157 research outputs found
Loss Aversion and Intertemporal Choice: A Laboratory Investigation
We present results from a laboratory study of loss aversion in the context of intertemporal choice. We investigate whether the provision of (windfall) endowments results in different elicited discount rates relative to subjects who earn income or earn and retain the income for a period before making intertemporal decisions. We hypothesize that loss aversion in an intertemporal choice yields higher discount rates among subjects earning and retaining. Our results support this hypothesis: among subjects who earn and retain their income we elicit substantially higher discount rates relative to those experiencing a windfall gain.intertemporal choice, discount rates, experiments
The cryogenic system for the SLAC E158 experiment
E158 is a fixed target experiment at SLAC in which high energy (up to 48 GeV) polarized electrons are scattered off the unpolarized electrons in a 1.5 m long liquid hydrogen target. The total volume of liquid hydrogen in the system is 47.1. The beam can deposit as much as 700 W into the liquid hydrogen. Among the requirements for the system are: that density fluctuations in the liquid hydrogen be kept to a minimum, that the target can be moved out of the beam line while cold and replaced to within 2 mm and that the target survive lifetime radiation doses of up to 1×106 Gy. The cryogenic system for the experiment consists of the target itself, the cryostat containing the target, a refurbished CTI 4000 refrigerator providing more than 1 kW of cooling at 20 K and associated transfer lines and valve boxes. This paper discusses the requirements, design, construction, testing and operation of the cryogenic system. The unique features of the design associated with hydrogen safety and the high radiation field in which the target resides are also covered
Feedback Control of coupled-Bunch Instabilities
Abstract The next generation of synchrotron light sources and particle accelerators will require active feedback systems to control multi-bunch instabilities [1, Feedback systems to stabilize coupled-bunch instabilities may be understood in the frequency domain (modebased feedback) or in the time domain (bunch-by-bunch feedback). In both approaches an external amplifier system is used to create damping fields that prevent coupledbunch oscillations from growing without bound. The system requirements for transverse (betatron) and longitudinal (synchrotron) feedback are presented, and possible implementation options developed. Feedback system designs based on digital signal-processing techniques are described. Experimental results are shown from a synchrotron oscillation damper in the SSRLjSLAC storage ring SPEAR that uses digital signal-processing techniques
Do Employment Quotas Explain the Occupational Choices of Disadvantaged Minorities in India?
Gift Exchange and the Separation of Ownership and Control
Numerous gift exchange experiments have found a positive relationship between employers' wage offers and workers' effort levels. In (almost) all these experiments the employer both owns and controls the firm. Yet in reality many firms are characterized by the separation of ownership and control. In this paper we explore to what extent this affects the wage-effort relationship observed. We compare the standard bilateral gift exchange game between an owner-manager and a worker with two trilateral ones where the firm is owned by a shareholder and controlled by a manager. The wage-effort relationship we observe is the same in all three situations. Most strikingly, workers still reward higher wages with higher effort levels, even when the manager responsible for choosing the wage does not share in the firm's profits at all. The results of a fourth treatment in which the wage is exogenously given suggest that workers feel reciprocal towards the firm as a whole; both ownership and control are important for the gift exchange relationship
Delegation and coordination with multiple threshold public goods: experimental evidence
When multiple charities, social programs and community projects simultaneously vie for funding, donors risk mis-coordinating their contributions leading to an inefficient distribution of funding across projects. Community chests and other intermediary organizations facilitate coordination among donors and reduce such risks. To study this, we extend a threshold public goods framework to allow donors to contribute through an intermediary rather than directly to the public goods. Through a series of experiments, we show that the presence of an intermediary increases public good success and subjects’ earnings only when the intermediary is formally committed to direct donations to socially beneficial goods. Without such a restriction, the presence of an intermediary has a negative impact, complicating the donation environment, decreasing contributions and public good success.When multiple charities, social programs and community projects simultaneously vie for funding, donors risk mis-coordinating their contributions leading to an inefficient distribution of funding across projects. Community chests and other intermediary organizations facilitate coordination among donors and reduce such risks. To study this, we extend a threshold public goods framework to allow donors to contribute through an intermediary rather than directly to the public goods. Through a series of experiments, we show that the presence of an intermediary increases public good success and subjects’ earnings only when the intermediary is formally committed to direct donations to socially beneficial goods. Without such a restriction, the presence of an intermediary has a negative impact, complicating the donation environment, decreasing contributions and public good success
The DIRC Particle Identification System for the BABAR Experiment
A new type of ring-imaging Cherenkov detector is being used for hadronic particle identification in the BABAR experiment at the SLAC B Factory (PEP-II). This detector is called DIRC, an acronym for Detection of Internally Reflected Cherenkov (Light). This paper will discuss the construction, operation and performance of the BABAR DIRC in detail
Brain Activity in Fairness Consideration during Asset Distribution: Does the Initial Ownership Play a Role?
Previous behavioral studies have shown that initial ownership influences individuals’ fairness consideration and other-regarding behavior. However, it is not entirely clear whether initial ownership influences the brain activity when a recipient evaluates the fairness of asset distribution. In this study, we randomly assigned the bargaining property (monetary reward) to either the allocator or the recipient in the ultimatum game and let participants of the study, acting as recipients, receive either disadvantageous unequal, equal, or advantageous unequal offers from allocators while the event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Behavioral results showed that participants were more likely to reject disadvantageous unequal and equal offers when they initially owned the property as compared to when they did not. The two types of unequal offers evoked more negative going ERPs (the MFN) than the equal offers in an early time window and the differences were not modulated by the initial ownership. In a late time window, however, the P300 responses to division schemes were affected not only by the type of unequal offers but also by whom the property was initially assigned to. These findings suggest that while the MFN may function as a general mechanism that evaluates whether the offer is consistent or inconsistent with the equity rule, the P300 is sensitive to top-down controlled processes, into which factors related to the allocation of attentional resources, including initial ownership and personal interests, come to play
A systematic review evaluating the psychometric properties of measures of social inclusion
Introduction: Improving social inclusion opportunities for population health has been identified as a priority area for international policy. There is a need to comprehensively examine and evaluate the quality of psychometric properties of measures of social inclusion that are used to guide social policy and outcomes. Objective: To conduct a systematic review of the literature on all current measures of social inclusion for any population group, to evaluate the quality of the psychometric properties of identified measures, and to evaluate if they capture the construct of social inclusion. Methods: A systematic search was performed using five electronic databases: CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase, ERIC and Pubmed and grey literature were sourced to identify measures of social inclusion. The psychometric properties of the social inclusion measures were evaluated against the COSMIN taxonomy of measurement properties using pre-set psychometric criteria. Results: Of the 109 measures identified, twenty-five measures, involving twenty-five studies and one manual met the inclusion criteria. The overall quality of the reviewed measures was variable, with the Social and Community Opportunities Profile-Short, Social Connectedness Scale and the Social Inclusion Scale demonstrating the strongest evidence for sound psychometric quality. The most common domain included in the measures was connectedness (21), followed by participation (19); the domain of citizenship was covered by the least number of measures (10). No single instrument measured all aspects within the three domains of social inclusion. Of the measures with sound psychometric evidence, the Social and Community Opportunities Profile-Short captured the construct of social inclusion best. Conclusions: The overall quality of the psychometric properties demonstrate that the current suite of available instruments for the measurement of social inclusion are promising but need further refinement. There is a need for a universal working definition of social inclusion as an overarching construct for ongoing research in the area of the psychometric properties of social inclusion instruments
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