Interpersonal comparisons of utility in bargaining: evidence from a transcontinental ultimatum game

This article presents the experimental results of a “Transcontinental Ultimatum Game” implemented between India and France. We use a standard ultimatum game, but in one treatment, Indian subjects made offers to French subjects (ItoF treatment) and, in another treatment, French subjects made offers to Indian subjects (FtoI treatment). We observed that FtoI treatment bargaining mostly ended up with unequal splits of money in favor of French, while nearly equal splits were the most frequent outcome in ItoF treatment interactions. The experimental results are organized through a standard social reference model, modified for taking into account the different marginal value of money for bargainers. In our model, bargaining is driven by relative standing comparisons between players, occurring in terms of real earnings (that is monetary earnings corrected for a purchasing power factor) obtained in the game. The norm of equity behind the equalization of real earnings is called local equity norm, and contrasted to a global equity norm which would encompass the wealth of players beyond the game. According to what we observed, no beyond-game concern seems to be relevantly endorsed by subjects.     

Bare preference and interpersonal utility comparisons

From time to time it has been proposed to use just noticeable preference intervals as standard intervals upon which to base interpersonal utility comparisons. Such proposals have met with a number of difficulties due especially to the discovery that such intervals are difficult to take as representing equal differences in utility even for one individual.In this paper I suggest conditions upon individual utility functions which, if satisfied, would make such bare preference intervals useful as a basis for interpersonal utility comparisons even if the intervals are not interpreted as representing equal utility differences for any single individual.     

Justice,utility, and interpersonal comparisons

One of the most common objections against utilitarianism is that it cannot account for the claims of distributive justice. This objection can be answered by appeal to the principle of Diminishing Marginal Utility (DMU), which says that the value of a given portion of a commodity tends to increase as a person's supply of the commodity decreases. DMU implies that, other things equal, the way to maximize the value of a commodity is to distribute it equally. Some economists have objected to DMU on the ground that it presupposes interpersonal comparisons of utility, but the arguments which they have advanced against the objectivity of such comparisons are unsound. Moreover, the interpersonal comparisons presupposed by DMU are ordinal, rather than cardinal, and there are reasons for believing that ordinal comparisons, at least, do have an objective basis.     

Correcting expected utility for comparisons between alternative outcomes: A unified parameterization of regret and disappointment

A unified parameterization of an expected utility model corrected for regret and disappointment effects is presented, constrained to conform to a well-known choice pattern, the common consequence effect, a special case of the Allais paradox. For choices subject to regret and disappointment effects to be consistent with this choice pattern, the function that corrects the utility of the obtained outcome has to have a positive second derivative for its regret component and a negative second derivative for its disappointment component. These hypothesized functional forms make predictions about the relative effect that small vs. large differences between obtained and alternative outcomes should have on people’s experiences of regret or disappointment.

抑郁青少年的人际交互心理治疗

青少年抑郁症患者的人际交互心理治疗是建立在人际心理理论基础之上,具有循证医学理论依据的心理治疗方法。在国外经过二十多年的发展,抑郁症青少年人际交互心理治疗(IPT-A)在可信度和接受度方面优于其他疗法,并形成了理论基础、适用标准、治疗过程、治疗策略、实证效果等一系列较为完备的体系。     

抑郁青少年的人际交互心理治疗

青少年抑郁症患者的人际交互心理治疗是建立在人际心理理论基础之上,具有循证医学理论依据的心理治疗方法。在国外经过二十多年的发展,抑郁症青少年人际交互心理治疗（IPT—A）在可信度和接受度方面优于其他疗法,并形成了理论基础、适用标准、治疗过程、治疗策略、实证效果等一系列较为完备的体系。     

Mean utility preserving increases in risk for state dependent utility functions

This paper defines the concept of a mean utility preserving spread across states (MUPSAS) for state dependent utility functions and analyzes the behavioural impact of shifts in the probability distribution of wealth across states such that overall mean utility is preserved. The main result provides an alternative way of ranking state dependent utility functions according to their degree of risk aversion (thus extending Kami's theorem of comparative risk aversion) and establishes a link between increases in risk and risk aversion for state dependent preferences. In a portfolio problem where preferences and the rate of return of the risky venture are state dependent, we find sufficient conditions to determine the impact of a MUPSAS on the optimal share of the portfolio invested in the risky asset.

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Consequentialist foundations for expected utility

Behaviour norms are considered for decision trees which allow both objective probabilities and uncertain states of the world with unknown probabilities. Terminal nodes have consequences in a given domain. Behaviour is required to be consistent in subtrees. Consequentialist behaviour, by definition, reveals a consequence choice function independent of the structure of the decision tree. It implies that behaviour reveals a revealed preference ordering satisfying both the independence axiom and a novel form of sure-thing principle. Continuous consequentialist behaviour must be expected utility maximizing. Other plausible assumptions then imply additive utilities, subjective probabilities, and Bayes' rule.     

Interpersonal dependency of preferences

Standard decision theoretic models disregard the phenomenon of interpersonal dependency of preferences. In this paper it is argued that interpersonal dependency of preferences is a serious challenge for standard utility theory. First we sketch the more philosophical aspects of the problem and then, using a simple, formal model for the two-person case, we show that interpersonal dependency of preferences generally results in indeterminacy of preferences (resp. of subjective utility).     

Risk and risk aversion for state-dependent utility

This paper analyses risk and risk aversion in the state-dependent utility model, which is useful for modelling health or life insurance purchase. We use Karni's (1983) definition of risk aversion, and extend the class of risks to which it can be applied.Research supported by the ESRC postdoctoral fellowship scheme. I would like to thank Jerry Nordquist for arousing my interest in this subject. For helpful comments on an earlier draft I am grateful to an anonymous referee and the editor of this journal.     

Comparative statics for rank-dependent expected utility theory

Recently, a number of generalizations of the expected utility (EU) model have been proposed. In order to make such generalizations useful, it is necessary that they should yield sharp comparative static results, like those obtained using EU theory. In this article, rank dependent expected utility (RDEU) theory, a generalization of EU theory based on the concept of probability weighting, is examined. A number of methods of extending results from EU to RDEU are considered. It is shown that a major class of comparative static results can be extended to the RDEU model, but not to the case of general smooth preferences. This is because RDEU maintains the separation between probabilities and utilities that is abandoned in the general case.     

Discount-neutral utility models for denumerable time streams

This paper formulates and axiomatizes utility models for denumerable time streams that make no commitment in regard to discounting future outcomes. The models address decision under certainty and decision under risk. Independence assumptions in both contexts lead to additive or multiplicative utilities over time periods that allow unambiguous comparisons of the relative importance of different periods. The models accommodate all patterns of future valuation. This discount-neutral feature is attained by restricting preference comparisons to outcome streams or probability distributions on outcome streams that differ in at most a finite number of periods.     

Group Training for the Management of Chronic Pain in Interpersonal Situations

No abstract available for this article.     

An Interpersonal Dialogue Group for Students With and Without Disabilities

This narrative documents my experience cofacilitating a group of 17 undergraduate students. One half of the students and the cofacilitator of the group had disabilities. The purpose was to foster understanding between students with disabilities and students who were able bodied. The group members learned about people with diverse disabilities and the discrimination and difficulties they experienced. Students with disabilities learned about perceptions of the students who were able bodied and their differences and commonalities. Group members experienced mutual aid. The author learned important lessons about herself as a group worker and social work educator.