Culture and Cooperation

Does the cultural background influence the success with which genetically unrelated individuals cooperate in social dilemma situations? In this paper we provide an answer by analyzing the data of Herrmann et al. (Science 2008, pp. 1362-1367), who study cooperation and punishment in sixteen subject pools from six different world cultures (as classified by Inglehart & Baker (American Sociological Review 2000, pp. 19-51)). We use analysis of variance to disentangle the importance of cultural background relative to individual heterogeneity and group-level differences in cooperation. We find that culture has a substantial influence on the extent of cooperation, in addition to individual heterogeneity and group-level differences identified by previous research. The significance of this result is that cultural background has a substantial influence on cooperation in otherwise identical environments. This is particularly true in the presence of punishment opportunities.human cooperation, punishment, culture, experimental public good games

Individual-level loss aversion in riskless and risky choices

Loss aversion can occur in riskless and risky choices. Yet, there is no evidence whether people who are loss averse in riskless choices are also loss averse in risky choices. We measure individual-level loss aversion in riskless choices in an endowment effect experiment by eliciting both WTA and WTP from each of our 360 subjects (randomly selected customers of a car manufacturer). All subjects also participate in a simple lottery choice task which arguably measures loss aversion in risky choices. We find substantial heterogeneity in both measures of loss aversion. Loss aversion in the riskless choice task and loss aversion in the risky choice task are highly significantly and strongly positively correlated. We find that in both choice tasks loss aversion increases in age, income, and wealth, and decreases in education.Loss aversion, endowment effect, field experiments

The limits of self-governance in the presence of spite: experimental evidence from urban and rural Russia

We report evidence from public goods experiments with and without punishment which we conducted in Russia with 566 urban and rural participants of young and mature age cohorts. Russia is interesting for studying voluntary cooperation because of its long history of collectivism, and a huge urban-rural gap. In contrast to previous experiments we find no cooperation-enhancing effect of punishment. An important reason is that there is substantial spiteful punishment of high contributors in all four subject pools. Thus, spite undermines the scope for self-governance in the sense of high levels of voluntary cooperation that are sustained by sanctioning free riders only

Price versus Non-price Incentives for Participation in Quality Labeling: The Case of the German Fruit Juice Industry

Quality assurance and labeling play an important and increasing role in firms’ marketing strategies. In almost all cases, a price incentive has been stressed as the major incentive for firms to participate in such schemes. We argue here that important non-price incentives for participation in quality labeling may exist, too. In German retailing, it can be observed that discount retailers are listing more and more foods with quality labels. Processors may then participate in voluntary quality labeling in order to enter the large and growing market of discount retailers. The price-premium versus the market-entry hypothesis are analyzed theo-retically. We investigate then in an empirical hedonic pricing model for the German fruit juice market and for participation in the quality label of the Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft (DLG) which of the two hypotheses is consistent with the data. There is strong support for the market-entry hypothesi

The limits of self-governance when cooperators get punished: Experimental evidence from urban and rural Russia

We report evidence from public goods experiments with and without punishment which we onducted in Russia with 566 urban and rural participants of young and mature age cohorts. Russia is interesting for studying voluntary cooperation because of its long history of collectivism, and a huge urban-rural gap. In contrast to previous experiments we find no cooperation-enhancing effect of punishment. An important reason is that there is punishment of contributors in all four subject pools. Thus, punishment can also undermine the scope for self-governance in the sense of high levels of voluntary cooperation that are sustained by sanctioning free riders only

Price Versus Non-price Incentives for Participation in Quality Labeling: The Case of the German Fruit Juice Industry

Quality assurance and labeling play an important and increasing role in firms’ marketing strategies. In almost all cases, a price incentive has been stressed as the major incentive for firms to participate in such schemes. We argue here that important non-price incentives for participation in quality labeling may exist, too. In German retailing, it can be observed that discount retailers are listing more and more foods with quality labels. Processors may then participate in voluntary quality labeling in order to enter the large and growing market of discount retailers. The price-premium versus the market-entry hypothesis are analyzed theo-retically. We investigate then in an empirical hedonic pricing model for the German fruit juice market and for participation in the quality label of the Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft (DLG) which of the two hypotheses is consistent with the data. There is strong support for the market-entry hypothesis

The conventional wisdom about tactical voting is wrong

Have you ever voted for another party because you felt that your party had no chance of winning the seat? If yes, then you might be among the 5 to 10 per cent of tactical voters. In this article, Michael Herrmann, Simon Munzert, and Peter Selb explain how, contrary to popular belief, the Liberal Democrats were the big winners of tactical voting in 1997 and 2001

Collision Warning in Urban Road Traffic Based on a Probabilistic Situation Analysis

Ein Unfallschwerpunkt im urbanen Straßenverkehr sind Kreuzungen, die im Fokus der Fahrerassistenzforschung stehen. In dieser Arbeit wird ein System vorgestellt, das mit Hilfe einer probabilistischen Situationsanalyse eine Kollisionswarnung an Kreuzungen ermöglicht. Hierzu werden Verfahren zur Fahrerwarnung verwendet, die eine entwickelte Fahrerintentionsvorhersage zur Erhöhung der Prädiktionsgüte nutzen. Das System verwendet ein Umfeldmodell, das auf einem gerichteten Graphen basiert, der aus digitalen Straßenkarten generiert werden kann. Dieser Graph enthält detaillierte Informationen wie Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen und Fahrstreifengeometrien. Den Kanten des Graphen werden sowohl das eigene Fahrzeug als auch andere Fahrzeuge zugeordnet, die mit Hilfe von Umfeldsensorik wahrgenommen werden. Ferner wird die prototypische Integration des Systems in ein Versuchsfahrzeug dargestellt. Neben der verwendeten Sensorik werden das genutzte HMI-Konzept sowie die entwickelte Systemarchitektur beschrieben. Die Intentionen des eigenen Fahrers und von Fahrern anderer Fahrzeuge im Kreuzungsbereich werden mit einem probabilistischen Netz prädiziert. Dieses Netz verwendet Informationen des Umfeldmodells, Fahrdynamikdaten sowie Fahrereingaben. Die Intentionsprädiktion wird in dieser Arbeit mit Studiendaten aus Realfahrten evaluiert. Die Fahrerintentionsvorhersage sowie die Informationen des Umfeldmodells und Fahrdynamikdaten werden genutzt, um mehrere zukünftige Entwicklungen einer Szene mit probabilistischen Erreichbarkeitsmengen zu bestimmen. Diese beschreiben alle Orte, die ein Fahrzeug zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt mit einer gewissen Wahrscheinlichkeit erreichen kann. Diese Mengen werden für relevante Fahrzeuge im Kreuzungsbereich ermittelt und überlagert, um Kollisionswahrscheinlichkeiten abzuleiten. Dieses Warnverfahren wird in einer Simulationsumgebung einem einfachen Verfahren gegenübergestellt, das ausschließlich die wahrscheinlichste Entwicklung einer Szene betrachtet.Major accident hotspots in road traffic are intersections that are in the focus of driver assistance systems research. In this publication a system is presented that warns drivers of possible collisions at intersections using a probabilistic situation analysis. For this purpose algorithms are used which utilize a driver intent prediction to enhance the quality of the situation analysis.The system uses an environmental model based on a graph that can be generated from digital map data. This graph includes detailed road information like dimensions of intersections, speed limits and the geometry of lanes. The driver's own vehicle as well as by sensors detected vehicles are matched to the edges of the model's graph. Furthermore, the prototypical integration of the system in a test vehicle is presented. Besides, the utilized sensors, the applied human machine interface concept and the developed system architecture are described.The intentions of the own vehicle's driver and of other vehicles' drivers within the intersection area are predicted with a probabilistic network. Therefore information of the environmental model, vehicle dynamic data and driver inputs are utilized. The developed intent prediction is evaluated in detail with data of a study that was processed with 30 subjects in real world driving.Derived from the driver intent prediction, the information from the environmental model and the vehicle dynamic data, multiple possible developments of a scene are determined using probabilistic reachable sets. These sets describe locations that can be reached by a vehicle at a certain time with a defined probability. They are determined for all relevant vehicles and intersected to obtain collision probabilities. Depending on these probabilities the driver is warned by several human machine interfaces. Using a simulation framework this method to warn the driver is compared to a simple warn method that only considers the most probable development of a scene