4,997 research outputs found
The Experimental Economics of Religion
This article surveys the experimental economics approach to the study of religion. The field has a place in the context of the scientific study of religion generally and the social psychology of religion in particular, but employs distinct economic methods which promise new and different insights. In particular, certain features of the experimental approach as used by economists such as incentive compatibility are particularly appropriate for studying the effect of religion on individual behaviour. The paper discusses results obtained so far in terms of two roles of religion in shaping individual behaviour, i.e. as a social group identifier and as a set of values.religion, religiosity, experiments
Online Exploration of Polygons with Holes
We study online strategies for autonomous mobile robots with vision to
explore unknown polygons with at most h holes. Our main contribution is an
(h+c_0)!-competitive strategy for such polygons under the assumption that each
hole is marked with a special color, where c_0 is a universal constant. The
strategy is based on a new hybrid approach. Furthermore, we give a new lower
bound construction for small h.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, submitted to WAOA 201
Atomic discreteness and the nature of structural equilibrium in conductance histograms of electromigrated Cu-nanocontacts
We investigate the histograms of conductance values obtained during
controlled electromigration thinning of Cu thin films. We focus on the question
whether the most frequently observed conductance values, apparent as peaks in
conductance histograms, can be attributed to the atomic structure of the wire.
To this end we calculate the Fourier transform of the conductance histograms.
We find all the frequencies matching the highly symmetric crystallographic
directions of fcc-Cu. In addition, there are other frequencies explainable by
oxidation and possibly formation of hcp-Cu. With these structures we can
explain all peaks occurring in the Fourier transform within the relevant range.
The results remain the same if only a third of the samples are included. By
comparing our results to the ones available in the literature on work-hardened
nanowires we find indications that even at low temperatures of the environment,
metallic nanocontacts could show enhanced electromigration at low current
densities due to defects enhancing electron scattering
Statistical estimation of a growth-fragmentation model observed on a genealogical tree
We model the growth of a cell population by a piecewise deterministic Markov
branching tree. Each cell splits into two offsprings at a division rate
that depends on its size . The size of each cell grows exponentially in
time, at a rate that varies for each individual. We show that the mean
empirical measure of the model satisfies a growth-fragmentation type equation
if structured in both size and growth rate as state variables. We construct a
nonparametric estimator of the division rate based on the observation of
the population over different sampling schemes of size on the genealogical
tree. Our estimator nearly achieves the rate in squared-loss
error asymptotically. When the growth rate is assumed to be identical for every
cell, we retrieve the classical growth-fragmentation model and our estimator
improves on the rate obtained in \cite{DHRR, DPZ} through
indirect observation schemes. Our method is consistently tested numerically and
implemented on {\it Escherichia coli} data.Comment: 46 pages, 4 figure
Wykorzystanie zasobów lokalnych do realizacji projektów w ramach programu LEADER 2007–2013 w województwie wielkopolskim
Program LEADER pozwala na pozyskanie dodatkowych środków finansowych w celu realizacji projektów, które wykorzystują i poprawiają istniejące zasoby lokalne na obszarach funkcjonowania lokalnych grup działania. Województwo wielkopolskie jest zróżnicowane pod względem zasobów przyrodniczych i infrastruktury technicznej, co przekłada się na wielkość i liczbę realizowanych projektów na obszarach funkcjonowania LGD
A Community College Instructor Like Me: Race and Ethnicity Interactions in the Classroom
Detailed administrative data from a large and diverse community college are used to examine if academic performance depends on whether students are the same race or ethnicity as their instructors. To identify racial interactions and address many threats to internal validity we estimate models that include both student and classroom fixed effects. Given the large sample sizes and computational complexity of the 2-way fixed effects model we rely on numerical algorithms that exploit the particular structure of the model’s normal equations. Although we find no evidence of endogenous sorting, we further limit potential biases from sorting by focusing on students with restricted course enrollment options due to low registration priorities, students not getting first section choices, and on courses with no within-term or within-year racial variation in instructors. We find that the performance gap in terms of class dropout rates, pass rates, and grade performance between white and underrepresented minority students falls by 20-50 percent when taught by an underrepresented minority instructor. We also find these interactions affect longer term outcomes such as subsequent course selection, retention, and degree completion. Potential mechanisms for these positive interactions are examined.
Escalation Bargaining: Theoretical Analysis and Experimental Test
The standard chicken game is a popular model of certain important real scenarios but does not allow for the escalation behaviour these are typically associated with. This is problematic if the critical, final decisions in these scenarios are sensitive to previous escalation. We introduce and analyse, theoretically and by experiment, a new game which permits escalation behaviour. Compared with an equivalent chicken game, Pareto-suboptimal outcomes are significantly more frequent. This result is inconsistent with our rational choice analysis and possible psychological roots are explored.escalation; brinkmanship; chicken game; experiments
A Community College Instructor Like Me: Race and Ethnicity Interactions in the Classroom
This paper uses detailed administrative data from one of the largest community colleges in the United States to quantify the extent to which academic performance depends on students being of similar race or ethnicity to their instructors. To address the concern of endogenous sorting, we use both student and classroom fixed effects and focus on those with limited course enrolment options. We also compare sensitivity in the results from using within versus across section instructor type variation. Given the computational complexity of the 2-way fixed effects model with a large set of fixed effects we rely on numerical algorithms that exploit the particular structure of the model's normal equations. We find that the performance gap in terms of class dropout and pass rates between white and minority students falls by roughly half when taught by a minority instructor. In models that allow for a full set of ethnic and racial interactions between students and instructors, we find African-American students perform particularly better when taught by African-American instructors.race, education, minorities, college
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