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on Neuroeconomics |
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Issue of 2014‒11‒17
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Fabrizio Zilibotti (University of Zurich); Matthias Doepke (Northwestern University) |
| Abstract: | We construct a theory of intergenerational preference transmission that rationalizes the choice between alternative parenting styles (related to Baumrind 1967). Parents maximize an objective function that combines Beckerian and paternalistic altruism towards children. They can affect their children’s choices via two channels: either by influencing their preferences or by imposing direct restrictions on their choice sets. Different parenting styles (authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive) emerge as equilibrium outcomes, and are affected both by parental preferences and by the socioeconomic environment. We consider two applications: patience and risk aversion. We argue that parenting styles may be important for explaining why different groups or societies develop different attitudes towards human capital formation, entrepreneurship, and innovation. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed014:343&r=neu |
| By: | Kulesz, Micaela M.; Dittrich, Dennis A. V. |
| Abstract: | We report on an experiment in which subjects older than 55 years old and subjects younger than 26 years old play repeatedly 4 versions of the centipede game. For each game we define four treatments that allow us to study cooperation and belief formation of these two age groups. We find that beliefs about the others' age group shape the outcome: while seniors are cooperative and generous with juniors when they incur lower opportunity costs, for juniors it is when playing with seniors that they learn the way to the theoretical solution by smoothly decreasing their cooperation levels. |
| Keywords: | Centipede Game, Age differences, Decision Making, Beliefs, Social Preferences. |
| JEL: | C9 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:58584&r=neu |
| By: | Woolcock, Michael (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | Rising standards for accurately inferring the impact of development projects has not been matched by equivalently rigorous procedures for guiding decisions about whether and how similar results might be expected elsewhere. These 'external validity' concerns are especially pressing for 'complex' development interventions, in which the explicit purpose is often to adapt projects to local contextual realities and where high quality implementation is paramount to success. A basic analytical framework is provided for assessing the external validity of complex development interventions. It argues for deploying case studies to better identify the conditions under which diverse outcomes are observed, focusing in particular on the salience of contextual idiosyncrasies, implementation capabilities and trajectories of change. Upholding the canonical methodological principle that questions should guide methods, not vice versa, is required if a truly rigorous basis for generalizing claims about likely impact across time, groups, contexts and scales of operation is to be discerned for different kinds of development interventions. |
| JEL: | B40 O10 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp13-048&r=neu |
| By: | Peter D�rsch (University of Heidelberg, Germany); Julia Muller (Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.) |
| Abstract: | Neutral framing is a standard tool of experimental economics. However, overly neutral instructions, which lack any contextual clues, can lead to strange behavior. In a contextless second price auction for a meaningless good, a majority of subjects enter positive bids - a case of cognitive experimenter demand effect. Subjects bid positive amounts because this is what they think they are tasked with in the experiment. Adding a second auction that has a context drastically reduces the positive bids in the meaningless first auction by reducing the cognitive experimenter demand effect. |
| Keywords: | Context, Neutral Framing, Experimenter Demand Effect, Experiment, Second-Price Auction |
| JEL: | C90 D44 |
| Date: | 2014–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20140063&r=neu |