VOLUNTARY REVELATION OF THE DEMAND FOR PUBLIC GOODS USING A PROVISION POINT MECHANISM

public goods, voluntary contributions, provision point, experiments, information, group size, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, H41, C92,

Social Preferences and Voting: An Exploration Using a Novel Preference Revealing Mechanism

Public referenda are frequently used to determine the provision of public goods. As public programs have distributional consequences, a compelling question is what role if any social preferences have on voting behavior. This paper explores this issue using laboratory experiments wherein voting outcomes lead to a known distribution of net benefits across participants. Preferences are elicited using a novel Random Price Voting Mechanism (RPVM), which is a more parsimonious mechanism than dichotomous choice referenda, but gives consistent results. Results suggest that social preferences, in particular a social efficiency motive, lead to economically meaningful deviations from self-interested voting choices and increase the likelihood that welfare-enhancing programs are implemented.Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, C91, C92, D64, D72, H41,

ANOMALIES IN VOTING: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS USING A NEW, DEMAND REVEALING (RANDOM PRICE VOTING) MECHANISM

This study investigates the influence of social preferences on voting decisions using a new Random Price Voting Mechanism (RPVM), which is best thought of as a public goods voting extension of the Becker-DeGroot-Marshack mechanism for private goods. In particular, this mechanism is used to investigate experimentally whether voting decisions are affected by the distribution of net benefits associated with a proposed public program. Recent papers have shown that, in additional to selfishness, factors such as inequality aversion, maximin preferences, and efficiency may influence individual decisions. However, the effect of social preferences on voting, the predominant funding mechanism for public goods by legislatures and public referenda, has not been thoroughly examined. We first establish the presence of anomalous behavior in dichotomous voting, and introduce the RPVM as a more efficient mechanism to examine such anomalies. We show that it is demand revealing in the presence of social preferences and empirically consistent with dichotomous choice voting. Laboratory experiments involving 440 subjects show that when net benefits are homogeneously distributed, the new RPVM is demand-revealing in both willingness-to-pay (WTP) and willingness-to-accept (WTA) settings, for both gains and losses. When the voting outcome potentially results in a heterogeneous distribution of (net) benefits, a systematic wedge appears between individuals' controlled induced values and their revealed WTP or WTA. With induced gains, the best-off subjects under-report their WTP and WTA in comparison to their induced value. Worst-off subjects express WTP and WTA that exceed their induced value. With induced losses a mirror image is evident. Best-off subjects over-report their induced value while the worst-off subjects under-report. Theoretical and econometric results presented in the paper suggest that these differences are caused by a concern for social efficiency.Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Elaboration de surfaces modifiées pour la chimie analytique : spectrométrie de masse et capteurs

Date du colloque&nbsp;: 05/2008</p

The BRST-invariant vacuum state of the Gribov-Zwanziger theory

We revisit the effective action of the Gribov-Zwanziger theory, taking into due account the BRST symmetry and renormalization (group invariance) of the construction. We compute at one loop the effective potential, showing the emergence of BRST-invariant dimension 2 condensates stabilizing the vacuum. This paper sets the stage at zero temperature, and clears the way to studying the Gribov-Zwanziger gap equations, and particularly the horizon condition, at finite temperature in future work.Comment: 18 pages, 4 .pdf figure

Multiresidue determination of 256 pesticides in lavandin essential oil by LC/ESI/sSRM: advantages and drawbacks of a sampling method involving evaporation under nitrogen

The determination of 256 multiclass pesticides in lavandin essential oil has been performed by liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry using the scheduled selected reaction monitoring mode available on a quadrupole-linear ion trap mass spectrometer. With the aim of improving the limits of quantification (LOQs) of the target molecules, a sampling step based on evaporation of the essential oil under a nitrogen flow assisted by controlled heating was tested. The LOQs determined in this case were compared with the values obtained with the classic dilution preparation method. With sampling by dilution, 247 pesticides were detected and quantified at low concentration, with 74 % of the pesticides having LOQs of 10 μg L-1 or less. With the evaporation method, a global improvement of the LOQs was observed, with lower LOQs for 92 active substances and LOQs of 10 μg L-1 or less for 82.8 % of the pesticides. Almost twice as many active substances had an LOQ of 1 μg L-1 or less when the evaporation method was used. Some pesticides exhibited poor recovery or high variance caused by volatilization or degradation during the evaporation step. This behavior was evidenced by the case of thiophanate-methyl, which is degraded to carbendazim. Figure Sampling method by dilution or evaporation in the multiresidue determination of pesticides in essential oils by LC/M

JMS Letters

Desorption/ionization on self-assembled monolayer surfaces (DIAMS) In mass spectrometry, the laser desorption/ionization (LDI) method refers to an overall process by which the energy absorption of a laser beam by a localized region of an irradiated surface leads to the emission of gaseous charged particles. The most important steps involve the rapid dissipation of energy followed by the vaporization of the analyte, which acquires translational energy. Therefore, the direct irradiation of a sample, which induces a very rapid local heating and the absorption in the UV or IR region by the analyte, reduces the ionization efficiency and activates the dissociation of weak bonds during the energy transfer. This constitutes a limitation of the LDI technique, since only fragmented ions are detected even in the case of small-molecule analysis. To circumvent this problem, Karas and Hillenkamp 1 and Tanaka 2 have developed the matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) technique. This method uses a photonabsorbing mediator, i.e. an aromatic matrix molecule, which is co-crystallized with the analyte. The analyte dispersion into the matrix crystals and the structure of the irradiated matrix crystal surface play a key role in the energy dissipation process. In order to overcome these limitations, free-matrix laser ablation/ionization methods have been proposed in the literature. The LDI on porous silicon (DIOS) technique was developed because of the structure of the surface, which in this case provides a scaffold for retaining solvent and analyte molecules, and the UV absorptivity of the substrate, which affords a conversion mode for the transfer of the photon energy to the translational energy, leads to the sample vaporization process. 7 The &apos;surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization&apos; (SALDI) method uses a thin layer of activated carbon particles immobilized on an aluminum support. 8 In this case, the sample can be directly deposited on the surface plate. An alternative technique uses a suspension of a fine graphite powder or functionalized nanoparticles 9 in a solution of the analyte in an organic solvent. Peptides and organic compounds were then detected in DIOS and SALDI mass spectrometry as protonated molecules and/or as alkali metal adducts. 10, By analogy with the surface properties of a UV-absorbing semiconductor (such as porous silicon), and with regard to the analytical flexibility offered by the possibility of functionalization of activated surfaces, we propose here the use of some organic surfaces in the LDI techniques. This new free-matrix laser desorption ionization method developed is termed desorption/ionization on self-assembled monolayer surfaces (DIAMS) and uses self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). SAMs are defined as two-dimensional films, one molecule thick, covalently assembled at an interface. These organic assemblies result, in most cases, from the reaction in solution between the headgroup function of a molecular constituent and a metal, oxide or semiconductor surface. The synthesis of the SAMs precursor compounds starts from the 2-bromothiophene and is described in Scheme 1. Because of the propensity of the thiol function to oxidation, all characterizations in solution were carried out on the protected alkane-thiol (1). As expected from previous results reported in the literature, the characteristic optical band of 1 is observed at 340 nm

Multiresidue Analysis of Multiclass Pesticides in Lavandin Essential Oil by LC/MS/MS Using the Scheduled Selected Reaction Monitoring Mode

In this paper we describe the development of the first multiclass pesticide residue method applied to essential oils. A total of 70 pesticides covering a wide range of polarity and currently used on essential oil crops have been included in the method. The procedure consists of a 10-fold dilution of lavandin essential oil followed by a direct injection analysis by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. The system used is an API 4000 QTrap equipped with an electrospray ionization interface and operating in scheduled selected reaction monitoring acquisition mode. Matrix effects were evaluated by comparing the slopes of matrix-matched and solvent-based calibration curves. Weak signal suppression or enhancement (&lt;20%) was observed for most of the compounds. Method sensitivity was determined statistically by the injection of five matrix-matched calibration curves with the distribution’s normality and the variance’s homogeneity checked before establishment of a suitable regression model. Limits of detection (LODs) and quantification (LOQs) were then determined using the blank standard’s deviation and the slope of the mean curve. The analytical method has been validated for 67 of the 70 pesticides and meets the following LOQs: ≤1 μg/L for 9 pesticides, ≤5 μg/L for 44, ≤10 μg/L for 9, and ≤20 μg/L for

Desorption/Ionization on self-Assembled Monolayer Surface (DIAMS) Evaluation of a New Matrix-Free Laser Desorption/Ionization method

Date du colloque&nbsp;: 06/2008</p