Risk Aversion in Travel Mode Choice with Rank-Dependent Utility

Using 2004 stated preference data on travel mode collected in the Zürich area, different parametric specifications of the rank-dependent utility function in a logit mixture model show that commuters are weakly averse to small-time losses. The results also justify Yaari's dual theory of choice under risk, that the utility function is linear on outcomes but that the perception of corresponding probabilities is biased. For leisure travel, the travelers are risk neutral to small losses of time.     

Comparison of programs MULT,ESTIMATE and BROWNIE

I describe and compare programs ESTIMATE (one-age class band recovery), BROWNIE (two-age class band recovery) and MULT (one- and two-age class band recovery and extensions). All are easy to use and suited for the purposes for which they were designed. MULT offers considerable advantages over the other two programs, in providing a unified framework for both one- and two-age class band recovery problems, as well as extensions to allow inclusion of a covariate, banding twice per year, unequal intervals between banding periods, and analysis of reward-band data. MULT is menu-driven, and offers additional advantages in terms of ease of input and output and user-modified defaults (e.g. selection or suppression of some printed output). Users seeking additional flexibility are referred to program SURVIV but advised that both user sophistication and software (i.e. a FORTRAN compiler) beyond that required for MULT, ESTIMATE or BROWNIE would be required.     

Changing Ethical Attitudes: The Case of the Enron and ImClone Scandals*

Objective. We analyze the process of changing ethical attitudes over time by focusing on a specific set of “natural experiments” that occurred over an 18‐month period, namely, the accounting scandals that occurred involving Enron/Arthur Andersen and insider‐trader allegations related to ImClone. Methods. Given the amount of media attention devoted to these ethical scandals, we test whether respondents in a cross‐sectional sample taken over 18 months become less accepting of ethically charged vignettes dealing with “accounting tricks” and “insider trading” over time. Results. We find a significant and gradual decline in the acceptance of the vignettes over the 18‐month period. Conclusions. Findings presented here may provide valuable insight into potential triggers of changing ethical attitudes. An intriguing implication of these results is that recent highly publicized ethical breaches may not be only a symptom, but also a cause of changing attitudes.     

Variability of Travel Time,Congestion, and the Cost of Travel

The variability of travel time modifies the rush hour traffic and the cost of commuting. The bottleneck model of road congestion with fixed peak-load demand is augmented of an additive random delay. When individuals have (α-β-γ) preferences, there exists a unique Nash equilibrium. The variability of travel time leads to departure rates that are spread more evenly over the rush hour than when travel times are deterministic. This equilibrium mechanism mitigates both congestion and the cost of unreliability. This implies that “single-traveler models,” which treat congestion as an exogenous phenomenon, overestimate the value of reliability for the rush hour. The application with the uniform or with the exponential distribution helps appraise the overestimation.     

发展西北边疆小商品经济的政策思考

改革开放以来,中国经济社会发展一个重要经验是发展乡镇经济,而乡镇经济的优势产业就是小商品生产。边疆民族地区应充分借鉴这一经验,发挥传统小商品经济优势,促进城乡各民族共同繁荣。这就需要提供特殊的民族贸易保护政策。例如,享受免征增值税政策,优惠贷款政策,国家专项扶持资金政策等等,同时积极构建向西开放的小商品基地。     

Can Multinational Corporations Afford to Ignore the Global Common Good?1

Contemporary advances in the fields of globalization and technologies raise the question of the relationship between international business and the global common good. Half of the hundred biggest economies in the world are now corporations. Nation‐states were traditionally viewed as the guarantors of the common good; however, the current historical stage is marked by the waning of the role of government, and reveals an emerging situation characterized by a co‐responsibility of multiple agents in this respect. Three major evolutions are likely to induce multinational corporations (MNCs) to take the global common good into account: the imperative of the preservation of our biosphere, the rise of an anti‐globalization sentiment with all its potential consequences, and the necessity to design a global social contract. Besides, these three phenomena are interconnected, which adds to the pressure on MNCs to change their policies.