PERFORMING THE VISUAL NORTH

During the last decade, the phrase ‘visual culture’ has come to identify a variety of interdisciplinary approaches to the visual in everyday life. While analytic perspectives may come from gender, race or media theory, political economy, psychoanalysis, and so forth, there is an apparent agreement about the critical relation the visual has to subjectivity and social organization. The travelling of critical and cultural theory across disciplinary boundaries has given ‘visual culture’ an institutional form through new degrees, programmes, cross-faculty appointments, courses, introductory textbooks, and research publications. This paper comments on the intellectual history of ‘visual culture’, identifies cultural aspects of visual performance that have been understated in recent formulations of visual culture and visual studies, and argues that the current institutional form of visual culture research has contributed to the disappearance of cultural and anthropological approaches within visual culture. The paper is developed in relation to a case study involving popular photography as a cultural performance of the Canadian north, and considers the contribution of performance to visual culture.     

Equilibria in multi-party competition under uncertainty

This paper presents a model of multiparty competition when extraneous considerations unobservable to the parties influence voters' behavior. This leads political parties to model voters' preferences by means of probabilistic choice rules. The equilibrium analysis for 2,..., 6 parties is provided and compared to the outcomes of the standard (certainty) model.We thank one referee for very careful comments. The first author is grateful to the NSF for financial support.     

ADJUSTMENT TO PRODUCTION UNCERTAINTY AND THE THEORY OF THE FIRM

This paper considers the behavior of the firm which faces uncertainty in its production process but can adjust its output once the uncertainty is resolved. Ex post adjustment, unlike previous treatments, involves a marginal cost penalty if more output is required and a lowering of price if too much is produced. With ex post adjustment allowed in this fashion, it is found that nonlinear risk preferences do not affect the sign of the firm's marginal risk premium at optimum ex ante output. The firm will produce less output than under certainty whether it is risk averse, risk neutral, or prefers risk.     

Majority vote following a debate

Voters determine their preferences over alternatives based on cases (or arguments) that are raised in the public debate. Each voter is characterized by a matrix, measuring how much support each case lends to each alternative, and her ranking is additive in cases. We show that the majority vote in such a society can be any function from sets of cases to binary relations over alternatives. A similar result holds for voting with quota in the case of two alternatives.We wish to thank Enriqueta Aragones, Jean-Francois Laslier, Andrew Postlewaite, and David Schmeidler for the comments and discussions. We thank Lada Burde for her help in proofreading.     

Fuzzy preferences and Arrow-type problems in social choice

There are alternative ways of decomposing a given fuzzy weak preference relation into its antisymmetric and symmetric components. In this paper I have provided support to one among these alternative specifications. It is shown that on this specification the fuzzy analogue of the General Possibility Theorem is valid even when the transitivity restrictions on the individual and the social preference relations are relatively weak. In the special case where the individual preference relations are exact but the social preference relation is permitted to be fuzzy it is possible to distinguish between different degrees of power of the dictator. This power increases with the strength of the transitivity requirement.For comments on an earlier version of the paper I am indebted to an anonymous referee, an anonymous member of the Board of Editors and to participants in the 1991 Annual Conference of the Indian Econometric Society at North Bengal University, India. However, I retain sole responsibility for any error(s) that the paper may contain.     

Quantized displays of human movement: A methodological alternative to the point-light display

In this paper, we describe a methodological alternative to the point-light display for the study of the impact of human movement on social perception. This quantization technique involves degrading standard videotapes via a special effects generator at the time of editing. As is the case with a point-light display, quantization disguises structural characteristics of videotaped stimulus persons, and highlights their patterns of movement. Because quantization requires no special procedures during videotaping, it is unobtrusive, and helps maintain the ecological validity of the original stimulus. We offer empirical support from two studies for our proposal that dynamic quantization is a valuable methodological approach to the study of nonverbal behavior.     

AT THE MOVIES: THE ECONOMICS OF EXHIBITION CONTRACTS

We describe a real-world profit sharing contract—the movie exhibition contract—and consider alternative explanations for its use. Two explanations based on difficulties with forecasting fit the facts better than asymmetric information models. The first emphasizes two-sided risk aversion; the second emphasizes measurement costs. Transaction costs and long-term relationships also affect contractual practices. We use an original data set of all exhibition contracts involving 13 theaters owned by a prominent St. Louis exhibitor over a two-year period to inform our theories and test hypotheses. The findings question traditional contract theory and may be relevant for other contracting environments.(JEL L14 , L82 , D45 , D80 )     

ADJUSTMENT TO PRODUCTION UNCERTAINTY AND THE THEORY OF THE FIRM: A COMMENT

This paper reconsiders the model presented by Flacco and Kroetch [1986]. It shows that with additive technological uncertainty the firm will produce and contract to sell the same output as under certainty. When the Flacco/Kroetch model is generalized to allow the firm to select contract commitments and planned output ex ante, no simple comparisons with certainty are possible. These results are broadly consistent with those obtained by Mills [1959; 1962] for demand uncertainty.     

Behavior in the loss domain: An experiment using the probability trade-off consistency condition

In gambles with two or more outcomes, the two versions of prospect theory, i.e., original prospect theory and cumulative prospect theory, make use of different composition rules and therefore yield different valuations of gambles. We test these composition rules in the loss domain using the probability trade-off consistency condition. The probability trade-off consistency condition offers a convenient and efficient way to compare gambles under risk and decision makers’ behavior. Experimental findings suggest that the rank dependent version of prospect theory, or cumulative prospect theory, cannot be rejected in the loss domain while original prospect theory is clearly rejected when a certainty effect is taken into account.     

Optimality among restricted majority decision rules

When a group of decision makers with common interests faces a dichotomous choice, the task of deciding may be delegated to a committee consisting of a subset of the original group. This procedure is called a restricted majority decision rule. If each member of the original group is characterized by the probability of his deciding correctly, the expected utility from the decision is determined by which members are appointed to the committee. The conditions between enabling the comparison of alternative restricted majority rules are based on the voting profiles of the decision makers. The purpose of the current study is to propose an algorithm for identifying the optimal restricted majority rule amongst all restricted majority rules.I am indebted to Shmuel Nitzan for helpful comments and suggestions. All shortcomings are, of course, entirely my responsibility.     

Child protection decision-making

The effects of interagency collaboration on risk assessment in child protection practice were analysed in respect of the decision-making processes in child death inquiries. Universal features in the assessment of risk as identified in psychological literature were applied; in particular, the concepts of ‘groupthink’, the ‘certainty effect’ and ‘group polarization’. It is suggested that case conference decisions are inherently more risky than those taken by professionals with individual responsibility because of the way in which cases are framed in terms of losses.     

PRICE DIFFERENTIALS and PRICE DISCRIMINATION: REPLY and EXTENSIONS

Precise definitions of price discrimination are analyzed in this paper as part of a reply to one of my earlier papers on a related topic. The main conclusion is that the two definitions used most frequently are appropriate only in special circumstances not recognized previously. No definition exists to cover all real-world situations.     

THE OPTIMAL TAXATION OF ASSET INCOME WHEN GOVERNMENT CONSUMPTION IS ENDOGENOUS: THEORY,ESTIMATION AND WELFARE

This paper derives the Ramsey optimal fiscal policy for taxing asset income in a model where government expenditure is a function of net output or the inputs that produce it. Extending work by Kenneth L. Judd, I demonstrate that the canonical result that the optimal tax on capital income is zero in the medium to long term is a special case of a more general model. Employing a vector error correction model to estimate the relationship between government consumption and net output or the factor inputs that generate it for the United States between 1948Q1 and 2015Q4, I demonstrate that this special case is empirically implausible, and show how a cointegrating vector can be used to determine the optimal tax schedule. I simulate a version of the model using the empirical estimates to measure the welfare implications of changing the tax rate on asset income, and contrast these results with those generated in a version of the model where government consumption is purely exogenous. The shifting pattern of welfare measurements confirms the theoretical results. I calculate that the prevailing effective tax rate on net asset income in the United States between 1970 and 2014 averaged 0.449. Hence abolishing the tax completely does generate welfare improvements, though only by the equivalent of between 1.103% and 1.616% permanent increase in consumption—well under half the implied welfare benefit when the endogeneity of the government consumption is ignored. The maximum welfare improvement from shifting part of the burden of tax from capital to labor is the equivalent of a permanent increase in consumption of between only 1.491% and 1.858%, and is attained when the tax rate on asset income is lowered to between 0.148 and 0.186. Allowing the tax rate to vary over time raises the maximum welfare benefit to 1.865%. All the results are very robust to a wide range of elasticities of labor supply. (JEL E62, H21, H50)     

RISK PREFERENCE ESTIMATION IN THE NONLINEAR MEAN STANDARD DEVIATION APPROACH

Risk preferences and technology are jointly estimated in the nonlinear mean-standard deviation framework for a competitive firm model under price risk. A utility function is proposed that nests various risk preference structures and risk neutrality as empirically refutable special cases. The empirical application using firm-level data finds evidence of decreasing absolute risk aversion, differences in the nature of relative risk aversion by firm size, and little support for the widely used linear mean-variance framework. The estimation results also show that ignoring risk and risk preferences can substantially overestimate output supply and input demand elasticities.     

On increased risk and the voluntary provision of public goods

This paper examines the impacts of increased risk on the voluntary provision of public goods. I strengthen the view that uncertainty ameliorates free riding even given negative non-Nash conjectures. This result holds since the change in the perceived free riding (i.e., the magnitude of the conjecture) drives voluntary contribution to public good supply. The result has two main implications. First, the traditional model of the rational self-interested individual can explain voluntary contributions. Second, a public policy to encourage volunteerism would maintain private information of private contributions to the supply of public goods. However, risk as a public policy instrument is limited by ethical concerns and behavioral responses to risk.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provided support for this research. Garey Durden, Todd Sandler, Fred Sterbenz, Robert Sugden, and Joe Kerkvliet provided useful comments. I owe tanks to Peter Bohm, Hans Wijkander, and Charles Mason for encouraging my work in this area. Two referees provided detailed suggestions that greatly improved the paper.     

THE BEHAVIOR OF REGULATORY ACTIVITY OVER THE BUSINESS CYCLE: AN EMPIRICAL TEST

This paper tests a prediction of the interest-group theory of regulation which suggests that regulators generally will not force any one group to bear the full adjustment costs associated with variations in the business cycle. That is, the interest-group model predicts that regulatory agencies will redistribute cyclical gains and losses by supplying more "producer protection" regulation during contractions and more "consumer protection" regulation during expansions; i.e., regulatory activity which reduces consumer welfare will tend to be countercyclical, intensifying when aggregate demand falls and abating as demand increases.
The empirical results show a countercyclical and statistically significant ceteris paribus relationship between Federal Trade Commission enforcement efforts under the Robinson-Patman Act and several alternative measures of general business conditions. Since the Robinson-Patman Act is viewed widely as anti-consumer, the findings suggest that in cyclical downturns the Commission moves to protect producers against losses by bringing more cases which limit the tendency for prices to fall. This result may be rationalized under the view that during recessions, the Federal Trade Commission is in the business of transferring wealth from consumers either to protect small business or to bolster cartels. On the other hand, during business expansions the Commission reduces its Robinson-Patman case load, and such a change in enforcement may serve to mitigate producer gains, transferring wealth to consumers at the margin. In any case the paper offers empirical support for the interest-group model by providing evidence that the business cycle plays an important part in explaining the level and pattern of regulatory activity.     

Alternative theory and utopian models

A theoretical model of human systems is presented based on the basic paradigms upon which families, groups, and social systems can be organized. Four fundamentally distinct paradigms are described and the interrelationships among them explored, with special consideration given to the social evolution of systems organized on these paradigms. Implications for the study of alternative lifestyles and utopian societies are discussed.Portions of this paper are based on a presentation at the Fifth Annual Conference on Utopian Studies, Pennsylvania State University, 11 October 1980. The author wishes to thank Rich Erlich, Barry Singer, and Kersti Yllo for valuable comments on earlier versions. Inquiries to the author: 22 Bulette Road, Acton, Massachusetts 01720.     

Ethical aspects of vulnerability in research

In connection with research on humans, the term ??vulnerability?? is only appropriate to identify the special need for protection of certain sections of the population and individuals, if this term refers to the additional risk of certain groups of subjects. Authors who focus on the additional risk suffering of a subject group when defining vulnerability succeed in considering the specific worthiness of protection in a context-sensitive way. The attempt to define the risk?Cbenefit assessment for vulnerable subject groups on a binding basis faces considerable difficulties. This assessment depends both on the research situation and on the test subject. The normative aspect of this decision could be solved by referring to Rawl??s decision model of an original position. In cases where there is no benefit for the subject, arguments in the discussion of the risks and benefits that are based on a ??group or overall benefit?? and an ??objective interest,?? cannot be fully sustained.     

Certainty Broadcasts Risk Preferences: Verbal and Nonverbal Cues to Risk-Taking

People often attempt to ascertain how risky another person is willing to be. Even when this information is not purposely divulged, people may unwittingly broadcast their willingness to take risks by displaying cues to their level of certainty. Because subjective reports of feeling certain predict risk behavior, we examined whether targets’ certainty could be discerned unobtrusively and be used to predict their risky decision-making. In small groups, participants discussed two risk problems, made risk decisions, and then wrote an essay about their decision-making process. Participants’ nonverbal behavior and speech content during the group interaction, and their subsequent essay content were assessed by naïve coders and objective word-count software for cues to certainty. Subjective assessments of nonverbal behavior and objective assessments of language content revealed that certainty cues predicted greater risk propensity. Therefore, across the three communication modalities of nonverbal behavior, speech, and text, more certainty cues revealed risky behavior.