Voluntary contributing in a neighborhood public good game: An experimental study

In repeated Public Good Games contributions might be influenced by different motives. The variety of motives for deciding between (more or less) free-riding probably explains the seemingly endless tradition of theoretical and experimental studies of repeated Public Good Games. To more clearly distinguish the motives, we try to enrich the choice set by allowing players not only to contribute but also to locate their contribution to one of the player positions. The location choice affects what individual players gain, but not the overall efficiency of contributing, and allows for discrimination, e.g., rewarding and sanctioning co-players differently. Our experimental results show that adding location choice promotes voluntary cooperation, although discrimination itself has no signifficant effect on behavior. --Public Good Game,Neighborhood,Cooperation,Experimental Analysis

Decentralized or Collective Bargaining in a Strategy Experiment

We present an experiment where two players bargain with a third player. They can bargain either separately or form a joint venture to bargain collectively. Our theoretical benchmark solution predicts decentralized bargaining, as only one player has an interest in forming a joint venture. However, we observe a significant amount of collective bargaining. Collective bargaining, when compared with decentralized bargaining, has no significant effect on the payoffs of the players in the joint venture but reduces the payoff of the third player. Nous présentons une expérience dans laquelle deux joueurs négocient avec un troisième joueur. Les deux joueurs peuvent négocier séparément ou former une coalition pour négocier collectivement avec le troisième. La solution théorique de référence prédit des négociations décentralisées, car seulement un des joueurs a intérêt à former une coalition. Les résultats de l'expérience montrent un nombre significatif de négociations collectives. Lorsque comparée à la négociation décentralisée, la négociation collective n'a pas d'effets significatifs sur les profits des joueurs de la coalition,0501s réduit le profit du troisième.Bargaining, joint venture, experimental economics, equilibrium selection, Négociation, coalition, économie expérimentale, sélection d'équilibre

Wage flexibility in ongoing employment relations: an experiment with a stochastic labor market

Facing a stochastic market wage, which is independent of their own hiring policy, employers offer contracts specifying fixed wage, revenue share and employment duration. In ongoing employment relations it depends on the treatment whether fixed wages can be only increased or also decreased. Will the uncertainty of the future market wage and less wage flexibility lead to temporary employment? And, if not, will employers adjust wages to changing market wages and will workers in ongoing employment relations react to wage decreases via effort choices? Our results partly question empirical claims, e.g. of Bewley (1995), and confirm the tendency to establish ongoing employment relations. Granting more wage flexibility to employers altogether questions rather than enhances efficiency since it induces opportunistic wage cuts to which employees react with lower efforts

Going on the long race? Employment duration and (de)regulation of experimental stochastic labor markets

If the future market wage is uncertain, engaging in long-term employment is risky, with the risk depending on how regulated the labor market is. In our experiment long-term employment can result either from offering long-term contracts or from repeatedly and mutually opting for rematching. Treatments differ in how regulations restrict the employer's flexibility in adapting the employment contract to changes of the market (wage). All treatments allow for longer contract duration as well as for mutually opting to be rematched. Effort is chosen by employees after a contract is concluded. Treatments vary from no flexibility to no restriction at all. Will more (downward) flexibility be used in ongoing employment but reduce efficiency? If so, deregulation may weaken rather than promote labor market efficiency. And will regulation crowd out long-term employment, either in the form of long-term contracts or voluntary rematching

Assessing mental models via recording the decision deliberations of pairs

Two participants have to decide jointly, with the discussions preceding their choice being video/audiotaped. For two tasks, one with and one without strategic interaction, we refer to obvious reasoning styles as mental models. The videotaped discussions are analyzed according to which mental models are mentioned by one or both participants in the same pair and how decisive such arguments were. The mental models for the risky choice task are analytic approach, commitment mode, and avoid chance, and for the outside-option game equality seeking, backward induction, and forward induction. We classify each pair according to their mental constellation in both tasks and assess mental models in addition to collecting choice data. Altogether, this allows for better explanations, especially of heterogeneity in reasoning and deciding

Satisficing in sales competition : experimental evidence

In a duopoly market, aspirations express how much sellers want to earn given their expectations about the other's behavior. We define individually and mutually satisficing sales behavior for given individual beliefs and aspirations. In a first experimental phase, whenever satisficing is not possible, beliefs, aspirations, or sales have to be adapted. In a second phase, testing the absorption of satisficing, participants are free to select nonsatisficing sales profiles. The results reveal that most people are satisficers who, either mandatorily or deliberately, tend to adjust aspiration levels if they cannot be satisfied

The Nova Rate in M94 (NGC 4736)

A multi-epoch H$\alpha$ survey of the early-type spiral galaxy M94 (NGC 4736) has been completed as part of a program to establish the galaxy's nova rate. A total of four nova candidates were discovered in seven epochs of observation during the period from 2005 to 2007. After making corrections for temporal coverage and spatial completeness, a global nova rate of 5.0$^{+1.8}_{-1.4}$ yr$^{-1}$ was determined. This rate corresponds to a specific-luminosity nova rate of 1.4 $\pm$ 0.5 novae per year per 10$^{10} L_{\odot,K}$ when the $K$ luminosity is determined from the $B-K$ color, or 1.5 $\pm$ 0.4 novae per year per 10$^{10} L_{\odot,K}$ when the $K$ luminosity is derived from the Two Micron All Sky Survey. These values are slightly lower than that of other galaxies with measured nova rates, which typically lie in the range of $2-3$ novae per year per 10$^{10} L_{\odot}$ in the $K$ band.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal; 18 pages, 4 figures. The revised version includes a few stylistic changes and cleans up some typo

Photo-reverberation mapping of a protoplanetary accretion disk around a T Tauri star

This is the final version. Available from the American Astronomical Society via the DOI in this recordTheoretical models and spectroscopic observations of newborn stars suggest that protoplantary disks have an inner "wall" at a distance set by the disk interaction with the star. Around T Tauri stars, the size of this disk hole is expected to be on a 0.1 au scale that is unresolved by current adaptive optics imaging, though some model-dependent constraints have been obtained by near-infrared interferometry. Here we report the first measurement of the inner disk wall around a solar-mass young stellar object, YLW 16B in the ρ Ophiuchi star-forming region, by detecting the light-travel time of the variable radiation from the stellar surface to the disk. Consistent time lags were detected on two nights, when the time series in H (1.6 μm) and K (2.2 μm) bands were synchronized while the 4.5 μm emission lagged by 74.5 ± 3.2 s. Considering the nearly edge-on geometry of the disk, the inner rim should be 0.084 au from the protostar on average, with an error of order 0.01 au. This size is likely larger than the range of magnetospheric truncations and consistent with an optically and geometrically thick disk front at the dust sublimation radius at ∼1500 K. The widths of the cross-correlation functions between the data in different wavebands place possible new constraints on the geometry of the disk.National Science Foundation (NSF