15,849 research outputs found
The willingness to pay-willingness to accept gap, the "endowment effect," subject misconceptions, and experimental procedures for eliciting valuations
We conduct experiments to explore the possibility that subject misconceptions, as opposed to a particular theory of preferences referred to as the “endowment effect,” account for reported gaps between willingness to pay (“WTP”) and willingness to accept (“WTA”). The literature reveals two important facts. First, there is no consensus regarding the nature or robustness of WTP-WTA gaps. Second, while experimenters are careful to control for subject misconceptions, there is no consensus about the fundamental properties of misconceptions or how to avoid them. Instead, by implementing different types of experimental controls, experimenters have revealed notions of how misconceptions arise. Experimenters have applied these controls separately or in different combinations. Such controls include ensuring subject anonymity, using incentive-compatible elicitation mechanisms, and providing subjects with practice and training on the elicitation mechanism before employing it to measure valuations. The pattern of results reported in the literature suggests that the widely differing reports of WTP-WTA gaps could be due to an incomplete science regarding subject misconceptions. We implement a “revealed theory” methodology to compensate for the lack of a theory of misconceptions. Theories implicit in experimental procedures found in the literature are at the heart of our experimental design. Thus, our approach to addressing subject misconceptions reflects an attempt to control simultaneously for all dimensions of concern over possible subject misconceptions found in the literature. To this end, our procedures modify the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak mechanism used in previous studies to elicit values. In addition, our procedures supplement commonly used procedures by providing extensive training on the elicitation mechanism before subjects provide WTP and WTA responses. Experiments were conducted using both lotteries and mugs, goods frequently used in endowment effect experiments. Using the modified procedures, we observe no gap between WTA and WTP. Therefore, our results call into question the interpretation of observed gaps as evidence of loss aversion or prospect theory. Further evidence is required before convincing interpretations of observed gaps can be advanced
Exchange Asymmetries Incorrectly Interpreted as Evidence of Endowment Effect Theory and Prospect Theory?
Systematic asymmetries in exchange behavior have been widely interpreted as support for "endowment effect theory," an application of prospect theory positing that loss aversion and utility function kinks set by entitlements explain observed asymmetries. We experimentally test an alternative explanation, namely, that asymmetries are explained by classical preference theories finding influence through the experimental procedures typically used. Contrary to the predictions of endowment effect theory, we observe no asymmetries when we modify procedures to remove the influence of classical preference theories. When we return to traditional-type procedures, however, the asymmetries reappear. The results support explanations based in classical preference theories and reject endowment effect theory
How Cosmic Background Correlations at Large Angles Relate to Mass Autocorrelations in Space
The Sachs-Wolfe effect is known to produce large angular scale fluctuations
in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) due to gravitational
potential fluctuations. We show how the angular correlation function of the
CMBR can be expressed explicitly in terms of the mass autocorrelation function
in the Universe. We derive analytic expressions for the angular
correlation function and its multipole moments in terms of integrals over or its second moment, , which does not need to satisfy the sort
of integral constraint that must. We derive similar expressions for
bulk flow velocity in terms of and . One interesting result that
emerges directly from this analysis is that, for angles , there is a
substantial contribution to the correlation function from a wide range of
distance and that the radial shape of this contribution does not vary
greatly with angle.Comment: 9 pages in Plain TeX and 6 figures appended in 9 pages of uuencoded
PostScript. Lick Preprint Number 1
The Dawn of Fully Automated Contract Drafting: Machine Learning Breathes New Life Into a Decades-Old Promise
Technological advances within contract drafting software have seemingly plateaued. Despite the decades-long hopes and promises of many commentators, critics doubt this technology will ever fully automate the drafting process. But, while there has been a lack of innovation in contract drafting software, technological advances have continued to improve contract review and analysis programs. “Machine learning,” the leading innovative force in these areas, has proven incredibly efficient, performing in mere minutes tasks that would otherwise take a team of lawyers tens of hours. Some contract drafting programs have already experimented with machine learning capabilities, and this technology may pave the way for the full automation of contract drafting. Although intellectual property, data access, and ethical obstacles may delay complete integration of machine learning into contract drafting, full automation is likely still viable
Common lizards break Dollo’s law of irreversibility: genome-wide phylogenomics support a single origin of viviparity and re-evolution of oviparity
Dollo’s law of irreversibility states that once a complex trait has been lost in evolution, it cannot be regained. It is thought that complex epistatic interactions and developmental constraints impede the re-emergence of such a trait. Oviparous reproduction (egg-laying) requires the formation of an eggshell and represents an example of such a complex trait. In reptiles, viviparity (live-bearing) has evolved repeatedly but it is highly disputed if oviparity has re-evolved. Here, using up to 194,358 SNP loci and 1,334,760 bp of sequence, we reconstruct the phylogeny of viviparous and oviparous lineages of common lizards and infer the evolutionary history of parity modes. Our phylogeny supports six main common lizard lineages that have been previously identified. We find strong statistical support for a topological arrangement that suggests a reversal to oviparity from viviparity. Our topology is consistent with highly differentiated chromosomal configurations between lineages, but disagrees with previous phylogenetic studies in some nodes. While we find high support for a reversal to oviparity, more genomic and developmental data are needed to robustly test this and assess the mechanism by which a reversal might have occurred
An Optical Study of Two VY Sculptoris-Type Cataclysmic Binary Stars: V704 And and RX J2338+431
We report observations of the known cataclysmic variable star (CV) V704 And,
and also confirm that the optical counterpart of the ROSAT Galactic Plane
Survey source RX J2338+431 is a heretofore-neglected CV. Photometric and
spectroscopic observations from MDM Observatory show both systems to be
novalike variables that exhibit dips of 4-5 magnitudes from their mean
brightnesses, establishing them as members of the VY~Scl subclass. From
high-state emission-line radial velocities, we determine orbital periods of
0.151424(3) d (3.63 hr) for V704 And and 0.130400(1) d (3.13 hr) for RX
J2338+431. In V704 And, we find that the H-alpha emission-line measures cluster
into distinct regions on a plot of equivalent width versus full width at
half-maximum, which evidently correspond to high, intermediate, and low
photometric states. This allows us to assign spectra to photometric states when
contemporaneous photometry is not available, an apparently novel method that
may be useful in studies of other novalikes. Our low-state spectra of RX
J2338+431 show features of an M-type secondary star, from which we estimate a
distance of 890 +- 200 pc, in good agreement with the Gaia DR2 parallax.Comment: Accepted for Astronomical Journa
Wave speeds and Green’s tensors for shear wave propagation in incompressible, hyperelastic materials with uniaxial stretch
Assessing elastic material properties from shear wave propagation following an acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) excitation is difficult in anisotropic materials because of the complex relations among the propagation direction, shear wave polarizations, and material symmetries. In this paper, we describe a method to calculate shear wave signals using Green's tensor methods in an incompressible, hyperelastic material with uniaxial stretch. Phase and group velocities are determined for SH and SV propagation modes as a function of stretch by constructing the equation of motion from the Cauchy stress tensor determined from the strain energy density. The Green's tensor is expressed as the sum of contributions from the SH and SV propagation modes with the SH contribution determined using a closed-form expression and the SV contribution determined by numerical integration. Results are presented for a Mooney-Rivlin material model with a tall Gaussian excitation similar to an ARFI excitation. For an experimental configuration with a tilted material symmetry axis, results show that shear wave signals exhibit complex structures such as shear splitting that are characteristic of both the SH and SV propagation modes
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