The time-preference Nash solution

We give an axiomatic characterization of the Time-Preference Nash Solution, a bargaining solution that is applied when the underlying preferences are defined over streams of physical outcomes. This bargaining solution is similar to the ordinal Nash solution introduced by Rubinstein, Safra, and Thomson (1992), but it gives a different prediction when the set of physical outcomes is a set of lotteries.

The Time-Preference Nash Solution

We give an axiomatic characterization of the Time-Preference Nash Solution, a bargaining solution that is applied when the underlying preferences are defined over streams of physical outcomes. This bargaining solution is similar to the ordinal Nash solution introduced by Rubinstein, Safra and Thomson (1992), but it gives a different prediction when the set of physical outcomes is a set of lotteries.bargaining, ordinal Nash solution.

Modeling Oligopolistic Price Adjustment in Micro Level Panel Data

Consumer prices in many markets are persistently dispersed both across retail outlets and over time. While the cross sectional distribution of prices is stable, individual stores change their position in the distribution over time. It is a challenge to model oligopolistic price adjustment to capture these features of consumer markets. In belief based models of price adjustment stores react to expected profits. The expectations are based on the observed vector of market prices in the previous periods. In a reinforcement model of price adjustment, if a strategy has proven fruitful in the past, it is apt to be the strategy relied upon at the present. We collect price data on a homogeneous consumer product in Israel. We estimate the structural parameter of the models. We find that the reinforcement model describes the data better than the belief based models. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG - ( Modeling Oligopolistic Price Adjustment in Micro Level Panel Data) Preise für viele Konsumgüter sind weit verteilt. Dies gilt sowohl für die Verteilung über die Zeit als auch für die Verteilung zwischen den Verkaufsstellen. Während die Querschnittsverteilung der Preise stabil ist, wechseln die einzelnen Verkaufsstellen ihre Position in der Verteilung über die Zeit. Es stellt eine Herausforderung dar, diese Merkmale der Märkte für Konsumgüter zu modellieren. Im Vermutungslernen bilden die Verkaufstätten Erwartungen über das zukünftige Preissetzungsverhalten der Konkurrenz. Die Erwartungen basieren auf dem vorherigen Entscheidungsverhalten der Konkurrenz. Im Bekräftigungslernen werden erfolgreiche Strategien gerne wiederholt. Preisdaten eines homogenen Gutes in Israel werden erhoben. Die strukturellen Parameter der Modelle werden geschätzt. Bekräftigungslernen beschreibt das tatsächliche Entscheidungsverhalten besser als Vermutungslernen.Experiments; Information; Learning

A Characterization of the Nash Bargaining Solution

We characterize the Nash bargaining solution replacing the axiom of Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives with three independent axioms: Independence of Non-Individually Rational Alternatives, Twisting and Disagreement Point Convexity. We give a non-cooperative bargaining interpretation to this last axiom.bargaining problem; Nash solution; axiomatic characterization; Independence of Non-Individually Rational Alternatives; Twisting; Disagreement Point Convexity

An optimal mechanism charging for priority in a queue

We derive a revenue-maximizing scheme that charges customers who are homogeneous with respect to their waiting cost parameter for a random fee in order to become premium customers. This scheme incentivizes all customers to purchase priority, each at his/her drawn price. We also design a revenue-maximizing scheme for the case where customers are heterogeneous with respect to their waiting cost parameter. Now lower cost parameter customers are encouraged to join the premium class at a low price: Given that, those with high cost parameter would be willing to pay even more for this privilege

Bargaining with an Agenda

We propose a new framework for bargaining in which the process follows an agenda. The agenda is represented by a family, parameterized by time, of increasing sets of joint utilities for possible agreements. This is in contrast to the single set used in the standard framework. The set at each time involves all possible agreements on the issues discussed up to that time. A \emph{bargaining solution} for an agenda specifies a path of agreements, one for each time. We characterize axiomatically a solution that is ordinal, meaning that it is covariant with order- preserving transformations of the utility representations. It can be viewed as the limit of a step-by-step bargaining process in which the agreement point of the last negotiation becomes the disagreement point for the next. The stepwise agreements may follow the Nash solution, the Kalai-Smorodinsky solution or many others, and the ordinal solution will still emerge as the steps tend to zero. Shapley showed that ordinal solutions exist for the standard framework for three players but not for two; the present framework generates an ordinal solution for any number of bargainers, in particular for two.bargaining, ordinal utility

Interactions between workers and the technology of production: evidence from professional baseball

This paper examines how the effort choices of workers within the same firm interact with each other. In contrast to the existing literature, we show that workers can affect the productivity of their co-workers based on income maximization considerations, rather than relying on behavioral considerations such as peer pressure, social norms, and shame. Theoretically, we show that a worker's effort has a positive effect on the effort of co-workers if they are complements in production, and a negative effect if they are substitutes. The theory is tested using panel data on the performance of baseball players from 1970 to 2003. The empirical analysis shows that a player's batting average significantly increases with the batting performance of his peers, but decreases with the quality of the team's pitching. Furthermore, a pitcher's performance increases with the pitching quality of his teammates, but is unaffected by the batting output of the team. These results are inconsistent with behavioral explanations which predict that shirking by any kind of worker will increase shirking by all fellow workers. The results are consistent with the idea that the effort choices of workers interact in ways that are dependent on the technology of production. These findings are robust to controlling for individual fixed-effects, and to using changes in the composition of one's co-workers in order to produce exogenous variation in the performance of one's peers