An Experimental Study on Sequential Auctions with Privately Known Capacities

We experimentally study bidding behavior in sequential first-price procurement auctions where bidders\u2019 capacity constraints are private information. Treatment differs in the ex-ante probability distribution of sellers\u2019 capacities and in the (exogenous) probability that the second auction is actually implemented. Our results show that: (i) bidding behavior in the second auction conforms with sequential rationality; (ii) while first auction\u2019s bids negatively depend on capacity, bidders seem unable to recognize this link when, at the end of the first auction, they state their beliefs on the opponent\u2019s capacity. To rationalize this inconsistency between bids and beliefs, we conjecture that bidding in the first auction is also affected by a hidden, behavioral type \u2013 related to the strategic sophistication of bidders \u2013 that obfuscates the link between capacity and bids. Building on this intuition, we show that a simple level-k model may help explain the inconsistency

Estimates of non-genetic effects for measures of hunting performance in short-haired and rough-haired Italian hound

The aim of this work was to estimate the effects of eight non-genetic factors (sex, type of coat, pigmentation, type of the trial, the number of the judges in the jury, the location where the competition took place, the subjectivity of the judge and the breeders) on the assessment of seven hunting traits (morphology, the breed style, search, approach, find, pursuit and voice) for the short-haired and rough-haired Italian Hound. The data consisted of 3172 field trial records between the years 2016 and 2017. The Mann–Whitney test and Kruskal–Wallis test showed that each factor was statistically significant for some traits: the sex of the dogs was statistically significant only for the evaluation of the morphology the type of coat for breed style, search, approach, find and voice; the pigmentation for all traits excluding approach; the number of judges for morphology, approach and find; the type of trial for all traits excluding voice. Spearman's ρ (rho) correlation showed that high phenotypic correlations were between morphology, breed style and search. These traits showed low to moderate correlations with the other traits except breed style and search vs. pursuit. Furthermore, principal component analysis for the factor judge, location and breeders showed that among the seven traits assessed during the trials, the morphology and the breed style had the highest loading on the final score. Our results suggest that the effect of all the non-genetic factors analysed must be taken into account by the judges during the evaluation of the dogs.Highlights We evaluated the effects of eight non-genetic factors on the assessment of seven hunting traits for the Italian Hound. All the non-genetic factors had influence on some of the hunting traits considered. Principal component analysis showed that the highest loading for morphology and breed style are on location, judge and breeder. High phenotypic correlations were between morphology, breed style, search and pursuit

Variability of fibre quality on Chinese Alashan Left Banner White Cashmere goat

The heritability and the phenotypic and genetic correlations of down weight (DW), down fibre diameter (DFD), and coefficient of variation of the down fibre diameter (CVDFD) of Chinese Alashan Left Banner White Cashmere goat were estimated on 1375 one-year-old animals, born in 2009, 2011 and 2013 and bred at the Station for Livestock Improvement of Alashan (Left Banner, Inner Mongolia, P.R. China). For all traits, significant effects were for sex, cohort and sex–cohort interaction (p < .001). The heritability for DFD and CVDFD was high, 0.41 ± 0.08 and 0.52 ± 0.06, respectively. Heritability for the DW was low (0.12 ± 0.03). Phenotypic correlation calculated by Pearson's coefficient showed that DFD is positively correlated with both CVDFD (0.29 ± 0.07) and DW (0.20 ± 0.05). The phenotypic correlation between CVDFD and DW was negative (−0.11 ± 0.06). The genetic correlations between DW and CVDFD and between DFD and CVDFD were both high and positive (0.63 ± 0.16 and 0.39 ± 0.1, respectively) while the DW showed a negative genetic correlation with DFD (−0.27 ± 0.2). Our results suggest that the selection for reducing DFD and its CVDFD is possible and a genetic progress can be achieved quickly in the Chinese Alashan Left Banner White Cashmere goat

Alpha-synuclein gene duplication: Marked intrafamilial variability in two novel pedigrees

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Il Centro Allerta Tsunami (CAT) dell’INGV

The Tsunami Alert Centre of the INGV (CAT-INGV) was created with the aim of contributing to the mitigation of the risk due to tsunamis triggered by earthquakes on the Italian and Mediterranean coasts. Tsunamis of seismic origin, in addition to being the most frequent, are those that can be detected more quickly. Seismic waves, in fact, travel in the crust with a much higher speed than that of tsunami waves. With effective seismic networks connected in real time, an "Early Warning" system can be implemented, i.e. a system capable of sending an alert signal before the arrival of the tsunami waves, at least from a certain distance from the source. The CAT-INGV has two main tasks. The first one is to provide alerts to the competent authorities in the event of potential tsunamigenic earthquakes in the Mediterranean, taking into account the criteria defined by the Department of Civil Protection for this purpose. The second one consists in carrying out the necessary studies for the definition of the probabilistic danger of tsunamis for the Italian coasts, starting from those of seismic origin (Seismic Probabili-stic Tsunami Hazard Analysis, SPTHA). In this contribution the first aspect is described, while the realization of the studies on hazard at the Mediterranean scale is the subject of research described in various recent articles (Lorito et al., 2015; Grezio et al., 2017; Selva et al., 2017a; Selva et al., 2017b). The TSUMAPS-NEAM project, funded by the European Commission and concluded at the end of 2017, provided the first hazard map for the Mediterranean region and the north-east Atlantic (Basili et al., 2017).Published91-975T. Modelli di pericolosità sismica e da maremotoN/A or not JC

An experimental study on sequential auctions with privately known capacities

We experimentally study sequential procurement auctions where bidders' capacity constraints are private information. Our experiment involves two first-price auctions with a belief elicitation stage at the end of the first. Our results show that (i) observed behavior in the second auction is overall consistent with sequential rationality; (ii) first auction bids are decreasing in the capacity of the bidder, but (iii) stated beliefs are inconsistent with the actual play. Hence, subjects seem to be aware of the opportunity cost of early bids (which leads capacity constrained bidders to bid more cautiously than unconstrained ones); on the other hand, since they do not recognize the informative content of bids, the potential signaling cost associated with early bids does not come into play. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Sophisticated Bidders in Beauty-Contest Auctions

We study bidding behavior by firms in beauty-contest auctions, i.e. auctions in which the winning bid is the one which gets closest to some function (average) of all submitted bids. Using a dataset on public procurement beauty-contest auctions, we show that firms\u2019 observed bidding behavior departs from equilibrium and can be predicted by a sophistication index, which captures the firms\u2019 accumulated capacity of bidding close to optimality in the past. We show that our empirical evidence is consistent with a Cognitive Hierarchy model of bidders\u2019 behavior. We also investigate whether and how firms learn to bid strategically through experience

Sophisticated Bidders in Beauty-Contest Auctions

In this paper, we study bidding behavior by firms in beauty-contest auctions, i.e. auctions in which the winning bid is the one which gets closest to some function (average) of all submitted bids. Using a dataset on public procurement beauty-contest auctions in Italy and exploiting a change in the auction format, we show that firms' observed biddin behavior departs from equilibrium and can be predicted by an index of sophistication, which captures the firms' accumulated capacity of bidding well (i.e. close to optimality) in the past. We show that our empirical evidence is consistent with a Cognitive Hierarchy model of bidders' behavior. We also investigate whether and how firms learn to think and bid strategically through experience

Sophisticated Bidders in Beauty-Contest Auctons

URL des Documents de travail : http://ces.univ-paris1.fr/cesdp/cesdp2017.htmlDocuments de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 2017.03 - ISSN : 1955-611XWe study bidding behavior by firms in beauty-contest auctions, i.e. auctions in which the winning bid is the one which gets closet to some function (average) of all submitted bids. Using a dataset on public procurement beauty-contest auctions, we show that firms' observed bidding behavior departs from equilibrium and can be predicted by a sophistication index, which captures the firms' accumulated capacity of bidding close to optimality in the past. We show that our empirical evidence is consistent with a Cognitive Hierarchy model of bidders' behavior. We also investigate whether and how firms learn to bid strategically through experience