Disequilibrium Dynamics with Inventories and Anticipatory Price-Setting:Some Impirical Results

The basic assumption of this paper is an attempt to be specific about price formation while retaining a fixed-price, quantity-constrained equilibration in the short-run. The second theme of this paper is the role of inventories in macrodynamics a topic of long-recognized importance, but one which has not received much attention within the disequilibrium literature. We will analyze how the level of inventories interacts with the level of prices and wages, and how the spillover effects in a fixed-price equilibrium produce certain testable characteristics in macro time series data. We will argue that these can be used to discriminate between a model of the type we study and the analogous flexible-price system. In section 2 we set out the basic model and discuss its assumptions. Section 3 derives the short-run quantity-constrained equilibrium as it depends on initial inventory stocks and on the random disturbances within the period. Section 4 presents, for comparison purposes, the analogous results under conditions of full price flexibility after these shocks are realized. Sections 5 and 6 are the heart of the paper. We first derive the probabilistic nature of the equilibrium as it depends upon the underlying stochastic disturbances. The probabilities of different types of quantity constrained equilibria can be compared. Then, we use these results to present the dynamics of inventory behavior and the statistical relationships between real wages, inventories and employment. We emphasize the possibility of using this type of analysis to test the disequilibrium hypothesis with anticipatory pricing, against the market-clearing assumptions.

Nest Architecture, Colony Composition and Feeding Substrates of Nasutitermes coxipoensis (Isoptera, Termitidae, Nasutitermitinae) in Subtropical Biomes of Northeastern Argentina

The mound- building termite Nasutitermes coxipoensis is commonly found at subtropical environments of northeast Argentina. This study gives new data about its nest architecture, biology and nutritional habits, comparing these results with other populations of the species. The volume of the analyzed nests varied between 0.91 dm3 y 207.33 dm3, a wider range than previously reported for N. coxipoensis. The external and internal characteristics of the nests were similar to descriptions from other sites although it was not possible to differentiate the royal cell. The societies were monogynic and the queens laid eggs throughout the year. The body length and weight of primary reproductives were reported. The presence of alates within the mounds was higher in October and November. Feeding substrates consumed by N. coxipoensis at these habitats are also reported

Efficiency Guarantees in Auctions with Budgets

In settings where players have a limited access to liquidity, represented in the form of budget constraints, efficiency maximization has proven to be a challenging goal. In particular, the social welfare cannot be approximated by a better factor then the number of players. Therefore, the literature has mainly resorted to Pareto-efficiency as a way to achieve efficiency in such settings. While successful in some important scenarios, in many settings it is known that either exactly one incentive-compatible auction that always outputs a Pareto-efficient solution, or that no truthful mechanism can always guarantee a Pareto-efficient outcome. Traditionally, impossibility results can be avoided by considering approximations. However, Pareto-efficiency is a binary property (is either satisfied or not), which does not allow for approximations. In this paper we propose a new notion of efficiency, called \emph{liquid welfare}. This is the maximum amount of revenue an omniscient seller would be able to extract from a certain instance. We explain the intuition behind this objective function and show that it can be 2-approximated by two different auctions. Moreover, we show that no truthful algorithm can guarantee an approximation factor better than 4/3 with respect to the liquid welfare, and provide a truthful auction that attains this bound in a special case. Importantly, the liquid welfare benchmark also overcomes impossibilities for some settings. While it is impossible to design Pareto-efficient auctions for multi-unit auctions where players have decreasing marginal values, we give a deterministic $O(\log n)$-approximation for the liquid welfare in this setting

Public Good Overprovision by a Manipulative Provider

We study contracting between a public good provider and users with private valuations of the good. We show that, once the provider extracts the users' private information, she benefits from manipulating the collective information received from all users when communicating with them. We derive conditions under which such manipulation determines the direction of distortions in public good provision. If the provider is non-manipulative, the public good is always underprovided, whereas overprovision occurs with a manipulative provider. With overprovision, not only high-valuation users, but also low-valuation users may obtain positive rents—users may prefer facing a manipulative provider.Peer Reviewe

Patrones de abundancia, bioecología y distribución de la termita neotropical sin soldados Compositermes vindai Scheffrahn, 2013 (Isoptera, Termitidae, Apicotermitinae)

The soldierless Neotropical Apicotermitinae is considered among the less known termite groups and its ecological relevance warrants studies about the biology and diversity of their species. We investigated the presence, distribution and relative abundance of the recently described species Compositermes vindai Scheffrahn, 2013 in natural and anthropized ecosystems of northeastern Argentina. Their nests and populations, as well as their presence inside other Termitidae mounds were examined. A standardized sampling protocol for termites was applied at five sites, with 100 x 2 m transects. Worker morphometric data from the surveyed localities are also reported. C. vindai was found in protected environments with little disturbance as well as in other altered ecosystems. The abundance patterns of C. vindai in the sampled areas varied from rare to intermediate and seemed not to be significantly affected by the environmental changes of the sites due to their land uses. The microhabitats occupied were mainly superficial soil and other Termitidae mounds (Cornitermes cumulans Kollar, 1832; Syntermes obtusus Holmgren, 1911 and Cortaritermes fulviceps Silvestri, 1901). C. vindai subterranean and diffuse nests showed a core surrounding by scattered chambers and tunnels extending into the surrounding soil. The small size colonies comprised workers, brachypterous nymphs and white immature larvae. Winged imagoes or primary reproductives were not found. These new records also extend the distribution of C. vindai across the biomes and ecoregions of the Neotropical ecozone and constitute the first reports of C. vindai from Argentina.Las termitas Neotropicales sin soldados de la subfamilia Apicotermitinae, son consideradas uno de los grupos de isópteros menos conocidos, por lo que resulta importante analizar sus rasgos biológicos y diversidad. Se investigó la presencia, distribución y abundancia relativa de la especie recientemente descripta Compositermes vindai Scheffrahn, 2013 en ecosistemas naturales y antropizados del noreste de Argentina. Se examinaron sus nidos y poblaciones, así como su presencia en los montículos de otras termitas. Se aplicó un protocolo estandarizado de muestreo para isópteros en cinco sitios, con transectas de 100 x 2 m. También se registraron datos morfométricos de obreras. C. vindai fue detectada en ambientes protegidos poco perturbados, así como en otros ecosistemas alterados. Los patrones de abundancia de C. vindai en estas áreas variaron de rara a intermedia y la especie pareció no ser afectada de manera significativa por los cambios ambientales derivados de diferentes usos de la tierra. Los microhábitats ocupados fueron principalmente suelo superficial y montículos de otras Termitidae (Cornitermes cumulans Kollar, 1832; Syntermes obtusus Holmgren, 1911 y Cortaritermes fulviceps Silvestri, 1901). Los nidos subterráneos y difusos de C. vindai mostraron un núcleo rodeado por cámaras dispersas y túneles que se extendían en el suelo circundante. Las pequeñas colonias estuvieron compuestas por obreras, ninfas braquípteras e inmaduros. No se hallaron individuos alados ni reproductores primarios. Estos nuevos registros extienden la distribución de C. vindai a otros biomas y ecorregiones de la ecozona Neotropical y constituyen los primeros hallazgos de C. vindai para Argentina

Primer registro de Rugitermes sp. (Isoptera: Kalotermitidae) en cultivos de yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) en la Argentina

Se cita por primera vez para la Argentina la asociación entre termites de la familia Kalotermitidae (Rugitermes sp) y cultivos de yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis).Los hallazgos de infestaciones se produjeron en cultivos (añosos) de aproximadamente 40 años de antigüedad, en producción y sometidos a cosechas periódicas,ubicados en la localidad de Gobernador Virasoro (Departamento SantoTomé), provincia de Corrientes, Argentina. Los daños producidos, consistentes en perforaciones, celdas y galerías excavadas en el interior del leño, aparecen representados principalmente en ramas terciarias y terminales verdes y secas de distinto grosor. Se enfatiza la necesidad de monitoreos regulares a fin de evaluar el posible perjuicio de estos insectos xilófagos

On the Investigation of a Novel Dual-Control-Gate Floating Gate Transistor for VCO Applications

A new MOS device called Dual-Control Gate Floating Gate Transistor (DCG-FGT) is used as a building block in analog design. This device offers new approaches in circuit design and allows developing new functionalities through two operating modes: Threshold Voltage Adjustable Mode, where the DCG-FGT behaves like a MOS transistor with an electrically adjustable threshold voltage. Mixer Signal Mode where the DCG-FGT can mix two independent signals on its floating gate. This device is developed to be fully compliant with CMOS Non Volatile Memory (NVM) process. An electrical model of the DCG-FGT has been implemented in an electrical simulator to be available for analog design. A DCG-FGT based ring oscillator is studied in this paper

On the Investigation of a Novel Dual-Control-Gate Floating Gate Transistor for VCO Applications

A new MOS device called Dual-Control Gate Floating Gate Transistor (DCG-FGT) is used as a building block in analog design. This device offers new approaches in circuit design and allows developing new functionalities through two operating modes: Threshold Voltage Adjustable Mode, where the DCG-FGT behaves like a MOS transistor with an electrically adjustable threshold voltage. Mixer Signal Mode where the DCG-FGT can mix two independent signals on its floating gate. This device is developed to be fully compliant with CMOS Non Volatile Memory (NVM) process. An electrical model of the DCG-FGT has been implemented in an electrical simulator to be available for analog design. A DCG-FGT based ring oscillator is studied in this paper

Incentivizing High Quality Crowdwork

We study the causal effects of financial incentives on the quality of crowdwork. We focus on performance-based payments (PBPs), bonus payments awarded to workers for producing high quality work. We design and run randomized behavioral experiments on the popular crowdsourcing platform Amazon Mechanical Turk with the goal of understanding when, where, and why PBPs help, identifying properties of the payment, payment structure, and the task itself that make them most effective. We provide examples of tasks for which PBPs do improve quality. For such tasks, the effectiveness of PBPs is not too sensitive to the threshold for quality required to receive the bonus, while the magnitude of the bonus must be large enough to make the reward salient. We also present examples of tasks for which PBPs do not improve quality. Our results suggest that for PBPs to improve quality, the task must be effort-responsive: the task must allow workers to produce higher quality work by exerting more effort. We also give a simple method to determine if a task is effort-responsive a priori. Furthermore, our experiments suggest that all payments on Mechanical Turk are, to some degree, implicitly performance-based in that workers believe their work may be rejected if their performance is sufficiently poor. Finally, we propose a new model of worker behavior that extends the standard principal-agent model from economics to include a worker's subjective beliefs about his likelihood of being paid, and show that the predictions of this model are in line with our experimental findings. This model may be useful as a foundation for theoretical studies of incentives in crowdsourcing markets.Comment: This is a preprint of an Article accepted for publication in WWW \c{opyright} 2015 International World Wide Web Conference Committe