nep-neu New Economics Papers
on Neuroeconomics
Issue of 2016‒06‒14
two papers chosen by



  1. Cognitive and non-cognitive costs of daycare 0–2 for girls By M. Fort; A. Ichino; G. Zanella
  2. Ellsberg Re-revisited: An Experiment Disentangling Model Uncertainty and Risk Aversion By Loic Berger; Valentina Bosetti

  1. By: M. Fort; A. Ichino; G. Zanella
    Abstract: Exploiting admission thresholds in a Regression Discontinuity Design, we study the causal effects of daycare at age 0–2 on cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes at age 8–14. One additional month in daycare reduces IQ by 0.5% (4.5% of a standard deviation). Effects for conscientiousness are small and imprecisely estimated. Psychologists suggest that children in daycare experience fewer one-to-one interactions with adults, which should be particularly relevant for girls who are more capable than boys of exploiting cognitive stimuli at an early age. In line with this interpretation, losses for girls are larger and more significant, especially in affluent families.
    JEL: J13 I20 I28 H75
    Date: 2016–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp1056&r=neu
  2. By: Loic Berger (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)); Valentina Bosetti (Bocconi University and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM))
    Abstract: The results of an experiment extending Ellsberg's setup demonstrate that attitudes towards ambiguity and compound uncertainty are closely related. However, this association is much stronger when the second layer of uncertainty is subjective than when it is objective. Provided that the compound probabilities are simple enough, we find that most subjects, consisting of both students and policy makers, (1) reduce compound objective probabilities, (2) do not reduce compound subjective probabilities, and (3) are ambiguity non-neutral. By decomposing ambiguity into risk and model uncertainty, and jointly eliciting the attitudes individuals manifest towards these two types of uncertainty, we characterize individuals' degree of ambiguity aversion. Our data provides evidence of decreasing absolute ambiguity aversion and constant relative ambiguity aversion.
    Keywords: Ambiguity Aversion, Model Uncertainty, Reduction of Compound Lotteries, Non-expected Utility, Subjective Probabilities, Decreasing Absolute Ambiguity Aversion
    JEL: D81
    Date: 2016–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2016.37&r=neu

General information on the NEP project can be found at https://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.