Unanimity Versus Consensus Bargaining Games: Strategic Delegation and Social Optimality

Decisions on common policies are often the outcome of a bargaining game played by members of a committee. This paper investigates whether policies are socially optimal when the members of a committee are delegates sent by different constituencies. A standard unanimity and a consensus oriented bargaining game are analysed. These games are preceded by a delegation stage in which each constituency chooses its delegate non-cooperatively. Both bargaining games allow for sidepayments that are valuable not only for the delegates but for every citizen in a constituency. It is shown that under unanimity the incentive to strategically delegate the power to bargain induces a bias towards the status-quo. Policies are therefore socially sub-optimal. The consensus bargaining game implements a bargaining solution that has not been described in the existing literature on multilateral bargaining. The game aims at finding the consent of all delegates, but allows for the possibility of implementing a policy even in the case where some delegates oppose. The game captures certain features frequently attributed to decision processes in real world committees such as the German Bundesbank or the Council of the European Union. Moreover, the game is closely related to recent developments in the theory of non-cooperative foundations of cooperative game theory. The game presented in this paper is inspired by a game introduced by Hart and Mas-Colell (1996). In the beginning of the game, a proposal has to be approved by all members of the committee. However, if a consensus cannot be reached, the delegate who induced the failure is excluded from future bargaining. Also under the consensus approach the constituencies choose their delegates strategically. However, the chosen policies are nevertheless socially optimal. Therefore, consensus bargaining can be seen as an attractive decision mechanism for many political and economic institutions.

Instrumental variable estimation in semi-parametric additive hazards models

Instrumental variable methods allow unbiased estimation in the presence of unmeasured confounders when an appropriate instrumental variable is available. Two-stage least-squares and residual inclusion methods have recently been adapted to additive hazard models for censored survival data. The semi-parametric additive hazard model which can include time-independent and time-dependent covariate effects is particularly suited for the two-stage residual inclusion method, since it allows direct estimation of time-independent covariate effects without restricting the effect of the residual on the hazard. In this article we prove asymptotic normality of two-stage residual inclusion estimators of regression coefficients in a semi-parametric additive hazard model with time-independent and time-dependent covariate effects. We consider the cases of continuous and binary exposure. Estimation of the conditional survival function given observed covariates is discussed and a resampling scheme is proposed to obtain simultaneous confidence bands. The new methods are compared to existing ones in a simulation study and are applied to a real data set. The proposed methods perform favourably especially in cases with exposure-dependent censoring

Chemical imaging of mixed metal oxide catalysts for propylene oxidation: from model binary systems to complex multicomponent systems

Industrially-applied mixed metal oxide catalysts often possess an ensemble of structural components with complementary functions. Characterisation of these hierarchical systems is challenging, particularly moving from binary to quaternary systems. Here a quaternary Bi−Mo−Co−Fe oxide catalyst showing significantly greater activity than binary Bi−Mo oxides for selective propylene oxidation to acrolein was studied with chemical imaging techniques from the microscale to nanoscale. Conventional techniques like XRD and Raman spectroscopy could only distinguish a small number of components. Spatially-resolved characterisation provided a clearer picture of metal oxide phase composition, starting from elemental distribution by SEM-EDX and spatially-resolved mapping of metal oxide components by 2D Raman spectroscopy. This was extended to 3D using multiscale hard X-ray tomography with fluorescence, phase, and diffraction contrast. The identification and co-localisation of phases in 2D and 3D can assist in rationalising catalytic performance during propylene oxidation, based on studies of model, binary, or ternary catalyst systems in literature. This approach is generally applicable and attractive for characterisation of complex mixed metal oxide systems. © 2021 The Authors. ChemCatChem published by Wiley-VCH Gmb

Random-phase approximation and its applications in computational chemistry and materials science

The random-phase approximation (RPA) as an approach for computing the electronic correlation energy is reviewed. After a brief account of its basic concept and historical development, the paper is devoted to the theoretical formulations of RPA, and its applications to realistic systems. With several illustrating applications, we discuss the implications of RPA for computational chemistry and materials science. The computational cost of RPA is also addressed which is critical for its widespread use in future applications. In addition, current correction schemes going beyond RPA and directions of further development will be discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, published online in J. Mater. Sci. (2012

Voting on policies in committees : a welfare analysis

Digitised version produced by the EUI Library and made available online in 2020

Voting, bargaining and strategic delegation : theory and applications to European Central Bank policies

Defence date: 15 November 1999Examining board: Prof. Ramon Marimon, EUI (Supervisor) ; Prof. Pierpaolo Battigalli, EUI ; Prof. Manfred Holler, Universität Hamburg ; Prof. Andreu Mas-Colell, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, BarcelonaPDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 201

Voting and decisions in the ECB

Digitised version produced by the EUI Library and made available online in 2020