The Effects of Group Interaction in a Public Goods Experiment With Two Exchanges

Consumers can often allocate resources to the provision of local public goods and to the provision of global public goods. This paper reports a public goods experiment in which participants allocated tokens to a local exchange with a relatively high marginal payoff and a global exchange with a lower marginal payoff but a higher potential payoff. The experiment consisted of three treatments with varying degree of interaction amongst the members of the local groups. When participants were not allowed to interact they allocated more tokens to the global exchange. This result suggests that individuals care about the potential payoff of the group exchange more than about the marginal payoff of the exchange. When we allowed members of each local group to communicate, they kept almost no tokens for themselves and attempted to coordinate their contributions to the global exchange with members of the other local group.Voluntary Contributions Mechanism, Public Goods Experiment, Group Identity, Communication, Coordination

Should Cheat Sheets be Used as Study Aids in Economics Tests?

This paper reports an experiment that investigates the effectiveness of cheat sheets as study aids for economics tests. A cheat sheet is a piece of paper that students can write anything they want on and use during a test. I find that both preparing and using a cheat sheet improves students' test performance. Additionally, there is no evidence that students become over dependent on their cheat sheets for answers.

A Model of Fishing Conflicts in Foreign Fisheries

Coastal nations can impose conditions of use on foreign fishing firms that operate in their Exclusive Economic Zone. We develop a game-theoretical model in which a fishery owner maximizes the revenue that it collects from firms that operate in its EEZ by charging them a fishing fee. We find that if the number of firms is exogenous and finite the owner is likely to select a fee that is higher than socially optimal. On the other hand, if the owner can choose the number of firms it does not place any restrictions on entry to the EEZ and selects a fee that maximizes net return.Renewable Resources, Fisheries Management, Coastal Nations, Fishing Fee

Social Sentiments and Their Effects on Communities

Several authors recognize that consumers have social sentiments and therefore derive utility from contributing resources to the provision of public goods. However, there is little discussion in the literature on how these sentiments develop. This paper models how social sentiments develop in communities and how they affect private provision. We propose that increases in the provision of public goods lead to increases in consumers’ social sentiments. Given the assumptions of the model a community would converge to an equilibrium level of social sentiments with higher private provision that predicted by traditional theory. Although government provision partially crowds out private provision in the short-run it can increase, or crowds in, private provision in the long run by moving the community to a new equilibrium with higher social sentiments. When consumers have heterogeneous preferences, the government can increase private provision and move the community to an equilibrium with higher social sentiments by redistributing income between consumers.

Modifications of the wideband FM TDRS system

The wideband FM scheme for the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system is discussed. The technique achieves a spread-spectrum advantage against multipath and interference through the inclusion of a large deviation FM subcarrier. The signal also permits co-channel spread-spectrum multipath access (SSMA) on the downlink from mission spacecraft to TDRS. Each user is assigned a unique combination of carrier and subcarrier which allows the ground receiver to separate user signals with overlapping spectra. The system was modified by the addition of a low-deviation fine range tone to both the uplink and the downlink, separate from the wide-deviation subcarrier. The magnitude of the interference components due to other SSMA signals are analyzed. A carrier and subcarrier frequency plan was worked out based on the modified signal format. A configuration to accommodate 42 and 60 users is described. The inclusion of ambiguity resolving ranging sidetones is also discussed

SNR behavior of coherent phase demodulators. Radio communications study on noise threshold reduction Final report

Signal to noise ratio analysis at outputs of three coherent phase detectors for radio noise threshold reduction stud

Multipath signal model development

The development and use of mathematical models of signals received through the multipath environmental of a TDRS-to-user spacecraft link and vice versa are discussed. The TDRS (tracking and data relay satellite) will be in synchronous orbit. The user spacecraft will be in a low altitude orbit between 200 and 4000 km

The Trauma of Dishonor: Exploring the Ramifications of Dishonor in Classical and Modern Society

Exploratory in nature, this thesis investigated whether dishonor can be categorized as traumatic. With a foundation of existing research in trauma and honor, primary source analyses were conducted on classical texts, and a psychological study was conducted with participants living in the United States. The main primary source analyses were based on case studies, centering on Achilles, an ancient Greek hero, and Dido, an ancient Roman queen, who both experienced severe dishonor. Specifically, the narratives of Achilles and Queen Dido served as portrayals of dishonor in the form of a male hero who has his honor seized, and a woman whose reputation of chastity and piety is ruined. Both figures displayed increased aggression, melancholy, and humiliation in response to their shame, as well as varied symptoms of modern traumatic disorders. In comparison, the psychological study evaluated the perceived trauma of various dishonorable scenarios, with emphasis on how they were impacted by participant demographic factors. The study entailed participants reading six self-insert vignettes describing experiences of threat of death, injury, sexual assault, public shaming, dishonorable discharge from the military, and bringing dishonor upon one’s family. Though the results indicated that the vignettes were not rated to be equally traumatic, there was no clear differentiation between the dishonor and fundamental traumas, providing support for the dishonorable scenarios being traumatic in contemporary society, particularly for individuals who value honor. Together, the results indicated support for the trauma of dishonor in both the ancient Mediterranean as well as the contemporary United States

Using Course Currency As A Didactic Tool

Classroom participation is an important and frequently used pedagogical strategy. This paper examines how awarding students with course currency, bills that are redeemable for bonus points at the end of the term, affects class participation and students’ understanding of the material. The research uses surveys and data analysis to examine the effectiveness of using course currency. It finds that course currency increases students’ participation, improves students’ grades and is generally liked by students. Course currency can also be effectively used in simulations of socioeconomic institutions

Can Agents Be Trusted? Experimental Evidence From The Monitoring Game

Most principals can monitor their agents, but monitoring is usually costly and imperfect. This paper reports the experimental results of a Monitoring Game. In this sequential game, each principal decides whether to monitor an agent that he is randomly paired with and then the agent decides whether to cheat or be honest. Monitoring is costly, but it increases the probability that the agent will get caught. The experiment shows that cheating is commonplace, although most participants do not cheat if they are monitored. Additionally, cheating is more common when neutral terms are used in the instructions