An Experimental Test of Precautionary Bidding

Auctions often involve goods exhibiting a common knowledge ex-post risk that is independent of buyers’ private values or their signals regarding common value components. Esö and White (2004) showed theoretically that ex-post risk leads to precautionary bidding for DARA bidders: Agents reduce their bids by more than their appropriate risk premium. Testing precautionary bidding with data from the field seems almost impossible. We conduct experimental first-price auctions that allow us to directly identify the precautionary premium and find clear evidence for precautionary bidding. Bidders are significantly better off when a risky object rather than an equally valued sure object is auctioned. Our results are robust if we control for potentially confounding decision biases

Tempus Fugit: Time Pressure in Risky Decisions

We study the effects of time pressure on risky decisions for pure gain prospects, pure loss prospects, and mixed prospects involving both gains and losses. In an experiment we find that risk aversion for gains is robust under time pressure whereas risk seeking for losses turns into risk aversion under time pressure. For mixed prospects, subjects become more loss averse and more gain seeking under time pressure, depending on the framing of the prospects. The results suggest the importance of aspiration levels under time pressure. We discuss the implications of our findings for decision making situations that involve time pressure

An Experimental Test of Precautionary Bidding

Auctions often involve goods exhibiting a common knowledge ex-post risk that is independent of buyers’ private values or their signals regarding common value components. Esö and White (2004) showed theoretically that ex-post risk leads to precautionary bidding for DARA bidders: Agents reduce their bids by more than their appropriate risk premium. Testing precautionary bidding with data from the field seems almost impossible. We conduct experimental first-price auctions that allow us to directly identify the precautionary premium and find clear evidence for precautionary bidding. Bidders are significantly better off when a risky object rather than an equally valued sure object is auctioned. Our results are robust if we control for potentially confounding decision biases.precautionary bidding; prudence; auction; experiment

Tempus Fugit: Time Pressure in Risky Decisions

We study the effects of time pressure on risky decisions for pure gain prospects, pure loss prospects, and mixed prospects involving both gains and losses. In an experiment we find that risk aversion for gains is robust under time pressure whereas risk seeking for losses turns into risk aversion under time pressure. For mixed prospects, subjects become more loss averse and more gain seeking under time pressure, depending on the framing of the prospects. The results suggest the importance of aspiration levels under time pressure. We discuss the implications of our findings for decision making situations that involve time pressure.time pressure; risky decisions; risk aversion; loss aversion; gain seeking; aspiration level

Myomegalin is a novel protein of the golgi/centrosome that interacts with a cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase

Subcellular targeting of the components of the cAMP-dependent pathway is thought to be essential for intracellular signaling. Here we have identified a novel protein, named myomegalin, that interacts with the cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase PDE4D, thereby targeting it to particulate structures. Myomegalin is a large 2,324-amino acid protein mostly composed of α-helical and coiled-coil structures, with domains shared with microtubule-associated proteins, and a leucine zipper identical to that found in the Drosophila centrosomin. Transcripts of 7.5-8 kilobases were present in most tissues, whereas a short mRNA of 2.4 kilobases was detected only in rat testis. A third splicing variant was expressed predominantly in rat heart. Antibodies against the deduced sequence recognized particulate myomegalin proteins of 62 kDa in testis and 230-250 kDa in heart and skeletal muscle. Immunocytochemistry and transfection studies demonstrate colocalization of PDE4D and myomegalin in the Golgi/centrosomal area of cultured cells, and in sarcomeric structures of skeletal muscle. Myomegalin expressed in COS-7 cells coimmunoprecipitated with PDE4D3 and sequestered it to particulate structures. These findings indicate that myomegalin is a novel protein that functions as an anchor to localize components of the cAMP-dependent pathway to the Golgi/centrosomal region of the cell

Social preferences, accountability, and wage bargaining

We assess the extent of preferences for employment in a collective wage bargaining situation with heterogeneous workers. We vary the size of the union and introduce a treatment mechanism transforming the voting game into an individual allocation task. Our results show that highly productive workers do not take employment of low productive workers into account when making wage proposals, regardless of whether insiders determine the wage or all workers. The level of pro-social preferences is small in the voting game, while it increases as the game is transformed into an individual allocation task. We interpret this as an accountability effect

The feasible generation of entangled photon states by using linear optical elements

We present a feasible scheme to produce a polarization-entangled photon states $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|H>|V>+|V>|H>)$ in a controllable way. This scheme requires single-photon sources, linear optical elements and photon detectors. It generates the entanglement of spatially separated photons. The interaction takes place in the photon detectors. We also show that the same idea can be used to produce the entangled $N$-photon state $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|0,N>+|N,0>)$Comment: to appear in PR

Scheme for the implementation of a universal quantum cloning machine via cavity-assisted atomic collisions in cavity QED

We propose a scheme to implement the $1\to2$ universal quantum cloning machine of Buzek et.al [Phys. Rev.A 54, 1844(1996)] in the context of cavity QED. The scheme requires cavity-assisted collision processes between atoms, which cross through nonresonant cavity fields in the vacuum states. The cavity fields are only virtually excited to face the decoherence problem. That's why the requirements on the cavity quality factor can be loosened.Comment: to appear in PR