The economics of insurance: a review and some recent developments.

The present paper is devoted to different methods of choice under risk in an actuarial setting. The classical expected utility theory is first presented, and its drawbacks are underlined. A second approach based on the so-called distorted expectation hypothesis is then described. It will be seen that the well-known stochastic dominance as well as the stop-loss order have common interpretations in both theories, while defining higher degree stochastic orders leads to different concepts. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the similarities of the two approaches of choice under risk as well as to point out their major differences.Economics; Insurance;

Investment, uncertainty and irreversibility: evidence from belgian accounting data

This paper investigates the effects of uncertainty on the investment behaviour using firm-level data for a sample of Belgian manufacturing firms. In general, the results confirm former analysis at the aggregate level, stating that uncertainty does matter but that the sign of the effect and its magnitude largely depend on which proxies are used and how they are defined. It is shown that uncertainty has mainly an impact on the decision to invest and to a much lesser extent on the amount invested. Furthermore, the difference between reversible and irreversible investment is crucial. The impact of volatility on irreversible investment is far more larger than on reversible investment. In some cases, the amount of reversible investment will increase with higher volatility.investment, uncertainty, irreversibility

Modality-specific Affective Responses and their Implications for Affective BCI

Reliable applications of multimodal affective brain-computer interfaces (aBCI) require a detailed understanding of the processes involved in emotions. To explore the modality-specific nature of affective responses, we studied neurophysiological responses of 24 subjects during visual, auditory, and audiovisual affect stimulation and obtained their subjective ratings. Coherent with literature, we found modality-specific responses in the EEG: parietal alpha power decreases during visual stimulation and increases during auditory stimulation, whereas more anterior alpha power decreases during auditory stimulation and increases during visual stimulation. We discuss the implications of these results for multimodal aBCI

Linearly ordered Eberlein compact spaces

AbstractIn this note we prove that every Eberlein compact linearly ordered space is metrizable. (By an Eberlein compact space we mean a topological space which can be embedded as a compact subset of a Banach space with the weak topology.

Cognitive control and binding in context-based decision-making : normal and dopamine deviant populations

Top-down guidance of behavior in a complex and dynamically changing world is often based on information held in working memory. Such guidance serves to bias decision-making processes in directions consistent with externally set rules or internally maintained intentions. Orthogonal to this goal-driven guidance, decisions may be biased also by stimulus-driven factors, such as the automatic reactivation of episodic associations that accompanied the current stimulus in a previous instance. We investigated whether top-down and bottom-up processes account for variation in context based decision making as measured by the AX-CPT in a behavioral [1] and fMRI study [2]. Moreover, several behavioural studies have indicated that transiently induced positive affect modulates control processes in context-based decision making, generally leading to enhanced flexibility. Using ERPs in a classic AX-CPT, we studied the temporal dynamics of a positive affect induction on control processes in context-based decision making [3]. Additionally, we studied learning the associations between a situation, the response to it, and the outcome of that decision and the effect of basal ganglia modulations on this learning process by means of a Parkinson’s patient study. Studies [1] and [2] pointed out that in decisions with rapidly changing environmental demands, goal-driven preparation is often beneficial but may also hamper performance which can be overcome by applying increased control. Moreover, this top-down bias is regulated more efficiently when the specific stimulus is presented in the same context it was previously associated with, compared to when it is presented in a new and unusual context. Additionally, fMRI study shed light on the way these stimulus-driven performance changes may be represented in the brain. Study [3] showed that a positive affect induction influenced reactive and evaluative components of control (indexed by the N2 elicited by the target, and by the Error-Related Negativity elicited after incorrect responses) in an AX-CPT task, whereas cue-induced preparation and maintenance processes remained largely unaffected (as reflected in the P3b and the Contingent Negative Variation components of the ERP). The patient studies suggest that moderate dopaminergic medication and STN stimulation in Parkinson’s patients [chapter 5,6] both improve learning functions relying on caudate and putamen. However, the improvement induced by dopaminergic medication largely depended on individual patient characteristics.LEI Universiteit LeidenNWO, LUF, KNAWFSW - Action Control - Ou