263 research outputs found
Delegation and Rewards
We study experimentally whether anti-corruption policies with a focus on bribery might be insufficient to uncover more subtle ways of gaining an unfair advantage. In particular, we investigate whether an implicit agreement to exchange favors between a decision-maker and a lobbying party serves as a legal substitute for corruption. Due to the obvious lack of field data on these activities, the laboratory provides an excellent opportunity to study this question. We find that even the pure anticipation of future rewards from a lobbying party suffices to bias a decision-maker in favor of this party, even though it creates negative externalities to others. Although future rewards are not contractible, the benefitting party voluntarily compensates decision-makers for partisan choices. In this way, both receive higher payoffs, but aggregate welfare is lower than without a rewards channel. Thus, the outcome mirrors what might have been achieved via conventional bribing, while not being illegal
Fairness and Cheating
We present evidence from a laboratory experiment showing that individuals who believe they were treated unfairly in an interaction with another person are more likely to cheat in a subsequent unrelated game. Specifically, subjects first participated in a dictator game. They then flipped a coin in private and reported the outcome. Subjects could increase their total payoff by cheating, i.e., lying about the outcome of the coin toss. We found that subjects were more likely to cheat in reporting the outcome of the coin flip when: 1) they received either nothing or a very small transfer from the dictator; and 2) they claimed to have been treated unfairly. This is consistent with the view that experiencing a norm violation is sufficient to justify the violation of another norm at the expense of a third party. This result extends the growing literature on social norms
Fairness and Cheating
We present evidence from a laboratory experiment showing that individuals who believe they were treated unfairly in an interaction with another person are more likely to cheat in a subsequent unrelated game. Specifically, subjects first participated in a dictator game. They then flipped a coin in private and reported the outcome. Subjects could increase their total payoff by cheating, i.e., lying about the outcome of the coin toss. We found that subjects were more likely to cheat in reporting the outcome of the coin flip when: 1) they received either nothing or a very small transfer from the dictator; and 2) they claimed to have been treated unfairly. This is consistent with the view that experiencing a norm violation is sufficient to justify the violation of another norm at the expense of a third party. This result extends the growing literature on social norms.cheating; social norms; experimental design
Risk attitudes and Medicare Part D enrollment decisions
The new Medicare Part D program provides prescription drug coverage for older Americans through highly subsidized and tightly regulated plans offered by private insurance firms. For most eligible individuals without coverage from other sources, obtaining Part D coverage would be rational, but it requires active enrollment and plan choice decisions. We investigate if non-enrollment in Medicare Part D can partly be explained by risk aversion. Data are taken from a national online survey conducted just after the introduction Part D. The survey included a context-free and a context-related hypothetical lottery to measure an individual’s attitude towards risk. Respondents who are risk tolerant according to these measures were significantly less likely to enroll in Part D. We also illustrate that hypothetical choice questions designed to elicit risk attitudes are subject to reference-point effects. Even minor differences in the priming of respondents can result in potentially misleading conclusions about the role of risk aversion in the insurance decisions
Risk attitudes and Medicare Part D enrollment decisions
The new Medicare Part D program provides prescription drug coverage for older Americans through highly subsidized and tightly regulated plans offered by private insurance firms. For most eligible individuals without coverage from other sources, obtaining Part D coverage would be rational, but it requires active enrollment and plan choice decisions. We investigate if non-enrollment in Medicare Part D can partly be explained by risk aversion. Data are taken from a national online survey conducted just after the introduction Part D. The survey included a context-free and a context-related hypothetical lottery to measure an individual’s attitude towards risk. Respondents who are risk tolerant according to these measures were significantly less likely to enroll in Part D. We also illustrate that hypothetical choice questions designed to elicit risk attitudes are subject to reference-point effects. Even minor differences in the priming of respondents can result in potentially misleading conclusions about the role of risk aversion in the insurance decisions.Risk aversion; Medicare Part D; heterogeneous preferences; insurance demand; survey design
The role of S100 proteins and their receptor RAGE in pancreatic cancer
ABSTRACTPancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a devastating disease with low survival rates. Current therapeutic treatments have very poor response rates due to the high inherent chemoresistance of the pancreatic-cancer cells. Recent studies have suggested that the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) and its S100 protein ligands play important roles in the progression of PDAC. We will discuss the potential role of S100 proteins and their receptor, RAGE, in the development and progression of pancreatic cancer
The role of S100 proteins and their receptor RAGE in pancreatic cancer
ABSTRACTPancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a devastating disease with low survival rates. Current therapeutic treatments have very poor response rates due to the high inherent chemoresistance of the pancreatic-cancer cells. Recent studies have suggested that the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) and its S100 protein ligands play important roles in the progression of PDAC. We will discuss the potential role of S100 proteins and their receptor, RAGE, in the development and progression of pancreatic cancer
Integrating Mental Health Services into Humanitarian Relief Responses to Social Emergencies, Disasters, and Conflicts: A Case Study
Utilizing lessons learned from development and implementation of "Project Liberty” in New York City, created in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001, this paper explores the importance of integrating structured mental health services with community-based social service programs offered in large-scale humanitarian relief responses. Relevant international research studies illustrating similar integrated programs are also reviewed. The primary approach is community-based and resilience-enhancement focused, offering structure, stability, support, and community cohesion, with an added integrated screening component to identify persons with severe treatable mental health conditions. Because there is thus far little evidence that resilience-enhancing programs are effective for severe mental health conditions, a secondary program initiated in parallel would be staffed with more specialized providers offering services for those referred from the primary program. The key implication supports the establishment of more effective links between programs and professionals from different disciplines, who then can more effectively implement integrated program responses to large-scale disaster
New Facets of Semantic Interoperability: Adding JSON - JSON-LD Transformation Functionality to the BIG IoT API
The BIG IoT project focuses on easy integration of the IoT data and services offered by existing IoT platforms and services based on semantic technologies. To enable IoT applications to consume data and services provided by heterogeneous systems and different stakeholders, a common set of ontologies and an RDF triple store with querying functionalities are used in the service discovery phase. The subsequent communication between such applications or services (as consumer) and the provider can be optimized as well. The process of automatically transforming JSON-serialized responses from an IoT data provider to linked data format is discussed and the benefits of this automation are explored in this poster contribution
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