Experimental methods for environment and development economics

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARIAH D. EHMKE ◽  
JASON F. SHOGREN
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Experimental Economics ◽  
Experimental Methods ◽  
Test Theory ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Economics Experiments ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior ◽  
Environment And Development ◽  
Cycle Of Poverty

ABSTRACTMany poor countries remain trapped in a cycle of poverty and environmental degradation. Understanding how people react to existing and proposed solutions most likely can be improved using the methods of experimental economics. Experiments provide researchers a method to test theory, look for patterns of behavior, testbed economic institutions and incentives, and to educate people. Herein we explore how experimental economics has been used and could be used to help guide decision making to increase prosperity without overexploiting the resource base and environmental assets needed for basic survival.

scholarly journals Choosing Among Options Presented Sequentially or Simultaneously

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shankha Basu ◽  
Krishna Savani
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Experimental Economics ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Eyewitness Identification ◽  
Simultaneous Presentation ◽  
Judgment And Decision Making ◽  
Choice Architecture ◽  
Processing Styles ◽  
Presentation Formats

When choosing among multiple options, people can view the options either one at a time or all together. In this article, we review an emerging stream of research that examines the ways in which viewing options sequentially as opposed to simultaneously influences people’s decisions. Multiple studies support the idea that viewing options simultaneously encourages people to compare the options and to focus on the ways in which the options differ from each other. In contrast, viewing options sequentially encourages people to process each option holistically by comparing the option with previously encountered options or a subjective reference point. Integrating research from judgment and decision making, consumer behavior, experimental economics, and eyewitness identification, we identify ways in which the different processing styles elicited by sequential- and simultaneous-presentation formats influence people’s judgment and decision making. This issue is particularly important because presenting options either sequentially or simultaneously is a key element of choice architecture.

scholarly journals Experimental Methods in Agricultural and Resource Economics: How Useful are They?

1993 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Fisher ◽  
William J. Wheeler ◽  
Rami Zwick
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Experiment ◽  
Experimental Economics ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Experimental Methods ◽  
Resource Economics ◽  
Good Choice ◽  
Experiment Data ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
History Of

Experimental economics has the potential to fill some of the gaps in the economist's tool kit. This article describes experimental economics, its advantages and disadvantages, and why this tool might be a good choice in some situations. The article summarizes the history of its use by agricultural and resource economists. An illustrative example compares laboratory experiment data with survey data.

Foreign Policy Decision Making

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Goldgeier
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior ◽  
Policy Decision Making ◽  
The Cold War

Decision makers, acting singly or in groups, influence the field of international relations by shaping the interactions among nations. It is therefore important to understand how those decision makers are likely to behave. Some scholars have developed elegant formal theories of decision making to demonstrate the utility of rational choice approaches in the study of international relations, while others have chosen to explain the patterns of bias that exist when leaders face the difficult task of making decisions and formulating policy. Among them are Herbert Simon, who introduced “bounded rationality” to allow leaders to short-circuit the decision process, and Elizabeth Kier, who has shown how organizational cultures shaped the development of military doctrine during the interwar period. The literature on foreign policy decision making during the Cold War looked inside the black box to generate analyses of bureaucratic politics and individual mindsets. Because decision making involves consensus seeking among groups, leaders will often avoid making choices so that they will not antagonize key members of the bureaucracy. Scholars have also investigated the role of “policy entrepreneurs” in the decision-making process, bringing individual agents into organizational, diplomatic and political processes. Over time, the field of policy decision making has evolved to help us understand not only why leaders often calculate so poorly but even more importantly, why systematic patterns of behavior are more or less likely under certain conditions.

scholarly journals Conditional cooperation and confusion in public-goods experiments

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (5) ◽  
pp. 1291-1296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxwell N. Burton-Chellew ◽  
Claire El Mouden ◽  
Stuart A. West
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Behavioral Economics ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Experimental Methods ◽  
Conditional Cooperation ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
Economics Experiments ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Public Good Games

Economic experiments are often used to study if humans altruistically value the welfare of others. A canonical result from public-good games is that humans vary in how they value the welfare of others, dividing into fair-minded conditional cooperators, who match the cooperation of others, and selfish noncooperators. However, an alternative explanation for the data are that individuals vary in their understanding of how to maximize income, with misunderstanding leading to the appearance of cooperation. We show that (i) individuals divide into the same behavioral types when playing with computers, whom they cannot be concerned with the welfare of; (ii) behavior across games with computers and humans is correlated and can be explained by variation in understanding of how to maximize income; (iii) misunderstanding correlates with higher levels of cooperation; and (iv) standard control questions do not guarantee understanding. These results cast doubt on certain experimental methods and demonstrate that a common assumption in behavioral economics experiments, that choices reveal motivations, will not necessarily hold.

Environmental carrying capacity and tourism development in the Maldives and Nepal

1997 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 316-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATRINA BROWN ◽  
R. KERRY TURNER ◽  
HALA HAMEED ◽  
IAN BATEMAN
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Carrying Capacity ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Tourism Development ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Solid Waste Disposal ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
The Face ◽  
Natural Resource Base

Tourism is regarded by many countries, particularly resource-poor countries, as a potential stimulus to the economy. Yet tourism, by the nature of the activities involved, is constrained by the natural resource base and infrastructure, and by the pollution and other environmental and social impacts of tourist numbers. Tourism development strategies of national governments have been diverse in the face of this complex relationship between the economic costs and benefits of tourism. This paper examines tourist development based on concepts of open access and renewable natural resources. The experiences of two economies highly dependent on tourism, the Maldives and Nepal, are compared and contrasted. Although these countries offer very different attractions to tourists, they are faced with similar problems in terms of adverse environmental impacts of tourism. The dominant impacts in both areas are those associated with solid waste disposal and water resources, compounded by the depletion of natural resources. Both countries are currently employing 'dispersal' techniques to overcome the adverse impacts of tourism, but such strategies do not address the fundamental problem of maintaining tourism revenues whilst minimizing environmental damage. Even if an ecological carrying capacity can be defined, the experiences of these two countries indicate that impacts on local communities may well exceed so-called cultural carrying capacity.

The behaviour of corporate actors: How much can we learn from the experimental literature?

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPH ENGEL
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Experimental Economics ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Corporate Actor ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Organization Science ◽  
Socially Relevant

Abstract:Much of socially relevant behaviour does not originate in isolated individuals. It is embedded in institutional arrangements. Embeddedness can be so pronounced that outsiders no longer focus on the judgement and decision making of individuals contributing to the course of action. Instead, they ascribe the behaviour to the institution, which they refer to as a corporate actor. This social practice makes it meaningful to compare isolated individuals and corporate actors undertaking the same tasks. This paper surveys the empirical literature on the question from experimental economics, social psychology, and organization science.

scholarly journals ЛІДЕРСТВО В ЗАСТОСУВАННІ ГНУЧКИХ МЕТОДОЛОГІЙ СТВОРЕННЯ ІНФОРМАЦІЙНИХ ТЕХНОЛОГІЙ

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Serhii D. Bushuiev ◽  
Denys A. Bushuiev ◽  
Victoriia B. Bushuieva ◽  
Borys Yu. Kozyr
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Project Management ◽  
Portfolio Management ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
International Association ◽  
Personal Communication ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Competencies

The development of project, project and portfolio management systems supports the global acceleration of innovation. Significant changes in the environment require additional research on the effectiveness of the use of existing flexible methodologies, knowledge systems, the competency of project managers and their leadership. The foundation of environmental change lies in changing the decision-making paradigm to flexible project management and innovation development programs. The article examines modern approaches to leadership formation in the application of flexible methodologies, their specificity in terms of decision-making processes in project management. The problems of formation and maintenance of leadership in application of flexible methodologies of project management of creation and introduction of information and communication systems are considered. The research was conducted on the basis of the application of a competency approach under the model of the International Association for Project Management. The patterns of behavior of flexible leaders and leaders are formed in the system of behavioral competencies in project management based on Agile technology methods and tools. These competencies were: Self-reflation and self-government, Personal integrity and reliability, Personal communication, Relationships and interaction, Leadership, Teamwork, Conflicts and crises, Inventiveness, Harmonization, and Orientation to the result. The content model of competency of the leader, which applies flexible control, is given. The patterns of behavior of project managers as flexible leaders in project product creation and flexible project management were studied. Differences in patterns of behavior of managers and flexible leaders on elements of behavioral competencies within certain key competency indicators are studied. Such patterns allowed the authors to identify bottlenecks in applying flexible project management methodologies in the context of the dynamics of the development of innovative products and information and communication systems.

scholarly journals Opportunity costs and decision-making in peasant agriculture.

1968 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 243-252
Author(s):  
E.S. Clayton
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Economic Efficiency ◽  
Opportunity Cost ◽  
Opportunity Costs ◽  
Cash Crop ◽  
Crop Quality ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Peasant Agriculture

Opportunity costs of labour and land in peasant agriculture are shown to be positive and often substantial. Opportunity costs are defined as the price that can be obtained for alternative uses of labour and land. This thesis is contrary to popular notions about zero opportunity cost of agricultural labour in poor countries. Quantitative illustrations are given on the factor opportunity cost arising out of farmer decisions relating to timeliness of operations, level of yields, choice of crops, cash-crop quality and levels of mulching. If these costs are taken into account, a divergence will frequently exist between technical and economic efficiency: lower technical levels in certain cases may be more economic. T. A. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)

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