by the attacker. In general, this is the best one can hope for, as it is easy to see that this loss applies to the μ-fold sequential repetition of Σ-protocols, but it raises the question whether certain (natural) classes of interactive proofs feature a milder security loss. In this work, we give positive and negative results on this question. On the positive side, we show that for (k$_1$,…,k$_μ$)-special-sound protocols (which cover a broad class of use cases), the knowledge error degrades linearly in Q, instead of Q$^μ$. On the negative side, we show that for t-fold parallel repetitions of typical (k$_1$,…,k$_μ$)-special-sound protocols with t≥μ (and assuming for simplicity that t and Q are integer multiples of μ), there is an attack that results in a security loss of approximately $\frac{1}{2}$Q$^μ$/μ$^{μ+t}$

Behavioral constraints on the design of subgame-perfect implementation mechanisms

We study subgame-perfect implementation (SPI) mechanisms that have been proposed as a solution to incomplete contracting problems. We show that these mechanisms, which are based on off-equilibrium arbitration clauses that impose large fines for lying and the inappropriate use of arbitration, have severe behavioral constraints because the fines induce retaliation against legitimate uses of arbitration. Incorporating reciprocity preferences into the theory explains the observed behavioral patterns and helps us develop a new mechanism that is more robust and achieves high rates of truth-telling and efficiency. Our results highlight the importance of tailoring implementation mechanisms to the underlying behavioral environment. (JEL C92, D44, D82, D86, D91

Die Riester-Rente - ein Flop?

Zum 1. Januar 2002 wurde mit der Einführung der so genannten Riester-Rente der Versuch unternommnen, zusätzlich zur staatlichen eine private Altersvorsorge zu etablieren. Für Prof. Dr. Hans Fehr, Universität Würzburg, ist der Einstieg in die private Altersversorgung misslungen, und zwar vor allem aufgrund des mangelnden Informationstandes der Bürger. Dr. Dirk Kiesewetter, Universität Tübingen, hält die Riester-Rente sogar für ein »Paradebeispiel missglückter Sparförderung«. Dr. Michael Myßen, Bundesministerium der Finanzen, dagegen meint, dass sich die Riester-Rente nicht nur für »Familien mit Kindern und Geringverdiener«, sondern auch für »Ledige oder Spitzenverdiener rechnen kann«.Gesetzliche Rentenversicherung, Private Rentenversicherung, Vermögensbildung, Deutschland