PERCEIVED UTILITY: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY IN BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS

Deterrence Effects of Enforcement Schemes: An Experimental Study

Management Science ◽

10.1287/mnsc.2021.4036 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Marina Agranov ◽

Anastasia Buyalskaya

Keyword(s):

Experimental Study ◽

Behavioral Economics ◽

Ethical Behavior ◽

Partial Information ◽

Full Information ◽

Information Structures ◽

Elicitation Method ◽

Incentive Compatible ◽

Private And Public ◽

Undesirable Behavior

Private and public organizations are interested in finding effective ways to reduce crime and promote ethical behavior without investing heavy resources into monitoring and compliance. In this paper, we experimentally study how revealing different information about a fine distribution affects deterrence of an undesirable behavior. We use a novel incentive-compatible elicitation method to observe subjects lying (the undesirable behavior) and quantify the extent to which this behavior responds to information structures. We find that punishment schemes that communicate only partial information (the minimum fine in particular) are more effective than full information schemes at deterring lying. We explore the mechanism driving this result and link it to subjects’ beliefs about their own versus the average expected fine in treatments with partial information. This paper was accepted by Yan Chen, behavioral economics and decision analysis.

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An Experimental Study of Feedback and Risk in Engineering Decision-Making

Volume 2A: 43rd Design Automation Conference ◽

10.1115/detc2017-68336 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mojtaba Arezoomand ◽

Jesse Austin-Breneman

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Experimental Study ◽

Behavioral Economics ◽

Engineering Design ◽

Factor Of Safety ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Design Factor ◽

Objective Risk ◽

Managing Risk ◽

To Receive

Effectively managing risk is crucial to successful engineering design. Formal methods offer strategies for making decisions under uncertainty and mitigating risk. However, insights from other fields such as cognitive science and behavioral economics suggest that decision-makers may exhibit behaviors in response to feedback which can undermine these strategies. This study presents results from an experiment in which participants were tasked with selecting a design factor of safety for four design prompts under objective risk conditions. Participants were randomly assigned to receive only negative or positive feedback after each decision. Results suggest that the type of feedback influenced the choice of factor of safety even though subjects were provided with the exact benefits and probabilities of all possible outcomes. This experiment suggests further study of the mechanisms by which engineering decision-makers incorporate feedback is necessary.

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Contrast effect and dispute resolution: An experimental study

Zbornik radova Pravnog fakulteta Novi Sad ◽

10.5937/zrpfns54-27338 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 54 (2) ◽

pp. 651-664

Author(s):

Aleksandar Mojašević ◽

Branko Radulović

Keyword(s):

Experimental Study ◽

Treatment Group ◽

Behavioral Economics ◽

Dispute Resolution ◽

Contrast Effect ◽

Complete Information ◽

Law Students ◽

Significant Difference ◽

The Subject ◽

The University

The subject of this paper is the contrast effect in negotiations from the behavioral economics perspective. We conducted an experimental study using a "divorce litigation game" with complete information about payoffs aimed at testing whether participants are prone to context-dependent decisions. The sample was created by 100 law students from the Faculty of Law of the University of Niš. In a "between subjects" design 100 different participants were tested in the control and treatment group. The main finding is that there is a statistically significant difference between the two groups, thus confirming the presence of the contrast effect. The study opens the door to further real experiments with an emphasis on other subjects, such as lawyers, checking if they are so "rational"

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The effect of uncertainty on negative discounting

International Journal of Management and Economics ◽

10.2478/ijme-2021-0023 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Marcin Palenik

Keyword(s):

Experimental Study ◽

Behavioral Economics ◽

Discount Rate ◽

Intertemporal Choice ◽

The Other ◽

Common Assumption ◽

Other Hand ◽

The Impact ◽

To Receive ◽

Over Time

Abstract The preference to receive benefits as early as possible and delay costs as much as possible is natural for people. That means a positive discount rate in the intertemporal choice, which is a common assumption in economics. However, as research in behavioral economics proves, in certain situations a negative discount rate occurs. The purpose of this paper is to show that the assumption of positive discounting is not always true. The presented experimental study shows how a decrease in probability increases the chances of negative discounting. According to the results, the expected large, uncertain profit is more likely to be deferred over time than a certain profit of the same value. On the other hand, the expected large, uncertain loss is more willingly experienced earlier than a certain loss of the same value. In both cases, it means an increase in the frequency of negative discounting due to increased uncertainty. The results of the study broaden the existing knowledge about the impact of probability on discounting in a situation of expected losses and the area of negative discounting.

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Experimental study on the restoration from a tilt-azimuth series for improvement in resolution

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s042482010013955x ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 53 ◽

pp. 636-637

Author(s):

Norio Baba ◽

Norihiko Ichise ◽

Syunya Watanabe

Keyword(s):

Experimental Study ◽

Spherical Aberration ◽

Incident Beam ◽

Optical Parameters ◽

Beam Tilting ◽

Illumination Method ◽

Restoration Method ◽

Illumination Mode

The tilted beam illumination method is used to improve the resolution comparing with the axial illumination mode. Using this advantage, a restoration method of several tilted beam images covering the full azimuthal range was proposed by Saxton, and experimentally examined. To make this technique more reliable it seems that some practical problems still remain. In this report the restoration was attempted and the problems were considered. In our study, four problems were pointed out for the experiment of the restoration. (1) Accurate beam tilt adjustment to fit the incident beam to the coma-free axis for the symmetrical beam tilting over the full azimuthal range. (2) Accurate measurements of the optical parameters which are necessary to design the restoration filter. Even if the spherical aberration coefficient Cs is known with accuracy and the axial astigmatism is sufficiently compensated, at least the defocus value must be measured. (3) Accurate alignment of the tilt-azimuth series images.

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