Mitigating Hypothetical Bias in Value of Time Studies: Lab-Experiment Results

We present results from a series of willingness to-accept value-of-time choice experiments with students in Sweden and China, using both real and hypothetical purchases of the students´ time. Our results confirm negative hypothetical bias in stated choice elicitation of value-of-time. However, we find no evidence of hypothetical bias in a choice experiment where respondents to hypothetical or real offers have equal reference points (i.e., for purchase of their time “here and now”). Moreover, at least in the Chinese sample, we find that ex-post mitigation of negative hypothetical bias by certainty calibration, through recoding of uncertain “yes” responses into “no”, overshoots, while calibration by restricting estimations to confident “yes” and “no” responses possibly performs better.Stated choice; Certainty calibration; Preference certainty

PAY-AS-YOU-SPEED: AN ECONOMIC FIELD-EXPERIMENT

We report a vehicle-fleet experiment with an economic incentive given to car drivers for keeping within speed limits. A pay-as-you-speed traffic insurance scheme was simulated with a monthly participation bonus that was reduced by a non-linear speeding penalty. Actual speed was monitored by a GPS in-vehicle device. Participating drivers were randomly assigned into two-by two treatment groups, with different participation-bonus and penalty levels, and two control groups (high and low participation bonus, but no penalty). A third control group consists of drivers with the same technical equipment who did not participate but whose driving could be monitored. We evaluate changes in behaviour from twelve-month differences in proportion of driving time per month that the car was exceeding the maximum allowed speed on the road. We find that the participating drivers significantly reduced severe speeding violations during the first experiment month, while in the second experiment month, after having received feedback reports with an account of earned payments, only those participating subjects that were given a speeding penalty reduced severe speed violations. We find no significant effects from the size of the participation bonus (high vs. low), or the size of the penalty (high vs. low rate).Traffic insurance; traffic safety; Intelligent Transport Systems; ITS; Intelligent Speed Adaptation; ISA

Conditions for the spread of the Peyote cult in North America

As is well known large parts of native North America with the Prairies and Plains in the middle of the continent as the centre of diffusion have constituted, since the end of the last century, the scene of a nativistic Indian movement, the so-called peyote cult. The peyote cult—or, as it should have been called, the peyote religion — is named after its central cultic action, the consumption (by eating, drinking or smoking) of the spineless cactus peyote (Lophophora williamsii). This cactus that may be found growing wild along the Rio Grande and in the country south of this river contains several alkaloids, among them the morphine-like, hallucinogeneous mescaline. In pre-Columbian days peyote was used in connection with certain public ceremonies among the Indians of Mexico, for instance, at the annual thanksgiving ceremonies. In its modern form the peyote ritual constitutes a religious complex of its own, considered to promote health, happiness and welfare among its adepts. The two major questions are: what were the conditions for the diffusion of the peyote cult? What particular factors accounted for the spread of the cult to just those areas that were mentioned above, and for its obstruction in other areas?  The change in the North American Indian situation at the end of the nineteenth century supplied new facilities for religious innovations and for the introduction of a foreign religious movement, the peyote cult

Pagan and Christian elements in the religious syncretism among the Shoshoni indians of Wyoming

Religious syncretism, in the wider sense of this term, is an expression for cultural contact, and in most cases it presupposes an advanced acculturation, as it is the focus of culture, its value system which is influenced. Religious syncretism must therefore be analysed in its connections with the changes of the whole cultural system. These changes cannot be confined to the present time. Theoreticians of acculturation have, however, all too often categorically contrasted the acculturation process with a conjectured earlier, static and "original" state. The Shoshoni Indians of Wyominghave, since they were first noticed by white men, undergone a continuous process of acculturation, not least concerning religion. Since being primitive seed-collectors and hunters in the Great Basin in a remote past they have, during the last centuries, been influenced by the Plateau and Plains cultures, European-American civilisation and Pan-Indian revitalization movements, respectively, all these cultural changes are reflected in the religious history of the Shoshoni, such as this can be determined with the aid of archaeological discoveries and combinations, ethnological distribution studies and historical documents.

The traditional symbolism of the Sun Dance Lodge among the Wind River Shoshoni

Of all the North American Indian religious ceremonies no one is as spectacular and as well-known as the Sun Dance of the Plains Indians. The information collected on the subject since the turn of the century is quite extensive. However, while there is a mass of materials on the outer features of the Dance, on behavioural and ritual aspects, there is very little information on its religious aspects, in particular the meaning of the ritual.The following account is an attempt to view the religious symbolism of the Wind River Shoshoni Sun Dance lodge in a "meaningful" perspective. Attention is paid not only to the ideology of the Dance as such but also and foremost to the concrete elements of the Sun Dance structure which together throw further light on this ideology. A particular place in the analysis will be devoted to a new scholarly interpretation according to which the Shoshoni Sun Dance serves as a revitalization cult

The drum in Shamanism: some reflections

Shamanism has not been restricted to northern Eurasia and the American Arctic, although it was here that it received its most remarkable forms. It is thus central to consider whether the drum is an integrative part of shamanism and should be examined against a general, and not a regional background. It is important to distinguish Arctic shamanism from other forms of shamanism. Arctic shamanism has a stronger profile than other varieties of shamanism, partly because of its intensity, accentuated to a certain extent by the harsh climate and environment, but also explained by the remarkable position of the shaman in an otherwise unstratified social structure. In the great variety of shamanic forms which exist south of the Arctic Subarctic zone, the drum, with a few exceptions, does not have such a prominent role. The position of the drum in other areas south of the Arctic obviously depends upon the position of shamanism. It is known that the drum is an ancient shamanic symbol in hunting culture, and where horticulture and agriculture supplanted old hunting cultures, shamanism gradually retreated. Priests and cult servants replaced shamans and the way for the trance was no longer necessary. In later shamanism outside the Arctic area the drum has gradually lost its significance

Pay-as-you-speed: Two Field Experiments on Controlling Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard in Traffic Insurance

Around one million people are killed world wide every year in road-traffic accidents. The risks and consequences of accidents increase progressively with speed, which ultimately is determined by the individual driver. The behaviour of the motorist thus affects both her own and other peoples safety. Internalisation of external costs of road transport has hitherto been focused on distance-based taxes or insurance premiums. While these means, as they are designed today, may affect driven distance, they have no influence on driving behaviour. This paper argues that by linking on-board positioning systems to insurance premiums it is possible to reward careful driving and get drivers to self select into different risk categories depending on their compliance to speed limits. We report two economic field experiments that have tested ways to induce car-owners to have technical platforms installed in their vehicle in order to affect the extent of speeding. It is demonstrated that a bonus to remunerate those that have the device installed, tantamount to a lower insurance premium, increases drivers?propensity to accept the technical devices. In a second experiment the size of the bonus is made dependent on the actual frequency of speeding. We find that this is a second way to discipline users to drive at legal speeds.Traffic safety, impure public goods, moral hazard, adverse selection, self selection

Economic Evaluation of Supported-Employment Inspired Program for Pupils With Intellectual Disabilities

In this study, we investigate whether, or to what degree, a ‘business case’ could be made for implementation of a Supported-Employment (SE) inspired program for pupils with intellectual disabilities (IDs), starting during the final school years. For this aim, we do a quasi-experimental before-after intervention impact evaluation of such a project funded by the European Social Fund in the Swedish city of Örebro (135,000 inhabitants) during 2010–2013. From an estimate of the average treatment effect, we calculate the internal net present value and the payback period that would make this program break even from avoided expenditure for day-activity services, assuming that it had been funded entirely by the municipality