New Economics Papers
on Neuroeconomics
Issue of 2011‒09‒16
three papers chosen by



  1. False Consensus in Economic Agents By Proto, Eugenio; Sgroi, Daniel
  2. Overconfidence and Bubbles in Experimental Asset Markets By Julija Michailova; Ulrich Schmidt
  3. The Effect of Vaccination on Children's Physical and Cognitive Development in the Philippines By David E. Bloom; David Canning; Erica Seigner

  1. By: Proto, Eugenio (Department of Economics, University of Warwick); Sgroi, Daniel (Department of Economics, University of Warwick)
    Abstract: In an incentivized experiment we identify a powerful and ubiquitous bias: individuals regard their own characteristics and choices as more common than is the case. We establish this "false consensus" bias in terms of happiness, political stance, mobile phone brand and on the attitude to deference in a hypothetical restaurant choice, and show that it is not limited to the distribution of hard to observe characteristics and choices but also to weight and height. We also show that the bias is not driven by the fact that the tallest, happiest, most left/right-wing, etc. are more salient. Key words: false consensus ; saliency ; biased beliefs ; happiness ; politics ; height, weight. JEL classification: D03 ; C83 ; D84
    Date: 2011
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:968&r=neu
  2. By: Julija Michailova; Ulrich Schmidt
    Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between market overconfidence and occurrence of stock-price bubbles. Sixty participants traded stocks in ten experimental asset markets. Markets were constructed on the basis of subjects’ overconfidence, measured in pre-experimental sessions. The most overconfident subjects form “overconfident markets”, and the least overconfident subjects “rational markets”. Prices in rational markets tend to track the fundamental asset value more accurately than prices in overconfident markets and are significantly lower and less volatile. Additionally we observe significantly higher bubble measures and trading volume on overconfident markets. Altogether, our data provide evidence that overconfidence has strong effects on prices and trading behavior in experimental asset markets
    Keywords: overconfidence, price bubbles, experimental asset market
    JEL: C92 G12
    Date: 2011–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1729&r=neu
  3. By: David E. Bloom (Harvard School of Public Health); David Canning (Harvard School of Public Health); Erica Seigner
    Abstract: We use data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey in the Philippines to link vaccination in the first two years of life with later physical and cognitive development in children. We use propensity score matching to estimate the causal effect of vaccination on child development. We find no effect of vaccination on later height or weight, but full childhood vaccination for measles, polio, TB, and DPT significantly increases cognitive test scores relative to matched children who received no vaccinations. The size of the effect is large, raising test scores, on average, by about half a standard deviation.
    Keywords: vaccination, Phiippines, cognitive development
    Date: 2011–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gdm:wpaper:6911&r=neu

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