nep-upt New Economics Papers
on Utility Models and Prospect Theory
Issue of 2020‒01‒06
23 papers chosen by



  1. Relative deprivation as a cause of risky behaviors By Stark, Oded
  2. A behavioral decomposition of willingness to pay for health insurance By Aurélien Baillon; Aleli Kraft; Owen O'Donnell; Kim van Wilgenburg
  3. Fast then slow: A choice process explanation for the attraction effect By Gaudeul, Alexia; Crosetto, Paolo
  4. On Bunching and Identi?cation of the Taxable Income Elasticity By Soren Blomquist; Anil Kumar; Che-Yuan Liang
  5. Multivariate Systemic Optimal Risk Transfer Equilibrium By Alessandro Doldi; Marco Frittelli
  6. Indeterminacy with preferences featuring multiplicative habits in consumption By Aleksandar Vasilev
  7. Children's Willingness to Pay for Environmental Protection By Valentino Dardanone; Carla Guerriero
  8. Perceived wealth, cognitive sophistication and behavioral inattention By Assenza, Tiziana; Cardaci, Alberto; Delli Gatti, Domenico
  9. Competitive investment with varying risk premia By Armerin, Fredrik; Gunnelin, Åke
  10. Incorporating Conditional Morality into Economic Decisions By David Masclet; David L. Dickinson
  11. Bayesian Rapid Optimal Adaptive Design (BROAD): Method and application distinguishing models of risky choice By Ray, Debajyoti; Golovin, Daniel; Krause, Andreas; Camerer, Colin
  12. Modeling and Prediction of Iran's Steel Consumption Based on Economic Activity Using Support Vector Machines By Hossein Kamalzadeh; Saeid Nassim Sobhan; Azam Boskabadi; Mohsen Hatami; Amin Gharehyakheh
  13. A Guarantee – Does the Obligee Agree? A Risk Premium Decomposition of Sub-Sovereign Bond Spreads By Knezevic, David; Krüger, Niclas; Nordström, Martin
  14. Estimating Biases in Smoking Cessation: Evidence from a Field Experiment By Frank J. Chaloupka IV; Matthew R. Levy; Justin S. White
  15. Peer effects in stock market participation: Evidence from immigration By Anastasia Girshina; Thomas Y. Mathä; Michael Ziegelmeyer
  16. A novel approach to asset pricing with choice of probability measures By Taiga Saito; Akihiko Takahashi
  17. Identification of a class of index models: A topological approach By Mogens Fosgerau; Dennis Kristensen
  18. A Mean Field Games Model for Cryptocurrency Mining By Zongxi Li; A. Max Reppen; Ronnie Sircar
  19. A Participatory Stakeholder Process for Evaluating Sustainable Energy Transition Scenarios By Höfer, Tim; Madlener, Reinhard
  20. Interpersonal comparisons by means of money metric utilities: why one should use the same reference prices for all By Bart Capéau; André Decoster; Liebrecht De Sadeleer
  21. The Academic Market And The Rise Of Universities In Medieval And Early Modern Europe (1000-1800) By David De La Croix; Frédéric Docquier; Alice Fabre; Robert Stelter
  22. Piecemeal modelling of the effects of joint direct and indirect tax reforms By Bart Capéau; André Decoster; Sebastiaan Maes; Toon Vanheukelom
  23. L'anthropologie économique de Pierre Bourdieu : vision économique et vision sociologique du social. By Nathanael Colin-Jaeger

  1. By: Stark, Oded
    Abstract: Combining a standard measure of concern about low relative wealth and a standard measure of relative risk aversion leads to a novel explanation of variation in risk-taking behavior identified and documented by social psychologists and economists. We obtain two results: (1) Holding individual i's wealth and his rank in the wealth distribution constant, the individual's relative risk aversion decreases when he becomes more relatively deprived as a result of an increase in the average wealth of the individuals who are wealthier than he is. (2) If relative deprivation enters the individual's utility function approximately linearly then, holding constant individual i's wealth and the average wealth of the individuals who are wealthier than he is, the individual's relative risk aversion decreases when he becomes more relatively deprived as a result of a decline in his rank. Our findings provide a theoretical support for evidence about the propensity of relatively deprived individuals to gamble and resort to other risky behaviors.
    Keywords: Social preferences,Relative deprivation,Concern about low relative wealth,Risk aversion
    JEL: D01 D81 D91 I12
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuewef:125&r=all
  2. By: Aurélien Baillon (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Aleli Kraft (University of the Philippines Diliman); Owen O'Donnell (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Kim van Wilgenburg (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
    Abstract: Despite widespread exposure to substantial medical expenditure risk in low-income populations, health insurance enrollment is typically low. This is puzzling from the perspective of expected utility theory. To help explain it, this paper introduces a decomposition of the stated willingness to pay (WTP) for insurance into its fair price and three behavioral deviations from that price due to risk perception and risk attitude consistent with prospect theory, plus a residual. To apply this approach, we elicit WTP, subjective distributions of medical expenditures and risk attitude (utility curvature and probability weighting) from Filipino households in a nationwide survey. We find that the mean stated WTP of the uninsured is less than both the actuarially fair price and the subsidized price at which public insurance is offered. This is not explained by downwardly biased beliefs: both the mean and the median subjective expectation are greater than the subsidized price. Convex utility in the domain of losses pushes mean WTP below the fair price and the subsidized price, and the transformation of probabilities into decision weights depresses the mean further, at least using one of two specific decompositions. WTP is reduced further by factors other than risk perception and attitude.
    Keywords: Health insurance, willingness to pay, subjective probability, prospect theory, medical expense
    JEL: I13 D84
    Date: 2019–11–17
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20190077&r=all
  3. By: Gaudeul, Alexia; Crosetto, Paolo
    Abstract: In this paper we provide choice-process experimental evidence that the attraction effect is a short-term phenomenon, that disappears when individuals are given time and incentives to revise their choices. The attraction (or decoy) effect is the most prominent example of context effects, and it appears when adding a dominated option to a choice set increases the choice share of the now dominant option at the expense of other options. While widely replicated, the attraction effect is usually tested in hypothetical or payoff-irrelevant situations and without following the choice process. We run a laboratory experiment where we incentivize choice, vary the difference in utility between options and track which option participants consider best over time. We find that the effect is a transitory phenomenon that emerges only in the early stages of the choice process to later disappear. Participants are fast then slow: they first choose the dominant option to avoid the dominated decoy and then progressively revise their choices until choice shares come to correspond to price differences only. We expand our analysis by considering differences in utility among options and differences in the presentation of options (numerical or graphical). We also consider differences in the choice processes followed by individuals (intuitive vs. deliberative). This allows us to ascribe more precisely the role of fast and slow cognitive process in the emergence and disappearance of the attraction effect.
    Keywords: asymmetric dominance,attraction effect,induced preferences,choice process,time constraint,rationality,context effects
    JEL: C91 D12 D83
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cegedp:386&r=all
  4. By: Soren Blomquist (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Anil Kumar (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Che-Yuan Liang (Institute for Fiscal Studies)
    Abstract: The taxable income elasticity is a key parameter for predicting the e?ect of tax reform or designing an income tax. Bunching at kinks and notches in a single budget set have been used to estimate the taxable income elasticity. We show that when the heterogeneity distribution is unrestricted the amount of bunching at a kink or a notch is not informative about the size of the taxable income elasticity, and neither is the entire distribution of taxable income for a convex budget set. Kinks do provide information about the size of the elasticity when a priori restrictions are placed on the heterogeneity distribution. They can identify the elasticity when the heterogeneity distribution is speci?ed across the kink and provide bounds under restrictions on the heterogeneity distribution. We also show that variation in budget sets can identify the taxable income elasticity when the distribution of preferences is unrestricted and stable across budget sets. For nonparametric utility with general heterogeneity we show that kinks only provide elasticity information about individuals at the kink and we give bounds analogous to those for isoelastic utility. Identi?cation becomes more di?cult with optimization errors We show in examples how results are a?ected by optimization errors.
    Date: 2019–10–21
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:cemmap:53/19&r=all
  5. By: Alessandro Doldi; Marco Frittelli
    Abstract: A Systemic Optimal Risk Transfer Equilibrium (SORTE) was introduced in "Systemic Optimal Risk Transfer Equilibrium" for the analysis of the equilibrium among financial institutions or in insurance-reinsurance markets. A SORTE conjugates the classical B\"uhlmann's notion of an equilibrium risk exchange with a capital allocation principle based on systemic expected utility optimization. In this paper we extend such notion to the case in which the value function to be optimized has two components, one being the sum of the single agents' utility functions, the other consisting of a truly systemic component. The latter could be either enforced by an external regulator or be agreed on by the participants in the market. Technically, the extension of SORTE to the new setup requires developing a theory for multivariate utility functions and selecting at the same time a suitable framework for the duality theory. Conceptually, this more general framework allows us to introduce and study a Nash Equilibrium property of the optimizer. We prove existence, uniqueness, Pareto optimality and the Nash Equilibrium property of the newly defined Multivariate Systemic Optimal Risk Transfer Equilibrium.
    Date: 2019–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1912.12226&r=all
  6. By: Aleksandar Vasilev
    Abstract: We introduce consumption habits into an exogenous growth model augmented with a detailed government sector, and calibrate the model to Bulgarian data for the period following the introduction of the currency board arrangement (1999-2016). We show that in contrast to the case without habits, e.g., Vasilev (2009), when the economy features saddle-path stability, the habit motive alone leads to equilibrium indeterminacy in the model. When habits enter multiplicatively in the representative agent’s utility function, the setup exhibits ”sink” dynamics, and equilibrium paths are determined by ”animal spirits.” These results are in line with the findings in the literature, e.g., Benhabib and Farmer (1994, 1996) and Farmer (1999), and have major implications for polcy-making and welfare.
    Keywords: Equilibrium indeterminacy, animal spirits, multiplicative consumption habits, Bulgaria.
    JEL: E32 E22 E37
    Date: 2019–10–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2019_08&r=all
  7. By: Valentino Dardanone (Università di Palermo); Carla Guerriero (Università di Napoli Federico II and CSEF)
    Abstract: Young generations will bear the cost of present natural capital degradation and, as the recent wave of school climate strikes for climate change proved, do not want their voices to be ignored. Discrete Choice Experiments are increasingly being used for the valuation of environmental goods, nevertheless, they have never been conducted with children. We designed and administered a discrete choice experiment to elicit children, aged 8-19 years, willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental protection projects. Our results suggest that children marginal WTP is higher for projects targeting natural protection in their own country (Italy) and that the utility of environmental protection is greater for females and for older children. Furthermore, we find that individual attitude towards environment negatively affect the probability of choosing the status quo alternative. Given recent findings on transfer of knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards environmental protection from children to parents, these results are important to support policy makers decisions on how to deal with the issues of natural capital degradation.
    Keywords: Discrete Choice Experiment; Children; Natural Capital; Environmental Protection; Willingness to Pay
    JEL: C93 Q51 D83
    Date: 2019–12–17
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:550&r=all
  8. By: Assenza, Tiziana; Cardaci, Alberto; Delli Gatti, Domenico
    Abstract: By means of a laboratory experiment, we show that, contrary to standard consumer theory, financially equivalent balance sheet profiles may be perceived as non fungible in a controlled frictionless environment with no probabilistic attributes. A large majority of subjects indeed have a bias in the perception of wealth, such that balance sheet composition matters: for a given net worth with values of assets and debt that are financially certain and risk-free, a greater asset-debt ratio implies greater perceived wealth. The predominance of this bias is explained by low cognitive sophistication and great inattention. Moreover, biased subjects are less patient, less debt averse, more likely to increase spending out of unexpected gains and report greater propensities to consume. A standard optimal consumption choice model, enriched with a rational but inattentive agent a la Gabaix (2014, 2019), aligns our key experimental findings.
    Keywords: perceived wealth,cognitive sophistication,behavioral inattention,laboratory experiment,household debt,consumption
    JEL: C91 D91
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:imfswp:135&r=all
  9. By: Armerin, Fredrik (Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology); Gunnelin, Åke (Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology)
    Abstract: This paper considers a model with a time-varying risk premium. The risk premium is driven by a continuous time Markov chain, representing the state in the economy, and the stochastic process generating the cash flows is a Markov-modulated geometric Brownian motion. An existing firm is facing the possibility of competitors entering the market, and due to this, cash flows are limited at levels which are dependent on the state of the economy. This results in a regulated Markov-modulated geometric Brownian motion, and the resulting accumulated supply can have jumps, something that is not possible in a model with only one regime.
    Keywords: valuation; competition; Markov-modulated Brownian motion; regulated processes
    JEL: G11 G13 G30
    Date: 2019–12–20
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:kthrec:2019_012&r=all
  10. By: David Masclet (Univ Rennes, CNRS, CREM - UMR 6211, F-35000 Rennes, France); David L. Dickinson (Appalachian State University, Department of Economics, USA)
    Abstract: We present a framework that incorporates both moral motivations and fairness considerations into utility. The main idea is that individuals face a preference trade-off between their material individual interest and their desire to follow moral norms. In our model, we assume that moral motivation is conditional and may be influenced by others’ actions. Specifically, in our framework moral obligation is a combination of two main components: an autonomous component and a social influence component that captures the influence of others. Our framework is able to explain many stylized results in the literature and to improve theories of economic behavior.
    Keywords: Fairness; Ethical Decision Making; Moral Motivation; Behavioral Economics
    JEL: B3 D6 D9
    Date: 2019–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tut:cremwp:2019-10&r=all
  11. By: Ray, Debajyoti; Golovin, Daniel; Krause, Andreas; Camerer, Colin
    Abstract: Economic surveys and experiments usually present fixed questions to respondents. Rapid computation now allows adaptively optimized questions, based on previous responses, to maximize expected information. We describe a novel method of this type introduced in computer science, and apply it experimentally to six theories of risky choice. The EC2 method creates equivalence classes, each consisting of a true theory and its noisy-response perturbations, and chooses questions with the goal of distinguishing between equivalence classes by cutting edges connecting them. The edge-cutting information measure is adaptively submodular, which enables a provable performance bound and “lazy” evaluation which saves computation. The experimental data show that most subjects, making only 30 choices, can be reliably classified as choosing according to EV or two variants of prospect theory. We also show that it is difficult for subjects to manipulate by misreporting preferences, and find no evidence of manipulation.
    Date: 2019–11–18
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:utvbz&r=all
  12. By: Hossein Kamalzadeh; Saeid Nassim Sobhan; Azam Boskabadi; Mohsen Hatami; Amin Gharehyakheh
    Abstract: The steel industry has great impacts on the economy and the environment of both developed and underdeveloped countries. The importance of this industry and these impacts have led many researchers to investigate the relationship between a country's steel consumption and its economic activity resulting in the so-called intensity of use model. This paper investigates the validity of the intensity of use model for the case of Iran's steel consumption and extends this hypothesis by using the indexes of economic activity to model the steel consumption. We use the proposed model to train support vector machines and predict the future values for Iran's steel consumption. The paper provides detailed correlation tests for the factors used in the model to check for their relationships with the steel consumption. The results indicate that Iran's steel consumption is strongly correlated with its economic activity following the same pattern as the economy has been in the last four decades.
    Date: 2019–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1912.02373&r=all
  13. By: Knezevic, David (Örebro University School of Business); Krüger, Niclas (Örebro University School of Business); Nordström, Martin (Örebro University School of Business)
    Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate if credit markets believe in the existence of a central government guarantee and if this can be observed in the yield spread of the municipal sector. This is done by decomposing the municipal bond yield spread into liquidity and credit risk premiums by variance decomposition in a vector autoregressive setting – an approach which, to our knowledge, has not been previously suggested. Our results show that 62% or 50 basis points of the yield spread is explained by the chosen liquidity and credit variables. The liquidity risk premium makes up 35% or 28 basis points of the yield spread and credit makes up 27% or 22 basis points. Thus, investors and creditors in general do not believe in the existence of such a guarantee.
    Keywords: Municipality bonds; risk premium; credit risk; liquidity risk; yield spread
    JEL: G12 G23 H74
    Date: 2019–12–20
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2019_012&r=all
  14. By: Frank J. Chaloupka IV; Matthew R. Levy; Justin S. White
    Abstract: We conduct a randomized field experiment to quantify biases that affect consumers of addictive goods: present-biased preferences, naïve beliefs regarding present bias, and projection-biased beliefs over future abstinence. These biases reflect departures from the neoclassical benchmark needed to accommodate intertemporal and state-dependent prediction errors and have important theoretical and policy ramifications. Our experiment employs a new approach for remote monitoring to ensure truthful reporting of behavior and valuations, and a novel identification of subjects’ biases based on willingness to pay for future abstinence incentives that serve as partial commitment devices. We find that cigarette smokers overestimate their likelihood of future abstinence by more than 100%, consistent with partially-naïve present-biased preferences. We estimate that on average smokers are present biased and only partially aware of their present bias, with substantial heterogeneity and a positive correlation between the two at the individual level. Smokers mispredict the effects of an abstinence intervention. Ex ante smokers anticipate no effect of the intervention on their future abstinence and ex post fail to recognize the intervention’s positive effect. Our estimates highlight that smokers suffer from a constellation of biases: under their own long-run preferences, smokers’ choices lead to a private welfare loss of $400 per week.
    JEL: C93 D91 I12
    Date: 2019–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26522&r=all
  15. By: Anastasia Girshina; Thomas Y. Mathä; Michael Ziegelmeyer
    Abstract: This paper studies how peers’ financial behaviour affects individuals’ own investment choices. To identify the peer effect, we exploit the unique composition of the Luxembourg population and use the differences in stock market participation across various immigrant groups to study how they affect stock market participation of natives. We solve the reflection problem by instrumenting immigrants’ stock market participation with lagged participation rates in their countries of birth. We separate the peer effect from the contextual and correlated effects by controlling for neighbourhood and individual characteristics. We find that stock market participation of immigrant peers has sizeable effects on that of natives. We also provide evidence that social learning is one of the channels through which the peer effect is transmitted. However, social learning alone does not account for the entire effect and we conclude that social utility might also play an important role in peer effects transmission.
    Keywords: Peer effects, stock market participation, social utility, social learning
    JEL: D14 D83 G11 I22
    Date: 2019–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcl:bclwop:bclwp137&r=all
  16. By: Taiga Saito (Graduate School of Economics and CARF, University of Tokyo); Akihiko Takahashi (Graduate School of Economics and CARF, University of Tokyo)
    Abstract: This paper presents a new asset pricing model incorporating fundamental uncertainties by choice of a probability measure. This approach is novel in that we incorporate uncertainties on Brownian motions describing risks into the existing asset pricing model. Particularly, we show extensions of interest rate models to the ones with uncertainties on the Brownian motions, which make the yield curve reflect not only economic factors but also views of the market participants on the Brownian motions. Such yield curve models are especially important in yield curve trading of hedge funds as well as monetary policy making of central banks under low interest rate environments observed after the global nancial crisis, in which yield curves are less affected by economic factors since they are controlled by the central banks, but are driven mainly by sentiments of market participants. Firstly, to model aggressive (positive)/conservative (cautious) attitudes towards such fundamental uncertainties, we consider a sup-inf/inf-sup problem on the utility of a representative agent with respect to uncertainties over Brownian motions, i.e. fundamental market risks, by choice of a probability measure. Secondly, we show that the problem is solved via a backward-stochastic differential equations (BSDEs) approach. Then, under a probability measure determined by solving the sup-inf/inf-sup problem, we propose interest rate models with those uncertainties and explicitly obtain their term structures of interest rates. Particularly, we present two approaches to solving the relevant coupled forward-backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDEs) to obtain expressions of the equilibrium interest rate and the term structure of interest rates. In detail, the rst approach is by comparison theorems, and the second approach is to predetermine the signs of the volatilities of the BSDE in the coupled system and con rm them by explicitly solving the separated BSDE. Finally, we resent concrete examples with numerical experiments.
    Date: 2019–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfi:fseres:cf471&r=all
  17. By: Mogens Fosgerau (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of Copenhagen); Dennis Kristensen (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London)
    Abstract: We establish nonparametric identification in a class of so-called index models using a novel approach that relies on general topological results. Our proof strategy imposes very weak smoothness conditions on the functions to be identified and does not require any large support conditions on the regressors in our model. We apply the general identification result to additive random utility and competing risk models.
    Date: 2019–10–15
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:cemmap:52/19&r=all
  18. By: Zongxi Li; A. Max Reppen; Ronnie Sircar
    Abstract: We propose a mean field game model to study the question of how centralization of reward and computational power occur in the Bitcoin-like cryptocurrencies. Miners compete against each other for mining rewards by increasing their computational power. This leads to a novel mean field game of jump intensity control, which we solve explicitly for miners maximizing exponential utility, and handle numerically in the case of miners with power utilities. We show that the heterogeneity of their initial wealth distribution leads to greater imbalance of the reward distribution, or a "rich get richer" effect. This concentration phenomenon is aggravated by a higher bitcoin price, and reduced by competition. Additionally, an advanced miner with cost advantages such as access to cheaper electricity, contributes a significant amount of computational power in equilibrium. Hence, cost efficiency can also result in the type of centralization seen among miners of cryptocurrencies.
    Date: 2019–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1912.01952&r=all
  19. By: Höfer, Tim (E.ON Energy Research Center, Future Energy Consumer Needs and Behavior (FCN)); Madlener, Reinhard (E.ON Energy Research Center, Future Energy Consumer Needs and Behavior (FCN))
    Abstract: This paper presents an evaluation of four energy transition scenarios under consideration of multiple stakeholder opinions. We construct a multi-criteria group decision model that applies Value-Focused Thinking to construct a holistic objective system and Multi-Attribute Utility Theory to evaluate the energy transition scenarios. Although the individual scenario evaluations show that the opinions of the stakeholders towards a sustainable energy transition differ largely, we are able to derive three main strands of opinions among the considered stakeholders. For this, we apply a clustering technique to identify and bundle the stakeholders into three groups. This bundling of stakeholder interests enables the identification of the most important policy recommendations for a sustainable energy transition. For the case of Germany, these are to reduce GHG and pollutant emissions and at the same time enable citizens’ participation, limit the visual impact on landscapes, and ensuring internationally comparable energy-related political frameworks for the economy. For the case of a sustainable energy transition in Germany, we find that the stakeholders considered prefer either the highly ambitious climate protection scenario (Scenario B) or the Pan-European scenario (Scenario C). The reference scenario, which was developed by the German Transmission System Operators (TSOs), turns out to be relatively unpopular.
    Keywords: Value-Focused Thinking; Group Decision Making; MAUT; Energy Scenarios
    JEL: D70 D81 O52 Q48
    Date: 2019–05–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:fcnwpa:2019_006&r=all
  20. By: Bart Capéau; André Decoster; Liebrecht De Sadeleer
    Abstract: We show that using different reference prices for different individuals in money metrics of well–being leads to violations of several normative properties of interpersonal welfare comparisons that have become popular in the fairness literature. An empirical illustration for Belgian single adults available for the labour market in 2015 shows that the violation of these principles in the labour consumption context, is all but exceptional
    Keywords: Money metric utility, well–being measurement, equivalent variation, labour supply
    Date: 2019–03–31
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:ceswps:636146&r=all
  21. By: David De La Croix (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)); Frédéric Docquier (LISER, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg); Alice Fabre (AMSE, Université Aix-Marseille, France); Robert Stelter (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)
    Abstract: Medieval universities are one of the most original creations of Western civilization. Students were educated by a plurality of masters, and scholars came from all parts of Europe. In this paper, we build an original database of thousands of scholars from university sources, and map the academic market in the medieval and early modern periods. Using a random utility model, we show that scholars tend to agglomerate in the best universities, and that this phenomenon is more pronounced within the upper tail of the talent distribution (positive sorting). The quality of scholars is measured by their publications. Agglomeration and sorting patterns testify to a functioning academic market, made possible by political fragmentation and the use of a common language (Latin). Using counterfactual simulations, we show that market forces shaped the geographic distribution of upper-tail human capital across Europe, and contributed to bolstering European universities at the dawn of the Humanistic and Scientific Revolutions.
    Keywords: Upper-Tail Human Capital, Universities, Discrete choice model, Scholars, Publications, Agglomeration.
    JEL: N33 O15 I25
    Date: 2019–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2019019&r=all
  22. By: Bart Capéau; André Decoster; Sebastiaan Maes; Toon Vanheukelom
    Abstract: This paper offers a framework to establish a micro-based budget and welfare evaluation of a joint reform in personal income taxes, social security contributions and indirect taxes. One often lacks an encompassing model for both labour supply decisions in real world tax and benefit contexts and the allocation of disposable income to commodities. In this paper we therefore elicit the assumptions which allow us to combine different submodels, such that an assessment of a joint reform becomes possible in a consistent conceptual framework. In addition, we characterise households' labour supply decisions by a random utility random opportunity (RURO) model of job choice. This allows us to incorporate effects from the demand side of the labour market into our analysis. We apply this framework to a recently enacted Belgian tax reform which shifts the burden away from labour taxes. We find substantial empirical evidence that, both from a distributional and from a budgetary perspective, it is important to account for indirect taxes, for labour demand-side effects and for unobserved job characteristics, when assessing this kind of joint tax reform. As for the budgetary effects, the cost recovery effects of the tax shift are modest. This is, among other things, explained by a more encompassing income effect in our job choice model, than is found in the more classic discrete choice model of labour supply.
    Keywords: job choice, joint direct and indirect tax reform, microsimulation, welfare analysis
    Date: 2018–09–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:ceswps:626861&r=all
  23. By: Nathanael Colin-Jaeger (TRIANGLE - Triangle : action, discours, pensée politique et économique - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Étienne] - IEP Lyon - Sciences Po Lyon - Institut d'études politiques de Lyon - Université de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
    Abstract: Ce travail vise à développer la critique bourdieusienne de l'anthropologie économique tout en clarifiant l'ontologie sociale qu'on peut tirer des conceptions bourdieusiennes.
    Keywords: Institutions,Sociology,Bourdieu,Society,Rational Choice
    Date: 2018–03–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01836023&r=all

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