Who’s Holding Out? An Experimental Study of the Benefits and Burdens of Eminent Domain

A substantial literature identifies seller holdout as a serious obstacle to land assembly, implying that eminent domain is an appropriate policy response. We conduct a series of laboratory experiments to test this view. We find that when there is no competition and no eminent domain, land assembly suffers from costly delay and failed assembly: participants lose 18.8% of the available surplus on average. Much of the inefficiency is due to low offers from the buyers (“buyer holdout”) rather than strategic holdout among sellers. When buyers can exercise eminent domain the participants lose 19.4% of the surplus on average. This loss comes from spending money to influence the fair market price and forcing sellers to sell even when the sellers value the property more than the buyer. Introducing weak competition in the form of a less valuable substitute parcel of land reduces delay by 35.7% and virtually eliminates assembly failure, so that only 10.1% of the surplus is lost on average

You Can\u27t Put Old Wine In New Bottles: The Effect Of Newcomers on Coordination In Groups

A common finding in social sciences is that member change hinders group functioning and performance. However, questions remain as to why member change negatively affects group performance and what are some ways to alleviate the negative effects of member change on performance? To answer these questions we conduct an experiment in which we investigate the effect of newcomers on a group\u27s ability to coordinate efficiently. Participants play a coordination game in a four-person group for the first part of the experiment, and then two members of the group are replaced with new participants, and the newly formed group plays the game for the second part of the experiment. Our results show that the arrival of newcomers decreases trust among group members and this decrease in trust negatively affects group performance. Knowing the performance history of the arriving newcomers mitigates the negative effect of their arrival, but only when newcomers also know the oldtimers performance history. Surprisingly, in groups that performed poorly prior to the newcomers\u27 arrival, the distrust generated by newcomers is mainly between oldtimers about each other rather than about the newcomers

Glad Tidings and Grave Warnings: The Role of Advice on Cooperation in Public Goods Dilemmas With Value Uncertainty

We investigate how third-party advice on the estimated value of a public good acts as a dual-uncertainty reducing mechanism to encourage cooperation in a trust social dilemma. Experiment 1 finds that the valence of an advisor’s estimate affects cooperation behavior and that this advice effect is mediated by the level of trust that an individual has in fellow group members. Experiment 2 finds that when estimates about the value of the public good are mixed, trust in experts declines, and trust in other group members also declines. Experiment 3 finds that mixed valence estimates do not affect cooperation behavior when the majority of advisors are in consensus. In merging the social dilemma and advice-giving literatures, we show one way to navigate the dual-uncertainty problem when producing public goods and how independent, third-party advice can influence interpersonal relations among group members

A Bi-Objective Formulation for Robust Defense Strategies in Multi-Commodity Networks: Application to Rail Freight

Characterizing system performance under disruption is a growing area of research, particularly for describing a system’s resilience to a disruption event. Within the framework of system resilience, this study approaches the minimization of a multiple-commodity system’s vulnerability to multiple disruption events. The vulnerability of a system is defined by the degree to which commodities can no longer flow through the system to satisfy demand given a disruptive event. A multi-objective formulation is developed to find defense strategies at minimal cost that maintain a high level of demand satisfaction across all commodities. A solution method involving an estimation of the Pareto frontier via the Non-dominated Sorted Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) is also proposed. A decision support environment is proposed and supported by application of the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). The proposed formulation and solution method are illustrated with an example generated from the multi-commodity Swedish rail network

Land Assembly with Taxes, Not Takings

We use a novel tax mechanism – ‘rejected offer reassessment’ (ROR) – in laboratory experiments to discourage seller holdout and facilitate land assembly. Under this mechanism, if a landowner rejects a developer’s offer, his taxable property value is reassessed to be equal to the rejected offer, increasing his taxes. We find that, relative to a control treatment, ROR discourages the magnitude of seller holdout (but not its frequency) and increases the rate of successful land assembly by almost 60%. It also increases the gains from trade by 22.1% relative to the control treatment, but the difference is not statistically significant

Laboratory Experiments of Land Assembly Without Eminent Domain

The authors use laboratory experiments to test two self-assessment tax mechanisms for facilitating land assembly. One mechanism is incentive compatible with a complex tax function, while the other uses a flat tax rate to mitigate implementation concerns. Sellers publicly declare a price for their land. Overstating its true value is penalized by using the declared price to assess a property tax; understating its value is penalized by allowing developers to buy the property at the declared price. The authors find that both mechanisms increase the rate of land assembly and gains from trade relative to a control in which sellers’ price declarations have no effect on their taxes. However, these effects are statistically insignificant or transitory. The assembly rates in our self-assessment treatments are markedly higher than those of prior experimental studies in which the buyer faces bargaining frictions, such as costly delay or capital constraints

Corporate Personhood and American Democracy: A Natural Remedy

Recent court cases such as "Citizens United" have ignited the debate about whether or not corporations are "persons."  The issue of personhood reveals the rights and responsibilities the corporation does and should have in our society.  This essay looks at legal precedence to address whether or not corporations should have personhood, and if so, what the consequences of such a designation would be

A Structurational Approach to Organizational Change: Exploring Idaho’s Students Come First Initiative

This study embraces a structuration approach to explore how the staff at the Idaho State Education Agency (SEA) reacted to implementing a unique and sweeping K-12 education reform package commonly known as “Students Come First.” By embracing a communicative perspective to studying change in public education, this study provides insights to how public sector employees at an SEA who work in a field governed by a unique set of features (politically-driven policies from elected officials and outcome expectations from the electorate), and who are driven by a passion to serve children engaged in changes that challenged their everyday understandings of how their jobs best supported educating students. Qualitative interviews exploring how the staff of the SEA understood and engaged in Idaho’s education reform revealed tension-filled themes, revealing the complexities and consequences of implementing significant changes to the K-12 educational system. The tensions in the findings showed not only the consequences of the rules/resources provided by the Students Come First Change initiative but how staff rely in their practical consciousness to make sense of uncertainties associated with a significant change program. In particular, new rules and resources emerging from the change initiative were often in conflict with practical consciousness of organizational members. As such, this study offers several implications for scholars studying change from a structuration perspective and promotes more engaged dialogue among decision makers and those implementing change to promote more successful, less disruptive, changes in the future

Testing the Waters: Using Collective Real Options To Manage the Social Dilemma Of Strategic Alliances

We extend real options research by introducing the concept of collective real options and model how collective real options provide strategic alliances a mechanism to manage social uncertainty. Collective real options manage social uncertainty by producing relational small wins that develop trust. The amount of trust developed by acquiring a collective real option depends on the exposure of alliance partners. Alliance partner reputation also plays an important role in the impact of collective real options

Performance Benefits Of Reward Choice: A Procedural Justice Perspective

Reward choice – employees\u27 ability to exercise control over the formal rewards they receive from work – is an important part of many HRM strategies. Reward choice is expected to increase employee performance, but conflicting findings highlight the need to better understand how and when it will do so. Based on fairness heuristic theory, we predicted that procedural justice mediates reward choice\u27s influence on performance, and that choice attractiveness moderates that influence. A field study and an experiment both had similar results, supporting our predictions. Reward choice can increase performance by as much as 40 per cent, but only when the available choices are attractive to employees