Discrimination and Workers' Expectations

The paper explores the role of workers' expectations as am original explanation for the puzzling long run persistence of discrimination against some minorities in the labor market. A game of incomplete information is presented, showing that ex ante identical groups of workers may be characterized by unequal outcomes in equilibrium due to their different beliefs, even though discriminatory tastes and statistical discrimination by employers have disappeared. Wrong beliefs of being discriminated against are self-confirming in this circumstance, being the ultimate cause of a lower percentage of promotions which supports these wrong beliefs.discrimination, workers' expectations, self-confirming beliefs

Costless Discrimination and Unequal Achievements in a Labour Market Experiment

We investigate the emergence of discrimination in an experiment where individuals affiliated to different groups compete for a monetary prize, submitting independent bids to an auctioneer. The auctioneer receives perfect information about the bids (i.e. there is no statistical discrimination), and she has no monetary incentive to favour the members of her own group (the bidders are symmetric). We observe nonetheless some discrimination by auctioneers, who tend to assign the prize more frequently to a member of their own group when two or more players put forward the highest bid. Out-group bidders react to this bias and reduce significantly their bids, causing an average decay of their earnings throughout the game, with cumulative effects that generate strongly unequal outcomes. Because the initial bias is costless, such mechanism can survive even in competitive market, providing a rationale for a well-known puzzle in the literature, i.e. the long-run persistence of discrimination.discrimination, tournament, groups, experiment

Family Background, Self-Confidence and Economic Outcomes

In this paper we analyze the role played by self-confidence, modeled as beliefs about one's ability, in shaping task choices. We propose a model in which fully rational agents exploit all the available information to update their beliefs using Bayes' rule, eventually learning their true type. We show that when the learning process does not convergence quickly to the true ability level, even small differences in initial confidence can result in diverging patterns of human capital accumulation between otherwise identical individuals. As long as inital differences in the level of self-confidence are correlated with the socioeconomic background (as a large body of empirical evidence suggests), self-confidence turns out to be a channel through which education and earnings inequalities are transmitted across generations. Our theory suggests that cognitive tests should take place as early as possible, in order to avoid that systematic differences in self-confidence among equally talented people lead to the emergence of gaps in the accumulation of human capital.self-confidence, family background

Accurate solution of the Dirac equation on Lagrange meshes

The Lagrange-mesh method is an approximate variational method taking the form of equations on a grid because of the use of a Gauss quadrature approximation. With a basis of Lagrange functions involving associated Laguerre polynomials related to the Gauss quadrature, the method is applied to the Dirac equation. The potential may possess a $1/r$ singularity. For hydrogenic atoms, numerically exact energies and wave functions are obtained with small numbers $n+1$ of mesh points, where $n$ is the principal quantum number. Numerically exact mean values of powers $-2$ to 3 of the radial coordinate $r$ can also be obtained with $n+2$ mesh points. For the Yukawa potential, a 15-digit agreement with benchmark energies of the literature is obtained with 50 mesh points or less

Run For Fun: Intrinsic Motivation and Physical Performance

Abstract: We use data from the 24-hours Belluno run which has the unique characteristic that participants are affiliated with teams and run for an hour. This allows us not only to study the individual relationship between age and performance but also to study group dynamics in terms of accessions to and separations from teams in a manner that closely resembles workers and firms when individual productivity would have been perfectly observable. From our analysis we conclude that individual performance goes down with age, although the speed-age gradient is rather at. Group performance goes down with age as well, but interestingly a counterbalancing force emerges, namely team dynamics that are driven by performance of runners who enter and leave.Age;performance;attrition

Should You Compete or Cooperate with Your Schoolmates?

Building upon some education studies finding that cooperative behaviour in class yields better achievements among students, this paper presents a simple model showing that free riding incentives lead to an insufficient degree of cooperation between schoolmates, which in turn decreases the overall achievement. A cooperative learning approach may instead emerge when competitive behaviour is negatively evaluated by schoolmates, especially when the class is more homogeneous in terms of students’ characteristics (e.g., ability). Empirical evidence supporting our model is found using the 2003 wave of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey on students’ literacy levels. A competitive learning approach has a positive individual return (higher in comprehensive educational systems), while student performance increases with the average cooperative behaviour, particularly in tracked educational systems.cooperation, competition, PISA, student attitudes

Core correlation effects in multiconfiguration calculations of isotope shifts in Mg I

The present work reports results from systematic multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculations of isotope shifts for several well-known transitions in neutral magnesium. Relativistic normal and specific mass shift factors as well as the electronic probability density at the origin are calculated. Combining these electronic quantities with available nuclear data, energy and transition level shifts are determined for the $^{26}$Mg$-^{24}$Mg pair of isotopes. Different models for electron correlation are adopted. It is shown that although valence and core-valence models provide accurate values for the isotope shifts, the inclusion of core-core excitations in the computational strategy significantly improves the accuracy of the transition energies and normal mass shift factors.Comment: 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review

Relativistic semiempirical-core-potential calculations in Ca+^+, Sr+^+, and Ba+^+ ions on Lagrange meshes

Relativistic atomic structure calculations are carried out in alkaline-earth-metal ions using a semiempirical-core-potential approach. The systems are partitioned into frozen-core electrons and an active valence electron. The core orbitals are defined by a Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculation using the grasp2k package. The valence electron is described by a Dirac-like Hamiltonian involving a core-polarization potential to simulate the core-valence electron correlation. The associated equation is solved with the Lagrange-mesh method, which is an approximate variational approach having the form of a mesh calculation because of the use of a Gauss quadrature to calculate matrix elements. Properties involving the low-lying metastable $^2D_{3/2,5/2}$ states of Ca$^{+}$, Sr$^{+}$, and Ba$^{+}$ are studied, such as polarizabilities, one- and two-photon decay rates, and lifetimes. Good agreement is found with other theory and observation, which is promising for further applications in alkali-like systems.Comment: 15 pages, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

The Effect of Group Identity on Distributive Choice : Social Preference or Heuristic?

Group identity can influence significantly people's attitudes toward monetary allocations. In this paper we reassess the representation of group identity using social preference models. First, we show that the influence of group identity varies unsystematically across different types of mini-dictator games and cannot be described using a well-behaved preference function. Second, we demonstrate that the effect is not robust to slightly increasing the complexity of the task, suggesting that group identity is a framing effect that can be easily displaced by alternative decision heuristics