212 research outputs found
Le parole della legge in prospettiva italiana ed europea
Il contributo analizza alcuni caratteri e problemi del linguaggio giuridico italiano contemporaneo, anche in prospettiva europea e internazionale. La lingua e il lessico del diritto sono inseriti nel progetto REI per la semplificazione e la chiarezza della lingua italiana nelle istituzioni comunitarie europe
Do Survey Probabilities Match Financial Market Beliefs?
This article considers whether survey respondents’ views regarding the likelihood of stock index
returns exceeding specific thresholds are comparable to market views indicated by index options
with strikes at analogous thresholds. It is motivated by the observation that the wording used to
elicit subjective beliefs in surveys about expected future returns resembles the question a purchaser
of a call option might ask. Building on this association, the authors document a similarity between
the views of survey respondents and those of financial market participants as measured through
call options, although the association is not 1-for-1. They find a closer association for those
demonstrating a better understanding of the laws of probability, suggesting that numeracy affects
the accuracy of an elicited response
Modeling Non-Standard Financial Decision Making
There are clear theoretical predictions on how a rational person should make financial decisions. When real-life choices are made, however, people often deviate from what economic theory prescribes. This thesis investigates the modeling of non-standard financial decision making by analyzing and improving existing models of choice behavior. It analyzes the formation of beliefs, choice behavior under ambiguity and intertemporal decision making
The remnant of SN1987A revealed at (sub-)mm wavelengths
Context: Supernova 1987A (SN1987A) exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud
(LMC). Its proximity and rapid evolution makes it a unique case study of the
early phases in the development of a supernova remnant. One particular aspect
of interest is the possible formation of dust in SN1987A, as SNe could
contribute significantly to the dust seen at high redshifts. Aims: We explore
the properties of SN1987A and its circumburst medium as seen at mm and sub-mm
wavelengths, bridging the gap between extant radio and infrared (IR)
observations of respectively the synchrotron and dust emission. Methods:
SN1987A was observed with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) at 3.2
mm in July 2005, and with the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) at 0.87 mm
in May 2007. We present the images and brightness measurements of SN1987A at
these wavelengths for the first time. Results: SN1987A is detected as an
unresolved point source of 11.2 +/- 2.0 mJy at 3.2 mm (5" beam) and 21 +/- 4
mJy at 0.87 mm (18" beam). These flux densities are in perfect agreement with
extrapolations of the powerlaw radio spectrum and modified-blackbody dust
emission, respectively. This places limits on the presence of free-free
emission, which is similar to the expected free-free emission from the ionized
ejecta from SN1987A. Adjacent, fainter emission is observed at 0.87 mm
extending ~0.5' towards the south-west. This could be the impact of the
supernova progenitor's wind when it was still a red supergiant upon a dense
medium. Conclusions: We have established a continuous spectral energy
distribution for the emission from SN1987A and its immediate surroundings,
linking the IR and radio data. This places limits on the contribution from
ionized plasma. Our sub-mm image reveals complexity in the distribution of cold
dust surrounding SN1987A, but leaves room for freshly synthesized dust in the
SN ejecta.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters on 28
April 2011. A better quality figure 1 can be had from
http://www.astro.keele.ac.uk/~jacco/research/SN1987A087mm.ep
Incentives, Performance and Choking in Darts
This paper examines the effect of incentives on the performance of darts players. We analyze four data sets comprising a total of 123,402 darts matches of professional, amateur, and youth players. The game of darts offers an attractive natural research setting, because performance can be observed at the individual level and without the obscuring effects of risk considerations and the behavior of others. We find that amateur and youth players perform better under moderately higher incentives, but choke when the incentives are really high. Professional players similarly display better performance under higher incentives, but appear less susceptible of choking. These results speak to a growing literature on the limits of increasing incentives as a recipe for better performance
Measuring ambiguity attitude: (Extended) multiplier preferences for the American and the Dutch population
Empirical studies of ambiguity aversion often use measures that are not grounded in theory. This paper shows how a theoretically-founded measure of ambiguity aversion can be derived from Hansen and Sargent’s theory of multiplier preferences. Multiplier preferences are used in macroeconomics to capture model uncertainty. At the micro level, they have not been applied yet, because they do not permit ambiguity seeking, which is usually observed for a substantial proportion of subjects. We give a preference foundation for (extended) multiplier preferences accommodating both ambiguity aversion and ambiguity seeking and we propose a simple method to measure them using matching probabilities. We illustrate our method in two large representative samples (Dutch and American) and obtain the first micro estimates of multiplier preferences
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