Rank and response: A field experiment on peer information and water use behavior

Perception of peer rank, or how we perform relative to our peers, can be a powerful motivator. While research exists on the effect of social information on decision making, there is less work on how ranked comparisons with our peers influence our behavior. This paper outlines a field experiment conducted with 3896 households in Castro Valley, California, which uses household mailers with various forms of social information and peer rank messaging to motivate water conservation. The experiment tests the effect of a visible peer rank on water use, and how the competitive framing of rank information influences behavioral response. The results show that households with relatively low or high water use in the pre-treatment period responded differently to how rank information was framed. I find that a neutrally-framed peer rank caused a small “boomerang effect” (i.e., an increase in average water use) for low water use households, but this effect was eliminated by competitive framing. At the same time, a competitively-framed peer rank demotivated high water use households, increasing their average water use over the full period of the experiment. This result is supported by evidence that the competitive frame on rank information increased water use for households who ranked “last” in the peer group – a detrimental “last place effect” from competitively-framed rankings.     

A Unified Way to Represent and Compute the Cumulative Distribution Function for Noncentral t,F, and χ2

This short article shows an unified approach to representing and computing the cumulative distribution function for noncentral t, F, and χ². Unlike the existing algorithms, which involve different expansion and/or recurrence, the new approach consistently represents all the three noncentral cumulative distribution functions as the integral of the normal cumulative distribution function and χ² density function.     

Asymptotic expaxsioxs for the joint distribution of cirrelated hotellings t2 statlstics under normality

Let T² _i=z′_iS^?1z_i, i==,…k be correlated Hotelling's T² statistics under normality. where z=(z′_i,…,z′_k)′ and nS are independently distributed as N_kp((O,ρ?∑) and Wishart distribution W_p(∑, n), respectively. The purpose of this paper is to study the distribution function F(x₁,…,x_k) of (T² _i,…,T² _k) when n is large. First we derive an asymptotic expansion of the characteristic function of (T² _i,…,T² _k) up to the order n^?2. Next we give asymptotic expansions for (T² _i,…,T² _k) in two cases (i)ρ=I_k and (ii) k=2 by inverting the expanded characteristic function up to the orders n^?2 and n^?1, respectively. Our results can be applied to the distribution function of max (T² _i,…,T² _k) as a special case.     

特低渗透油藏 CO2 驱室内实验研究

针对大庆外围油田特低渗透油藏剩余油潜力大、井网加密效益差、水驱采收率低等问题，提出了特低渗透油藏 CO2驱技术。通过细管实验和天然岩芯 CO2 驱油实验，确定了 CO2 与高台子油田原油的最小混相压力，评价了特低渗透砂岩油藏 CO2 驱油效果。实验结果表明，CO2 驱可以应用于高台子油田，并取得较好的驱油效果。当天然岩芯空气渗透率为0.58 mD 时，在水驱基础上，气驱可以进一步提高采收率 8% 以上，特低渗透油藏实施 CO2 驱油技术是可行的。     

What Survey Data Reveal about Price and Wage Rigidity in Portugal

This paper exploits the information collected from a survey conducted on a sample of Portuguese firms to study the patterns of firms’ price and wage adjustments and the extent of nominal price and wage rigidities. The evidence shows that the frequency of price changes varies substantially across sectors and depends on the intensity of competition, the share of labor costs and firms’ price reviewing behavior. The results also suggest that the constraint imposed by the presence of downward nominal wage rigidity is less important in firms where the fraction of permanent and high‐skilled workers is lower and the share of flexible pay components is higher.     

LABOR SUPPLY OF POLITICIANS

Using data on Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), we examine the impact of salaries on the composition and the behavior of legislators. Employing a differences‐in‐differences approach, we exploit the introduction of a law that equalized MEPs' salaries which had previously differed by as much as a factor of 10. Increasing salaries raises the fraction of MEPs who run for re‐election but decreases the quality of elected MEPs (proxied by college quality). Salary has no discernible impact on effort or legislation output. Higher salaries induce more political competition.     

THE BALANCED US PRESS

We measure the relative ideological positions of newspapers, voters, interest groups, and political parties, using data on ballot propositions. We exploit the fact that newspapers, parties, and interest groups take positions on these propositions, and the fact that citizens ultimately vote on them. We find that, on average, newspapers in the United States are located almost exactly at the median voter in their states—that is, they are balanced around the median voter. Still, there is a significant amount of ideological heterogeneity across newspapers, which is smaller than the one found for interest groups. However, when we group propositions by issue area, we find a sizable amount of ideological imbalance: broadly speaking, newspapers are to the left of the state‐level median voter on many social issues, and to the right on many economic issues. To complete the picture, we use two existing methods of measuring bias and show that the news and editorial sections of newspapers have almost identical partisan positions.     

MANAGED COMPETITION IN HEALTH INSURANCE

Rising healthcare costs have sparked debate about the best way to provide high‐quality affordable health insurance. We discuss the potential for regulated insurance markets to outperform single‐payer public insurance. We use as an example the private Medicare plans that now provide insurance to almost a third of seniors in the United States. The evidence suggests that private plans can limit costs and potentially appeal to enrollees, and that well‐designed risk adjustment can mitigate market failures due to adverse selection. However, fostering competition between insurers, especially in smaller markets, is difficult. We discuss how future research might illuminate the relative advantages of public and private health insurance.     

基于历史法和零和DEA方法的用能权与碳排放权初始分配研究

本文引入了同时考虑用能权与碳排放权初始分配的零和DEA方法,从公平与效率视角对比分析了历史法与零和DEA方法两种分配方式的适用性,并应用市场交易模型检验了不同初始分配方式对各地区交易行为的影响。研究结果表明,零和DEA方法能够提高用能权与碳排放权初始分配的公平性,但却是以牺牲前沿技术效率水平为代价。其次,完善的市场机制能够提高基于零和DEA方法调配用能权与碳排放权的配置效率,生产技术水平较高的地区可以通过出售多余的用能权和碳排放权来获得额外收益,有利于促进绿色技术创新;相反,历史法容易导致高耗能、高排放的地区在初始分配中获得较多的用能权和碳排放权,不利于正向促进技术进步。最后,当市场机制不完善时,基于零和DEA方法配置用能权和碳排放权,可能会抑制技术进步,而基于历史法的初始分配方式则至少可以在短期内维持现有生产技术水平。     

中间品贸易视角下的国际研发合作行为研究

随着全球化程度加深,与国外企业进行研发合作逐步成为国内企业参与创新驱动发展战略的重要途径.从中间品贸易视角出发,通过构建谈判博弈模型,分析探讨影响产业链下游企业进行国际研发合作内生性选择的因素.研究发现,只有在研发溢出效应比较小的时候,产业链下游企业才会选择进行国际研发合作.但如果研发溢出效应过小,下游企业的国际研发合作行为会导致本国社会福利水平下降.进一步研究发现,上游市场垄断势力增强以及最终品贸易成本下降均会对产业链下游企业的国际研发合作产生促进作用.