Calibration results for rank-dependent expected utility

If its utility function is everywhere increasing and concave, rank-dependent expected utility shares a troubling property with expected utility aversion to the same moderate-stakes risk at every wealth level implies an extreme aversion to large-stakes risks. In fact, the problem may be even worse for rank-dependent expected utility, since the moderate-stakes risk need not be actuarially fair.

Homework and performance for time-constrained students

Most studies of homework effectiveness relate time spent on homework to test performance, and find a nonmonotonic relationship. A theoretical model shows that this can occur even when additional homework helps all students because of the way in which variables are defined. However, some students are time-constrained, limiting the amount of homework they can complete. In the presence of time constraints, additional homework can increase the spread between the performance of the best and worst students, even when homework would reduce the spread in the unconstrained case.

Full Issue 10.3

Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad Co.The original of this document is in the Stevens Family Papers, #1210, at the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York 14853

Victory and Defeat in a Model of Behavior in Games and Toward Risk

The standard expected utility model is augmented by allowing individuals to receive additional utility in states in which they consider themselves victorious and to lose a utility increment in which they consider themselves defeated. The resulting event-dependent expected utility model is used to explain behavior in games and toward risk. In games, players consider themselves defeated when their monetary payoffs are low compared to their opponents' payoffs, and they consider themselves victorious when their payoffs are high, but not too high, compared to their opponents' payoffs. Under these conditions the model can accommodate behavior that has been interpreted elsewhere as inequity aversion, as well as cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma and in public good provision games. In situations of risk, individuals consider themselves victorious (defeated) when they receive an unlikely, avoidable, high (low) outcome. Under these conditions the model can accommodate such behavior as the Allais paradox, boundary effects, and simultaneous gambling and insurance. Consequently, the model uses a single framework to discuss evidence from two distinct branches of the literature.

Kiffin Goods

In this paper, we investigate the possibility of a managerial input that experiences increasing compensation along with decreasing intensity. We call this type of input a "Kiffin good" after the head football coach Lane Kiffin. We propose a novel production process that might lead to Kiffin behavior.Giffen goods, intensity, coaching

Value and Outcome Uncertainty as Explanations for the WTA vs WTP Disparity: Theory and Experimental Evidence

This paper contributes to the widespread discussion of the sources of the divergence between WTA and WTP values. The paper reports on theoretical and empirical investigations which show that value and outcome uncertainty offer an explanation for this disparity. Given a set of hypotheses generated by the theory, the paper investigates the disparity using an inducedvalue experimental laboratory setting. The incentive-compatible Becker-DeGroot-Marshak mechanism is employed to elicit the WTP and WTA values. Two conclusions can be drawn from the empirical results. First, the WTA - WTP difference is generally increasing in both value and outcome uncertainty. Second, a re-contracting option reduces the disparity when it arises from value uncertainty. Key Words: Experimental, Uncertainty, WTP-WTA disparity

Informal Claims for Refund - A Winding Road

In reviewing the manner in which courts have interpreted [the informal claim] doctrine, it appears that the doctrine can be more effective if steps are taken to create a definite set of rules for the doctrine\u27s application, and if those rules are incorporated into the IRC or Treasury regulations. This Article, after briefly reviewing the history of the informal claim doctrine and its current form, will discuss the possibility of creating such rules

Defect chemistry of bulk and nanoscale PuO2

The management of large stockpiles of Pu, separated from spent nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons programmes and stored as the oxide PuO2, requires an understanding of the material’s aging behaviour during interim storage. This includes characterising the effect of radiogenic impurities that accumulate at significant concentration over storage time periods, as well as insight into the segregation of both radiogenic and non-radiogenic species between accommodation as defects in the oxide powder or in the storage container headspace above it. Point defects play a crucial role in the properties of crystalline materials. Modern first principles atomistic simulation techniques, such as density functional theory (DFT), are now widely employed for the simulation of point defects of both intrinsic and extrinsic origin. However, it is only through the careful use of thermodynamics that the defect energies obtained in these simulations can be exploited to provide a realistic description of a system under specific operating conditions, such as those present in PuO2 storage containers. This thesis has developed the Defect Analysis Package (DefAP), an open-source Python code that is designed to combine DFT data with established thermodynamic relationships to provide new insight into the defect chemistry of materials. Aided by DefAP, PuO2 under interim storage conditions has been studied. The results show that the intrinsic defect chemistry of PuO2±x is dominated by oxygen vacancies and interstitials and that PuO2+x is thermodynamically very unfavourable. Radiogenic Am occupies Pu sites in (Pu,Am)O2±x with an evolving ratio of the +III and +IV oxidation states, dependent upon temperature, oxygen partial pressure, and the concentration of the Am itself. It is observed that even small concentrations of Am(III) impact significantly on the material’s properties: it promotes a reducing environment and acts as a p-type dopant, elevating the concentration of holes in the valence band leading to increased electrical susceptibility and a postulated increase in surface reactivity. He from alpha-decay was found to be preferentially accommodated in PuO2±x on the interstitial site, but that the impact of Am is large enough to, under certain conditions, alter this accommodation mechanism to an oxygen vacancy. The reproduction of the available experimental data lends confidence to the model’s accuracy. In the final part of the thesis, it is explored whether simulations of nanoparticles — instead of the bulk material — may offer a better representation of the stored PuO2 powder. Whilst the simulated nanoparticles display many bulk-like features, it was seen that unique characteristics are present as a consequence of the under-coordinated atoms located at the particle’s surface. Surface configurations promoting reduced Pu or oxidised O ions have been observed and with thermodynamic relationships the environmental conditions where these differing surface configurations become favourable were predicted. The improved scientific understanding of PuO2 presented in the thesis is essential information in the long-term move towards its storage and will inform future disposition programmes. An improved understanding also has the potential to reduce some of the pessimisms built into stores’ safety cases