Raising Revenue With Raffles: Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment

Lottery and raffle mechanisms have a long history as economic institutions for raising funds. In a series of laboratory experiments we find that total spending in raffles is much higher than Nash equilibrium predicts. Moreover, this overspending is persistent as the number of participants in the raffle increases. Subjects as a group do not strategically reduce spending as group sizes increase, in contrast to the comparative statics theory provides. The lack of strategic response cannot be explained by learning direction theory or level-$k$ reasoning models, although quantal response equilibrium can fit the observed distribution of choices. Much of the observed spending levels in the larger groups cannot be explained by financial incentives.

Three Essays on Bargaining over Decision Rights and Contests

This dissertation consists of three chapters where the first two chapters study models ofbargaining over decision rights and the third chapter studies a model of contests.In the first chapter, "Selling Authority," I consider bargaining over decision-making authorityin which an informed but self-interested agent makes a price offer to buy decision-makingauthority to an uninformed principal who then decides either to accept or to rejectthe offer. No matter how large the difference between parties' preferences, there exists acontinuum of perfect Bayesian equilibria, each of which yields an ex-post efficient action forany realization of the state. In these equilibria, delegation takes place with probability one and no information is transmitted, even though the informed agent's price offers could have been used as a signaling device. However, I also construct an infinite sequence of informative equilibria that approximates ex-post efficiency in the limit.The second chapter, "Communication in Bargaining over Deicison Right," develops a model of bargaining over decision-rights between an uninformed principal and an informed but self-interested agent. The uninformed principal makes a price offer to the agent who then decides either to accept or to reject the offer. Contrary to the prediction the Coase Theorem provides, actions induced in the unique perfect Bayesian equilibrium do not always satisfy ex-post efficiency. Once we introduce explicit communication into the model, however, there exists a truth-telling perfect Bayesian equilibrium, even when the conflict of interest isarbitrarily large. The truth-telling equilibrium outcome is ex-ante Pareto superior to that ofseveral dispute-resolution schemes studied in the framework of Crawford and Sobel (1982).The third chapter, "Contests with a stochastic number of players," studies the Tullock's(1980) n-player contest where each player has an independent probability p in [0,1] to participate. A unique symmetric equilibrium is found for any n and p and its properties are analyzed. In particular, we show that for a fixed n > 2 the individual equilibrium spending is non-monotonic whereas the total equilibrium spending is monotonically increasing in p and n. We also show that the ex-post over-dissipation is a natural feature of the equilibrium in our model

Eliciting Private Information with Noise: The Case of Randomized Response

Blume A, Lai EK, Lim W. Eliciting Private Information with Noise: The Case of Randomized Response. Center for Mathematical Economics Working Papers. Vol 490. Bielefeld: Center for Mathematical Economics; 2013.The paper formalizes Warner's (1965) randomized response technique (RRT) as a game and implements it experimentally, thus linking game theoretic approaches to randomness in communication with survey practice in the field and a novel implementation in the lab. As predicted by our model and in line with Warner, the frequency of truthful responses is significantly higher with randomization than without. The model predicts that randomization weakly improves information elicitation, as measured in terms of mutual information, although, surprisingly, not always by RRT inducing truth-telling. Contrary to this prediction, randomization significantly reduces the elicited information in our experiment

Sex-specific expression of CTNNB1 in the gonadal morphogenesis of the chicken

BACKGROUND: Beta-catenin (CTNNB1), as a key transcriptional regulator in the WNT signal transduction cascade, plays a pivotal role in multiple biological functions such as embryonic development and homeostasis in adults. Although it has been suggested that CTNNB1 is required for gonad development and maintenance of ovarian function in mice, little is known about the expression and functional role of CTNNB1 in gonadal development and differentiation in the chicken reproductive system. METHODS: To examine sex-specific, cell-specific and temporal expression of CTNNB1 mRNA and protein during gonadal development to maturation of reproductive organs, we collected left and right gonads apart from mesonephric kidney of chicken embryos on embryonic day (E) 6, E9, E14, E18, as well as testes, oviduct and ovaries from 12-week-old and adult chickens and performed quantitative PCR, in situ hybridization, and immunohistochemical analyses. In addition, localization of Sertoli cell markers such as anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), estrogen receptor alpha (ESR1), cyclin D1 (CCND1) and N-cadherin (CDH2) during testicular development was evaluated. RESULTS: Results of the present study showed that CTNNB1 mRNA and protein are expressed predominantly in the seminiferous cords on E6 to E14 in the male embryonic gonad, and are mainly localized to the medullary region of female embryonic gonads from E6 to E9. In addition, CTNNB1 mRNA and protein are abundant in the Sertoli cells in the testes and expressed predominantly in luminal epithelial cells of the oviduct, but not in the ovaries from 12-week-old and adult chickens. Concomitant with CTNNB1, AMH, ESR1, CCND1 and CDH2 were detected predominantly in the seminiferous cord of the medullary region of male gonads at E9 (after sex determination) and then maintained or decreased until hatching. Interestingly, AMH, ESR1, CCND1 and CDH2 were located in seminiferous tubules of the testes from 12-weeks-old chickens and ESR1, CCND1 and CDH2 were expressed predominantly in the Sertoli cells within seminiferous tubules of adult testes. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, these results revealed that CTNNB1 is present in gonads of both sexes during embryonic development and it may play essential roles in differentiation of Sertoli cells during formation of seminiferous tubules during development of the testes

Mentides a les xarxes : ens ho empassem tot, a internet?

The reproductive system of chickens undergoes dynamic morphological and functional tissue remodeling during the molting period. The present study identified global gene expression profiles following oviductal tissue regression and regeneration in laying hens in which molting was induced by feeding high levels of zinc in the diet. During the molting and recrudescence processes, progressive morphological and physiological changes included regression and re-growth of reproductive organs and fluctuations in concentrations of testosterone, progesterone, estradiol and corticosterone in blood. The cDNA microarray analysis of oviductal tissues revealed the biological significance of gene expression-based modulation in oviductal tissue during its remodeling. Based on the gene expression profiles, expression patterns of selected genes such as, TF, ANGPTL3, p20K, PTN, AvBD11 and SERPINB3 exhibited similar patterns in expression with gradual decreases during regression of the oviduct and sequential increases during resurrection of the functional oviduct. Also, miR-1689* inhibited expression of Sp1, while miR-17-3p, miR-22* and miR-1764 inhibited expression of STAT1. Similarly, chicken miR-1562 and miR-138 reduced the expression of ANGPTL3 and p20K, respectively. These results suggest that these differentially regulated genes are closely correlated with the molecular mechanism(s) for development and tissue remodeling of the avian female reproductive tract, and that miRNA-mediated regulation of key genes likely contributes to remodeling of the avian reproductive tract by controlling expression of those genes post-transcriptionally. The discovered global gene profiles provide new molecular candidates responsible for regulating morphological and functional recrudescence of the avian reproductive tract, and provide novel insights into understanding the remodeling process at the genomic and epigenomic levels

Hypermethylation and Post-Transcriptional Regulation of DNA Methyltransferases in the Ovarian Carcinomas of the Laying Hen

DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) are key regulators of DNA methylation and have crucial roles in carcinogenesis, embryogenesis and epigenetic modification. In general, DNMT1 has enzymatic activity affecting maintenance of DNA methylation, whereas DNMT3A and DNMT3B are involved in de novo methylation events. Although DNMT genes are well known in mammals including humans and mice, they are not well studied in avian species, especially the laying hen which is recognized as an excellent animal model for research on human ovarian carcinogenesis. Results of the present study demonstrated that expression of DNMT1, DNMT3A and DNMT3B genes was significantly increased, particularly in the glandular epithelia (GE) of cancerous ovaries, but not normal ovaries. Consistent with this result, immunoreactive 5-methylcytosine protein was predominantly abundant in nuclei of stromal and GE cells of cancerous ovaries, but it was also found that, to a lesser extent, in nuclei of stromal cells of normal ovaries. Methylation-specific PCR analysis detected hypermethylation of the promoter regions of the tumor suppressor genes in the initiation and development of chicken ovarian cancer. Further, several microRNAs, specifically miR-1741, miR-16c, and miR-222, and miR-1632 were discovered to influence expression of DNMT3A and DNMT3B, respectively, via their 3'-UTR which suggests post-transcriptional regulation of their expression in laying hens. Collectively, results of the present study demonstrated increased expression of DNMT genes in cancerous ovaries of laying hens and post-transcriptional regulation of those genes by specific microRNAs, as well as control of hypermethylation of the promoters of tumor suppressor genes