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on Neuroeconomics |
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Issue of 2009‒05‒09
six papers chosen by |
| By: | Amir Perelberg; Richard Schuster |
| Abstract: | In this study, coordinated breathing was studied in 13 common bottlenose dolphins because of its links with spontaneous coordinated behaviors (e.g., swimming, foraging, and playing). A strong link was shown between dyadic coordination levels and age/sex categories when both association patterns and spatial formation are considered. This is consistent with a significant influence of social relationships on cooperating and contrasts with an economic perspective based on immediate material outcomes alone. This cooperation bias is explained by linking proximate processes that evoke performance with ultimate evolutionary processes driven by long-term adaptive outcomes. Proximate processes can include 2 kinds of immediate outcomes: material reinforcements and affective states associated with acts of cooperating that can provide positive reinforcement regardless of immediate material benefits (e.g., when there is a time lag between cooperative acts and material outcomes). Affective states can then be adaptive by strengthening social relationships that lead to eventual gains in fitness. |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:huj:dispap:dp507&r=neu |
| By: | Amir Perelberg; Richard Schuster |
| Abstract: | Cooperation poses theoretical problems because the behaviors of individuals can benefit others. Evolutionary and game-theory explanations that focus on maximizing one's own material outcomes are usually supported by experimental models with isolated and anonymous subjects. Cooperation in the natural world, however, is often a social act whereby familiar individuals coordinate behaviors for shared outcomes. Social cooperation is also associated with a cooperation bias expressed as a preference for cooperation even when noncooperation is immediately more beneficial. The authors report on evidence for such a bias in a captive group of bottlenose dolphins that voluntarily preferred to receive petting from human guides by using a pairwise coordinated approach, even though this was more difficult, and total petting amount was thereby reduced. To explain why this bias occurs, the authors propose an integrated behavioral-evolutionary approach whereby performance is determined by two kinds of immediate outcomes: material gains and intrinsic affective states associated with cooperating. The latter can provide reinforcement when immediate material gains are reduced, delayed, or absent. Over a lifetime, this proximate mechanism can lead to cooperative relationships whose long-term ultimate consequences can be adaptive. |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:huj:dispap:dp508&r=neu |
| By: | Jianying Qiu; Eva-Maria Steiger |
| Abstract: | Despite extensive studies, the nature of risk attitudes remains a vigorously discussed question in economics and psychology. In expected utility theory, attitudes towards risk originate from changes in marginal utility. Cumulative prospect theory (CPT) adds an additional dimension: the weighting of probabilities. By examining both dimensions, we strive to gain more insight on the relation between the curvature of utility function and probability weighting, and on possible relations to cognitive limitations. Our findings from a controlled laboratory experiment suggest that the two dimensions capture quite different characteristics. Though, most individuals exhibit concave utility and convex probability weighting, the two dimensions show no significant correlation. In addition, only probability weighting, not the curvature of utility function, is correlated with educational background and decision time, which suggests its relation to cognitive limitations. |
| Keywords: | Risk attitudes, cumulative prospect theory, experimental study |
| JEL: | C91 D81 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2009-11&r=neu |
| By: | Yamamura, Eiji |
| Abstract: | This paper explores how social capital is related with self-rated health status in Japan and how this relationship is affected by gender, using data for 3075 adult participants in the 2000 Social Policy and Social Consciousness (SPSC) survey. Controlling for endogenous bias, unobserved city size- and area-specific fixed effects, I find that social capital has a significant positive influence on health status for females but not for males. If samples are limited to persons with a job, social capital effects drastically decrease and the difference between genders diminishes. This empirical study provides evidence that people without a job can afford to allocate time to accumulate social capital and thereby improve their health status. |
| Keywords: | health status; social capital; labor market |
| JEL: | J21 I19 Z13 |
| Date: | 2009–05–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14985&r=neu |
| By: | Berliant, Marcus |
| Abstract: | Applications of the framework of behavioral economics to questions arising from urban economics are discussed. Directions for future research are outlined. |
| Keywords: | Behavioral urban economics; ambiguity aversion; loss aversion; regional art |
| JEL: | C90 R23 |
| Date: | 2009–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14951&r=neu |
| By: | Swärdh, Jan-Erik (VTI); Algers, Staffan (Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | In this study, Swedish stated preference data is used to derive estimated values of commuting time (VOCT). Both spouses in two-earner households are individually making trade-offs between commuting time and wage; both with regard to their own commuting time and wage only, as well as when both their own commuting time and wage and their spouse's commuting time and wage are simultaneously changed. Thus, we are able to compare how male spouses and female spouses value each other's commuting time. When only ones own commuting time and wage are attributes, the empirical results show that the estimated VOCT is plausible with a tendency towards high values compared to other studies, and that VOCT does not differ significantly between men and women. When decisions affecting commuting time and wage of both spouses are analyzed, both spouses tend to value the commuting time of the wife highest. For policy implications, this study provides additional support for the practice of valuing commuting time higher than other private travel time. In addition, if VOCT were to be gender specific, the value might be higher for women than for men in two-earner households. |
| Keywords: | Value of time; Commuting; Stated preferences; Two-earner households; Gender differences |
| JEL: | C25 H54 J16 J30 R41 |
| Date: | 2009–05–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:vtiwps:2009_005&r=neu |