Job Assignment with Multivariate Skills

This paper analyzes the job assignment problem faced by a firm when workers’ skills are distributed along several dimensions and jobs require different skills to varying extent. I derive optimal assignment rules with and without slot constraints, and show that under certain circumstances workers may get promoted although in their new job they are expected to be less productive than in their old job. This can be interpreted as a version of the Peter Principle which states that workers get promoted up to their level of incompetence.job assignment, worker selection, internal hiring, Peter Principle, slot constraints, multi-dimensional skills

The Good, the Bad, and the Ordinary: Anti-Social Behavior in Profit and Non-Profit Organizations

Intrinsic motivation of workers may arise from different individual motives. While some workers care about the mission of an organization and derive an intrinsic benefit from advancing this mission ("good" workers), others derive pleasure from some form of destructive or anti-social behavior ("bad" workers). We show that mission-oriented organizations can take advantage of the intrinsic motivation of good workers. Compared to profit-oriented organizations, lower bonus payments and lower monitoring are necessary in order to achieve a high output. However, as soon as there are bad workers, mission-oriented organizations may become more vulnerable to their anti-social behavior than profit-oriented organizations. We analyze the optimal wage contracts and monitoring levels for both types of organization and discuss appropriate measures of ex ante candidate screening to overcome the problems caused by bad workers. --motivated agents,non-profit,sabotage,candidate selection

Anti-Social Behavior in Profit and Nonprofit Organizations

Two types of intrinsically motivated workers are considered: “good” workers care about the mission of an organization, whereas “bad” workers derive pleasure from destructive behavior. Compared to the case with only good motivated workers, the mission-oriented sector has to resort to higher monitoring to deter bad workers from entering the sector. In equilibrium, bad workers work in the for-profit sector where they behave like “normal”people, while good workers self select into the mission-oriented sector. In the profit-oriented sector, both monitoring and bonus payments for good behavior increase to control the damage caused by bad workers. The results of the paper are illustrated by examples from child care and the threat posed by pedophiles in this sector

A Multiplicative Concept for Random Utility

The paper introduces a new type of random utility model. Here the random term is formulated as a multiplicative factor to express the random effects of the utility together with deterministic utility aspects. Some arguments are given why this multiplicative approach is preferable over the additive solution which is more common in transportation planning. It is shown using the Weibull distribution, that this concept can be transformed into rather simple equations for the probability of the selection of different modes by individual travellers. More mathematical derivations show that the new concept has close relations to the Logit model. It can, however, provide one more degree of freedom and thus, better flexibility to adjust the model to reality. Also with other assumptions for the random utility term, like the lognormal distribution, this basic concept can be developed. For the model, a method of parameter calibration based on individual traveller’s decisions by maximum likelihood has been developed. The whole concept is demonstrated with real world data to demonstrate its usability

Essays in organization theory and personnel economics

This thesis contains three separate papers that deal with various aspects of organization theory and personnel economics. In the first paper, co-written with Frank Rosar, we consider situations where a principal and an agent favor different projects, whose success depends on both parties' efforts. While their conflict of interest is known, it is unclear to what extent they are willing to compromise on the project choice. We investigate the optimal allocation of two kinds of authority: the authority to initiate and the authority to approve a project. We find that delegation may negatively affect the agent's motivation. Furthermore, we show that the principal will delegate less authority the higher his willingness to compromise. The second paper, which is joint work with Emmanuelle Auriol, analyzes the impact of negative intrinsic motivation on the optimal labor contracts in profit- and mission-oriented organizations. Intrinsic motivation of workers may arise from different individual motives. While some workers care about the mission of an organization and derive an intrinsic benefit from advancing this mission (“good” workers), others derive pleasure from some form of destructive or anti-social behavior (“bad” workers). We show that mission-oriented organizations can take advantage of the intrinsic motivation of good workers such that lower bonus payments and lower monitoring are necessary in order to achieve a high output. However, mission-oriented organizations may also be more vulnerable to anti-social behavior than profit-oriented organizations if there are bad workers. We analyze the optimal wage contracts and monitoring levels for both types of organization and discuss appropriate measures of ex ante candidate screening to overcome the problems caused by bad workers. The third paper asks the question how workers should be assigned to jobs if they possess multidimensional skills that are of varying importance in different jobs. The paper derives optimal assignment rules and shows that under certain circumstances workers may get promoted although in their new job they are expected to be less productive than in their old job. This can be interpreted as a variant of the Peter Principle which states that workers get promoted up to their level of incompetence

Traffic jams and ordering far from thermal equilibrium

The recently suggested correspondence between domain dynamics of traffic models and the asymmetric chipping model is reviewed. It is observed that in many cases traffic domains perform the two characteristic dynamical processes of the chipping model, namely chipping and diffusion. This correspondence indicates that jamming in traffic models in which all dynamical rates are non-deterministic takes place as a broad crossover phenomenon, rather than a sharp transition. Two traffic models are studied in detail and analyzed within this picture.Comment: Contribution to the Niels Bohr Summer Institute on Complexity and Criticality; to appear in a Per Bak Memorial Issue of PHYSICA

A network traffic flow model for motorway and urban highways

The research reported in this paper develops a network level traffic flow model (NTFM) which is applicable for both motorway and urban roads. It forecasts the traffic flow rates, queue propagation at the junctions and travel delays through the network. NTFM uses sub-models associated with all road and junction types which comprise the highway. The flow at any one part of the network is obviously very dependent upon the flows at all other parts of the network. To predict the two-way traffic flow in NTFM, an iterative simulation method is executed to generate the evolution of dependent traffic flows and queues. To demonstrate the capability of the model it is applied to a small case study network and a local Loughborough-Nottingham highway network. The results indicate that NTFM is capable of identifying the relationship between traffic flows and capturing traffic phenomena such as queue dynamics. By introducing a reduced flow rate on links of the network then the effects of strategies employed to carry out roadworks can be mimicked

Optimizing Traffic Lights in a Cellular Automaton Model for City Traffic

We study the impact of global traffic light control strategies in a recently proposed cellular automaton model for vehicular traffic in city networks. The model combines basic ideas of the Biham-Middleton-Levine model for city traffic and the Nagel-Schreckenberg model for highway traffic. The city network has a simple square lattice geometry. All streets and intersections are treated equally, i.e., there are no dominant streets. Starting from a simple synchronized strategy we show that the capacity of the network strongly depends on the cycle times of the traffic lights. Moreover we point out that the optimal time periods are determined by the geometric characteristics of the network, i.e., the distance between the intersections. In the case of synchronized traffic lights the derivation of the optimal cycle times in the network can be reduced to a simpler problem, the flow optimization of a single street with one traffic light operating as a bottleneck. In order to obtain an enhanced throughput in the model improved global strategies are tested, e.g., green wave and random switching strategies, which lead to surprising results.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure

An empirical test for cellular automaton models of traffic flow

Based on a detailed microscopic test scenario motivated by recent empirical studies of single-vehicle data, several cellular automaton models for traffic flow are compared. We find three levels of agreement with the empirical data: 1) models that do not reproduce even qualitatively the most important empirical observations, 2) models that are on a macroscopic level in reasonable agreement with the empirics, and 3) models that reproduce the empirical data on a microscopic level as well. Our results are not only relevant for applications, but also shed new light on the relevant interactions in traffic flow.Comment: 28 pages, 36 figures, accepted for publication in PR

Использование микроконтроллера ESP32 совместно с гироприборами MPU-6050 и BNO055 при создании самобалансирующих роботов

Статья посвящена анализу возможностей электронных приборов, таких как гироскоп, акселерометр, магнитометр. Приводятся результаты тестирования и действующие алгоритмы. Анализируются возможности их применения в разных вариантах расчетов. Делаются выводы по развитию возможностей и устранению недостатков полученной комплексной системы позиционирования робота