Positive Expectations Feedback Experiments and Number Guessing Games as Models of Financial Markets

In repeated number guessing games choices typically converge quickly to the Nash equilibrium. In positive expectations feedback experiments, however, convergence to the equilibrium price tends to be very slow, if it occurs at all. Both types of experimental designs have been suggested as modeling essential aspects of financial markets. In order to isolate the source of the differences in outcomes we present several new treatments in this paper. We conclude that the feedback strength (i.e. the ‘p-value’ in standard number guessing games) is essential for the results. Furthermore, positive expectations feedback experiments may provide good representations of highly speculative markets while standard number guessing games model financial markets with more emphasis on dividend yield and value stocks

Laboratory experiments in innovation research: a methodological overview and a review of the current literature

Innovation research has developed a broad set of methodological approaches in recent decades. In this paper, we propose laboratory experiments as a fruitful methodological addition to the existing methods in innovation research. Therefore, we provide an overview of the existing methods, discuss the advantages and limitations of laboratory experiments, and review experimental studies dealing with different fields of innovation policy, namely intellectual property rights, financial instruments, payment schemes, and R&D competition. These studies show that laboratory experiments can fruitfully complement the established methods in innovation research and provide novel empirical evidence by creating and analyzing counterfactual situations

A Survey of Experimental Research on Contests, All-Pay Auctions and Tournaments

Many economic, political and social environments can be described as contests in which agents exert costly efforts while competing over the distribution of a scarce resource. These environments have been studied using Tullock contests, all-pay auctions and rankorder tournaments. This survey provides a review of experimental research on these three canonical contests. First, we review studies investigating the basic structure of contests, including the contest success function, number of players and prizes, spillovers and externalities, heterogeneity, and incomplete information. Second, we discuss dynamic contests and multi-battle contests. Then we review research on sabotage, feedback, bias, collusion, alliances, and contests between groups, as well as real-effort and field experiments. Finally, we discuss applications of contests to the study of legal systems, political competition, war, conflict avoidance, sales, and charities, and suggest directions for future research. (author's abstract

Cooperation, Punishment and Organized Crime: A Lab-inthe Field Experiment in Southern Italy

This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation which provides insights into the social preferences of organized criminals and how these differ from those of “ordinary”criminals on the one hand and from those of the non-criminal population in the same ge- ographical area on the other. We develop experimental evidence on cooperation and re- sponse to sanctions by running prisoner’s dilemma and third party punishment games on three different pools of subjects; students, ordinary criminals and Camorristi (Neapolitan ‘Mafiosi’). The latter two groups were recruited from within prisons. Camorra prisoners show a high degree of cooperativeness and a strong tendency to punish defectors, as well as a clear rejection of the imposition of external rules even at significant cost to them- selves. The subsequent econometric analysis further enriches our understanding demon- strating inter alia that individuals’ locus of control and reciprocity are associated with quite different and opposing behaviours amongst different participant types; a strong sense of self-determination and reciprocity both imply a higher propensity to punish for Camorra inmates, but quite the opposite for ordinary criminals, further reinforcing the contrast be- tween the behaviour of ordinary criminals and the strong internal mores of Camorra clans

No effect of oral insulin on residual beta-cell function in recent-onset type I diabetes (the IMDIAB VII). IMDIAB Group

Induction of tolerance to insulin is achievable in animal models of Type I (insulin-dependent) Diabetes mellitus by oral treatment with this hormone, which can lead to prevention of the disease. In the Diabetes Prevention Trial of Type I diabetes (DPT-1), oral insulin is given with the aim of preventing disease insurgence. We investigated whether if given at diagnosis of Type I diabetes in humans, oral insulin can still act as a tolerogen and therefore preserve residual beta-cell function, which is known to be substantial at diagnosis

No effect of oral insulin on residual beta-cell function in recent-onset type I diabetes (the IMDIAB VII). IMDIAB Group

Induction of tolerance to insulin is achievable in animal models of Type I (insulin-dependent) Diabetes mellitus by oral treatment with this hormone, which can lead to prevention of the disease. In the Diabetes Prevention Trial of Type I diabetes (DPT-1), oral insulin is given with the aim of preventing disease insurgence. We investigated whether if given at diagnosis of Type I diabetes in humans, oral insulin can still act as a tolerogen and therefore preserve residual beta-cell function, which is known to be substantial at diagnosis