scholarly journals Experimental Public Choice

Author(s):  
Aaron Kamm ◽  
Arthur Schram

This chapter contrasts rational-choice predictions of voter behavior with observations from laboratory and field experiments. Specifically, the authors discuss voters’ party choice and turnout decisions, both for elections under proportional representation and with plurality rule. The first part of the chapter studies turnout and finds mixed support for the comparative statics predicted by the rational-choice framework. In the second part, voters’ party choices are analyzed and it is shown that if we allow for non-selfish preferences, observed behavior is overall in line with the rational-choice approach. The third, and final, part of the chapter analyzes turnout behavior and party choice simultaneously so as to highlight the potential interaction effects between the two. While this question has not received much attention in the literature, the limited evidence currently available is broadly in line with rational-choice predictions.

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 605-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego J. Bentivegna ◽  
Osvaldo A. Fernández ◽  
María A. Burgos

Chemical weed control with acrolein has been shown to be a lower cost method for reducing submerged plant biomass of sago pondweed in the irrigation district of the Lower Valley of Rio Colorado, Argentina (39°10′S–62°05′W). However, no experimental data exist on the effects of the herbicide on plant growth and its survival structures. Field experiments were conducted during 3 yr to evaluate the effect of acrolein on growth and biomass of sago pondweed and on the source of underground propagules (i.e., rhizomes, tubers, and seeds). Plant biomass samples were collected in irrigation channels before and after several herbicide treatments. The underground propagule bank was evaluated at the end of the third year. Within each treatment, plant biomass was significantly reduced by 40 to 60% in all three study years. Rapid new plant growth occurred after each application; however, it was less vigorous after repeated treatments. At the end of the third year at 3,000 m downstream from the application point, plant biomass at both channels ranged from 34 to 3% of control values. Individual plant weight and height were affected by acrolein treatments, flowering was poor, and seeds did not reach maturity. After 3 yr, acrolein did not reduce the number of tubers. However, they were significantly smaller and lighter. Rhizomes fresh weight decreased by 92%, and seed numbers decreased by 79%. After 3 yr of applications, operational functioning of the channels could be maintained with fewer treatments and lower concentrations of acrolein.


1984 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 118-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. H. Scarisbrick ◽  
R. W. Daniels

Oilseed rape is currently the third most important crop in the UK after barley and wheat. Field experiments show that despite the already attractive yields the full potential of the crop has not yet been achieved. However, its future is uncertain in that the area devoted to it within the EEC—representing one-fifth of world production—is strongly influenced by the financial incentives offered. It is suggested that within the Community output should be limited to 3.3m tonnes p.a. for the next five years.


Author(s):  
J. Kim Vandiver ◽  
Susan B. Swithenbank ◽  
Vivek Jaiswal ◽  
Vikas Jhingran

This paper presents results from two field experiments using long flexible cylinders, suspended vertically from surface vessels. The experiments were designed to investigate vortex-induced vibration (VIV) at higher than tenth mode in uniform and sheared flows. The results of both experiments revealed significant vibration energy at the expected Strouhal frequency (referred to in this paper as the fundamental frequency) and also at two and three times the Strouhal frequency. Although higher harmonics have been reported before, this was the first time that the contribution to fatigue damage, resulting from the third harmonic, could be estimated with some certainty. This was enabled by the direct measurement of closely spaced strain gauges in one of the experiments. In some circumstances the largest RMS stress and fatigue damage due to VIV are caused by these higher harmonics. The total fatigue damage rate including the third harmonic is shown to be up to forty times greater than the damage rate due to the vibration at the fundamental vortex-shedding frequency alone. This dramatic increase in damage rate due to the third harmonic appears to be associated with a narrow range of reduced velocities in regions of the pipe associated with significant flow-induced excitation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-49
Author(s):  
Jonathan S Simmons ◽  
Stephen A Kent

Using primary documents from the Children of God and interviews with current and former members, we argue that commitment to this deviant Christian group during the 1970s must be understood as a complex system of immediate an compensatory rewards and punishments. By arguing in this manner, we critically expand upon the Stark/Bainbridge theory of religion, which underemphasizes or ignores the crucial control functions played by punishment systems. Children of God’s punishment system involved purposive, affective, material, and sensual or bodily restraints, which operated both on immediate and postponed (i.e., otherworldly) levels.


1992 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Braun

AbstractSuccessful trust-relations exist if the trustee reciprocates in accordance with his/her promises to the trustor’s unilateral cooperation. Using a parametric rational choice approach, Coleman shows that an egoist without a moral conscience may place trust in another unmoral egoist. Consequently, successful trust-relations between those actors are possible if strategic considerations play no role for individual decision-making. This paper focusses on such considerations for the emergence of those relations, given complete information (in the sense of common knowledge) of the players. Generally, trust-relations are hard to establish if unmoral egoists take into account their strategic interdependence. It is shown that two different motivations of the trustee, viz., altruism and morality, may suffice to overcome the characteristic conflict between individual rationality and social efficiency in situations with strategically deciding actors.


2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
SARAH HILLCOAT-NALLÉTAMBY

ABSTRACTThis article aims to encourage critical reflection about the limitations of the rational choice approach as an explanatory insight to understanding older people's choice-making about their health or social care requirements. It develops an interpretive framework examining how older people engage in the process of choice-making when selecting a care option. Choice-making is conceptualised as a temporal, processual phenomenon, influenced by others, and characterised by an individual's behavioural responses to changing circumstance and lifecourse events. Data are from qualitative interviews with 29 older adults whose choice of care option involved moving to an extra-care setting in Wales (United Kingdom). Transcripts were coded using in-case and constant-comparison approaches, and analysis was undertaken using concepts ofengagementandtemporalityas elements of the choice-making process. Using an inductive approach, a typology of six different ‘pathways to choice’ of care setting was identified; these findings suggest that choosing a care option in later life is a diverse, interactive and time-bound social phenomenon, inadequately captured by the rational choice approach where it is understood more as an individualised, linear and logical process. Recognising that choice-making evolves through time as part of a process shaped by others means service providers will be better positioned to offer opportunities for more preventative-focused interventions which empower older consumers to make planned and informed choices about care options.


Author(s):  
Ronald Wintrobe

This article provides a survey of the work on authoritarianism, which takes an ‘economic’ or rational choice approach. The survey focuses mainly on two issues: the behaviour of dictators and the comparison of their economic performance and redistributive tendencies with democracies. It outlines the author's model about the behaviour of dictators, and then moves on to more recent contributions, such as the important developments within the North framework. The article also examines the Olson model and then studies recent work on economic performance and on redistribution. Theory and evidence are the main focus of the discussion.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document