Contracts, Biases and Consumption of Access Services

We consider a consumption model that takes into account the valuation and demand uncertainties that consumers face while using access services. Typical examples of such services include telecommunication services, extended warranties for consumer electronics, and club memberships. We demonstrate that consumption is affected by contract structure (pay-peruse vs. three part tariffs) even if the optimal consumption plans are identical. We find that a majority of individuals correctly use a threshold policy that is similar to a nearly optimal heuristic, however they use the free units too quickly leading to overconsumption and lost surplus. These errors are partially driven by mistaken beliefs about the value distribution. We also measure subjectsâ willingness to pay for a contract with free access units, and we find that nearly half of subjects are willing to pay at least the full per-unit price, with a substantial fraction willing to overpay. The optimal firm strategy is therefore to offer a contract that presells access units at a very small discount; this strategy increases revenue by 8 − 15% compared to only offering a pay-per-use contract.access services, pricing contracts, decision biases, experiment

Gift Exchange in the Lab - It is not (only) how much you give ...

An important aspect in determining the effectiveness of gift exchange relations in labor markets is the ability of the worker to “repay the gift” to the employer. To test this hypothesis, we conduct a real effort laboratory experiment where we vary the wage and the effect of the worker’s effort on the manager’s payoff. Furthermore we collect additional information that allows us to control for the workers’ ability and whether they can be classified as reciprocal or not. From our agency model of reciprocal motivation we derive non-trivial predictions about which is the marginal worker (in terms of ability) affected by our experimental variation and how different types of individuals, selfish and reciprocal, will react to it. Our model does substantially better than other theories in organizing the data.reciprocity, fairness, real effort experiment, personality tests

Managerial Payoff and Gift Exchange in the Field

We conduct a field experiment where we vary both the presence of a gift exchange wage and the effect of the worker’s effort on the manager’s payoff. The results indicate a strong complementarity between the initial wage gift and the agent’s ability to “repay the gift”. We collect information on ability to control for differences and on reciprocal inclination to show that gift exchange is more effective with more reciprocal agents. We present a simple principal-agent model with reciprocal subjects that motivates our empirical findings. Our results offer an avenue to reconcile the recent conflicting evidence on the efficacy of gift exchange outside the lab; we suggest that the significance of gift exchange relations depends on details of the environment.incentives, reciprocity, gift exchange, field experiments

Contractual and Organizational Structurewith Reciprocal Agents

Empirically, compensation systems generate substantial effort despite weak monetary incentives. We consider reciprocal motivations as a source of incentives. We solve for the optimal contract in the basic principal-agent problem and show that reciprocal motivations and explicit performance-based pay are substitutes. A firm endogenously determines the mix of the two sources of incentives to best induce effort from the agent. Analyzing extended versions of the model allows us to examine how organizational structure impacts the effectiveness of reciprocity and to derive specific empirical predictions. We use the UK-WERS workplace compensation data set to confirm the predictions of our extended model.optimal contracts, reciprocity, organizational structure

Our Non-Originalist Right to Bear Arms

District of Columbia v. Heller was a landmark, if controversial, opinion. Discussion has centered on the merits of its self-described originalist approach. Supporters praise its efforts to return to a more originalist and textualist approach to constitutional questions, whereas critics challenge the accuracy of Heller’s historical claims and criticize its departure from precedent. This Article challenges much of the conventional wisdom about Heller, its use of originalism, and its relationship to nineteenth- and twentieth-century case law. This Article argues that, despite much of its rhetoric, Heller actually exemplified popular constitutionalism—not originalism—in the way it approached the most important practical question at issue in the case: determining the content of the right to bear arms. On that question, Heller—and not United States v. Miller—is largely consistent with the way, throughout most of American history, that both state and federal courts have adjudicated cases involving the right to bear arms. In particular, this Article argues that the dominant approach followed by nineteenth-century courts was neither “originalist” nor “textualist” about the right to bear arms. These courts did not look to how James Madison viewed the right in 1789 or how Americans in 1791 commonly understood the Second Amendment. Instead, they attempted to find compromise positions on the scope of the right to bear arms to accommodate a population divided between those believing in the right and those seeking stronger restrictions on weapons. To do this, the nineteenth-century courts shifted their understanding of the purpose of the right to bear arms over time, which, in turn, enabled them to reach conclusions about the content of the right that reflected the contemporaneous popular understanding of the right—and of the right’s limits. In this revisionist account, Miller is the case that represented a break with the courts’ historical approach because it arguably allowed access to common military weapons—an approach that did not readily allow courts to adjust the Second Amendment right to new circumstances as these military weapons became increasingly destructive. These difficulties prompted subsequent lower courts to adopt the “collective rights” interpretation of Miller— an interpretation that was too rigidly restrictive, and therefore, also difficult to adjust to reflect popular understandings. The Article concludes that Heller reflects a new compromise: expanding the individual self-defense rationale while diminishing the Second Amendment’s military objectives. This new compromise recognizes an individual right to have self-defense weapons, while allowing greater control over military-style weapons—which aligns with how mainstream Americans today view the right. Although Heller radically reshaped the Second Amendment right to fit the twenty-first-century popular understanding of the right, its methodological approach is quite consistent with how most courts have approached Second Amendment questions—an approach that sounds more in popular constitutionalism than originalism

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act: Doctrinal and Policy Problems

In response to recent mass shootings, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The Act encouraged states to implement red-flag laws, adopted a more punitive approach to federal gun control, expanded the domestic violence misdemeanors that prohibit firearm possession, and implemented more stringent regulations on young adults purchasing firearms. Because of the difficulties in passing federal gun control laws, Congress hastily passed the Act after a small, bipartisan group of Senators agreed on its text. This stunted legislative process left the new law riddled with ambiguities and technical deficiencies. This Article explores the constitutional, doctrinal, and policy problems created by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act

The Golden Letter of King Alaungphaya to King George II of Great Britain (1756)

(With Translations into English, French and German

CALCIFYING ACNE LESIONS

Cutaneous calcium deposition can occur in long-term inflammation. The deposition of calcium in long-standing acne may produce either small pigmented nodules or no visible lesions. The former type is much less common, with the nodules containing particulate spheres of mineral which probably represent true osteomas. Both types of calcification can be demonstrated roentgenographically and may occur in as many as half of all cases of severe long-standing acne.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65205/1/j.1365-4362.1977.tb01897.x.pd