Social motives vs social influence: an experiment on interdependent time preferences

We report experimental evidence on the effects of social preferences on intertemporal decisions. To this aim, we design an intertemporal Dictator Game to test whether Dictators modify their discounting behavior when their own decision is imposed on their matched Recipients. We run four different treatments to identify the effect of payoffs externalities from those related to information and beliefs. Our descriptive statistics show that heterogeneous social time preferences and information about others’ time preferences are significant determinants of choices: Dictators display a marked propensity to account for the intertemporal preferences of Recipients, both in the presence of externalities (social motives) and/or when they know about the decisions of their matched partners (social influence). We also perform a structural estimation exercise to control for heterogeneity in risk attitudes. As for individual behavior, our estimates confirm previous studies in that high risk aversion is associated with low discounting. As for social behavior, we find that social motives outweigh social influence, especially when we restrict our sample to pairs of Dictators and Recipients who satisfy minimal consistency conditions

Gender differences in cheating: loss vs gain framing

We use the die-paradigm to study gender differences in cheating behavior. We find that i) both males and females do not cheat in the absence of financial incentives, ii) both males and females cheat (but not maximally) if reports are associated with financial gains or losses, and iii) males and females do not cheat differentially

Carry a big stick, or no stick at all: punishment and endowment heterogeneity in the trust game

We investigate the effect of costly punishment in a trust game with endowment heterogeneity. Our findings indicate that the difference between the investor and the allocator’s initial endowments determines the effect of punishment on trust and trustworthiness. Punishment fosters trust only when the investor is wealthier than the allocator. Otherwise, punishment fails to promote trusting behavior. As for trustworthiness, the effect is just the opposite. The higher the difference between the investor and the allocator’s initial endowments, the less willing allocators are to pay back. We discuss the consistency of our findings with social preference models (like inequality aversion, reciprocity), the capacity of punishment (i.e., the deterrence hypothesis) and hidden costs of punishment (i.e., models of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation). Our results are hardly coherent with the first two (inequality aversion and deterrence), but roughly consistent with the latter

Cheating, incentives, and money manipulation

We use different incentive schemes to study truth-telling in a die-roll task when people are asked to reveal the number rolled privately. We find no significant evidence of cheating when there are no financial incentives associated with the reports, but do find evidence of such when the reports determine financial gains or losses (in different treatments). We find no evidence of loss aversion in the standard case in which subjects receive their earnings in a sealed envelope at the end of the session. When subjects manipulate the possible earnings, we find evidence of less cheating, particularly in the loss setting; in fact, there is no significant difference in behavior between the non-incentivized case and the loss setting with money manipulation. We interpret our findings in terms of the moral cost of cheating and differences in the perceived trust and beliefs in the gain and the loss frames

Spin-to-orbital angular momentum conversion in focusing, scattering, and imaging systems

We present a general theory of spin-to-orbital angular momentum (AM) conversion of light in focusing, scattering, and imaging optical systems. Our theory employs universal geometric transformations of non-paraxial optical fields in such systems and allows for direct calculation and comparison of the AM conversion efficiency in different physical settings. Observations of the AM conversions using local intensity distributions and far-field polarimetric measurements are discussed

Environmental variables that ameliorate extinction learning deficits in the 129S1/SvlmJ mouse strain

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151347/1/gbb12575.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151347/2/gbb12575_am.pd

Hydrodynamic identification of NAUTILUS FOWT platform from small scale tests

A small-scale tank test campaign of the NAUTILUS offshore wind floating semisub-mersible platform was held at the Ifremer Deep Water Basin within the framework of the MaRINET 2 project. The support structure consists in four stabilized columns on a square pontoon supporting a generic 8-MW wind turbine. The tests were carried out at 1:36 Froude scale in parked conditions, and the mooring system was modelled as a set of aerial mooring springs providing a nonlinear stiffness. The hydrodynamic characterization of the floater from experimental data was tackled by using traditional techniques in naval architecture), as well as approaches derived from operational modal analysis in the frequency domain, such as the Sub Space Identification—Covariance (SSI-COV) method. The validity of this approach and its potential application to the identification of such kind of structures is discussed against the results of a more traditional technique based on the fitting of decay tests

Valor nutritivo de grãos de sorgo com diferentes textura do endosperma para frangos de corte.

Utilizaram-se 250 frangos machos, com 22 dias de idade, em ensaio biológico baseado em coleta total de excretas para a determinação da matéria seca metabolizável aparente (MSMA) e dos valores de energia metabolizável (EM) aparente e corrigida de grãos de sorgo com diferentes texturas do endosperma. Os genótipos avaliados foram o BR 007B (textura macia), BR 304 (textura intermediária) e se 283 (textura dura). As dietas-teste foram compostas por 60% de dieta-referência (composta a base de milho e fareIo de soja) e por 40% de grãos de sorgo. O experimento foi montado em esquema inteiramente ao acaso, com quatro tratamentos e cinco repetições. Os valores de MSMA foram semelhantes entre os grãos de sorgo (P>O,05), sendo 77,09%, 81,73% e 79,69% para os grãos de textura dura. intermediária e macia, respectivamente. Os valores de energia metabolizável aparente e verdadeira (EMA, EMV) e EMA e EMV corrigidas para a retenção do nitrogênio (EMAn e EMV J dos grãos de sorgo de textura dura. intermediária e macia foram, respectivamente, 3.022, 3.127, 2.947 e 2.934; 3.335,3.442,3.369 e 3.419; 3.339,3.450,3.303 e 3.355 kcal/kg. Os grãos de textura dura (Se 283) apresentaram menores valores de EM (P<0,05) que os de textura intermediária (BR 304) e macia (BR 007B). As correções dos valores de EM para o balanço de nitrogênio resultou apenas em discretas reduções da EM