Complexity and Competition

Extensive‐form market games typically have a large number of noncompetitive equilibria. In this paper, we argue that the complexity of noncompetitive behavior provides a justification for competitive equilibrium in the sense that if rational agents have an aversion to complexity (at the margin), then maximizing behavior will result in simple behavioral rules and hence in a competitive outcome. For this purpose, we use a class of extensive‐form dynamic matching and bargaining games with a finite number of agents. In particular, we consider markets with heterogeneous buyers and sellers and deterministic, exogenous, sequential matching rules, although the results can be extended to other matching processes. If the complexity costs of implementing strategies enter players’ preferences lexicographically with the standard payoff, then every equilibrium strategy profile induces a competitive outcome.     

Assortative Matching with Explicit Search Costs

In this paper, I analyze a decentralized search and matching economy with transferable utility composed of heterogeneous agents. I explore whether Becker's assortative matching result generalizes to an economy where agents engage in costly search. In an economy with explicit additive search costs, complementarities in joint production (supermodularity of the joint production function) lead to assortative matching. This is in contrast to previous literature, which had shown that in a search economy with discounting, assortative matching may fail even when the joint production function is supermodular.     

非实验数据政策效应评估理论与实证研究方法

非实验数据政策效应的研究是管理科学研究中的一个重要方向。政策效应评估理论在国外研究发展已经有很多年历史,但国内这一领域的研究甚少。基于此,本文对政策效应评估理论和实证研究方法做了一个较为全面的概括,侧重介绍了目前常用的三种评估方法:选择修正法、DID法和匹配法,并就一些我们在实际问题处理过程中需要注意的问题进行了探讨。     

数字化情境中的流通效率实现机制——基于匹配与扩张视角的案例研究

当前,快速发展的数字技术深刻影响了流通效率的实现。在数字化情境中探讨流通效率的微观实现机制,需要从流通的时空双重维度出发,将宏观层面的商品流通效率对应为企业在“匹配”和“扩张”的微观流通活动中的效率。采用追踪访谈的一手数据,基于韩都衣舍、酒仙网的案例,探讨了企业在数字化情境中的流通效率实现问题。研究发现：在“去中间化”路径中,数字化驱动了基于供应链整合的匹配效率实现和基于消费社群拓展的扩张效率实现,交叉网络效应与数据网络效应动态放大了这一作用;在“再中间化”路径中,数字化辅助了基于渠道纵向协作的匹配效率实现和基于店面连锁的扩张效率实现,用户网络效应与数据网络效应动态放大了这一作用。因此,承担流通活动的企业需结合自身对于流通渠道演化的路径选择,采取适配的数字化战略,以促进流通效率实现。     

Quantifying the similarity of 2D images using edge pixels: an application to the forensic comparison of footwear impressions

We propose a novel method to quantify the similarity between an impression (Q) from an unknown source and a test impression (K) from a known source. Using the property of geometrical congruence in the impressions, the degree of correspondence is quantified using ideas from graph theory and maximum clique (MC). The algorithm uses the x and y coordinates of the edges in the images as the data. We focus on local areas in Q and the corresponding regions in K and extract features for comparison. Using pairs of images with known origin, we train a random forest to classify pairs into mates and non-mates. We collected impressions from 60 pairs of shoes of the same brand and model, worn over six months. Using a different set of very similar shoes, we evaluated the performance of the algorithm in terms of the accuracy with which it correctly classified images into source classes. Using classification error rates and ROC curves, we compare the proposed method to other algorithms in the literature and show that for these data, our method shows good classification performance relative to other methods. The algorithm can be implemented with the R package shoeprintr.     

Noninformative priors for the between-group variance in the unbalanced one-way random effects model with heterogeneous error variances

For the unbalanced one-way random effects model with heterogeneous error variances, we propose the non-informative priors for the between-group variance and develop the first- and second-order matching priors. It turns out that the second-order matching priors do not exist and the reference prior and Jeffreys prior do not satisfy a first-order matching criterion. We also show that the first-order matching prior meets the frequentist target coverage probabilities much better than the Jeffreys prior and reference prior through simulation study, and the Bayesian credible intervals based on the matching prior and reference prior give shorter intervals than the existing confidence intervals by examples.     

Poverty and educational achievement in the US: A less-biased estimate using PISA 2012 data

In the current paper, we employ the most recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data to calculate a less-biased estimate of poverty on US achievement. The PISA was specifically chosen as it is an assessment removed from a specific curriculum and instead focuses on concepts that students should know in order to participate in a global economy. Using a propensity score matching approach, our findings suggest that US students in poverty have notable educational attainment deficiencies compared to a matched group of students who are not in poverty. In other words, when we select two students who have a great deal in common but for the fact that one comes from a poverty background, the student in poverty is expected to perform nearly 28 points, or about a quarter of a standard deviation lower, on the PISA assessment. In real terms, this puts math achievement for children not in poverty on-par with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average, while children in poverty are well below the OECD average.     

A Statewide Parenting Alternative Sentencing Program: Description and Preliminary Outcomes

ABSTRACT

The Washington State Legislature created the Parenting Sentencing Alternative in 2010, authorizing a substitute to total confinement for parents of minor children. The Alternative is designed to strengthen family bonds and improve parenting skills to encourage successful reintegration. An overview of the Alternative’s history, design, and implementation is presented, followed by preliminary results from an impact evaluation. A case study of a successful participant is presented, and implications for the findings are discussed.     

College-bound friends and college application choices: Heterogeneous effects for Latino and White students

Friends are among the most influential social forces affecting adolescent behavior, yet little work has focused on the influence of friends on the decision to apply to college. Using data from the senior cohort of the Texas Higher Education Opportunity Project, we employed propensity score matching with sensitivity analyses to investigate links between having college-oriented friends and applying to college. We found that college-oriented friends increased the likelihood of applying to any college and to 4-year colleges, both for White and Latino students. However, Latino students benefited less from college-oriented friends compared to White students. Our findings suggest that college-choice models should more directly account for the influence of friends in applying to college, taking account of racial and ethnic differences, and future research should explore why Latino students benefit less.     

高等学校排考染色-匹配算法

将安排考试课程与分配班级考场分别化为图的染色与最大匹配问题，进而将两种算法融合并改进，使之适合于实际应用．最后以染色一匹配算法解决上海理工大学本科教学排考冲突问题为例，实证了算法的有效性．