Estimating cumulative prospect theory parameters from an international survey

We conduct a standardized survey on risk preferences in 53 countries worldwide and estimate cumulative prospect theory parameters from the data. The parameter estimates show that significant differences on the cross-country level are to some extent robust and related to economic and cultural differences. In particular, a closer look on probability weighting underlines gender differences, economic effects, and cultural impact on probability weighting. The data set is a useful starting point for future research that investigates the impact of risk preferences on the market level.     

Produktrückgaben und Preise im Versandhandel: Ein internationaler Vergleich

E-Commerce sales have been constantly rising over the past years. Among the reasons for this trend are advantages such as reduced search costs and low transaction costs for the buyer. A disadvantage of online shopping is that customers cannot inspect the product they buy online. In Germany, customers are entitled to get full refund when withdrawing from any distance selling. Customers can withdraw from a contract within two weeks without any explanation. Many retailers in the USA do not refund the full price to the customer in case of product return and charge restocking fees. A reason for such a restrictive return policy is the reduction of opportunistic product returns. In this paper, the authors compare prices in online-shops for identical products in the USA and Germany. The comparison shows that the alleged consumer protection achieved by a legal prohibition of restocking fees leads to higher average prices for electronic products in Germany.     

COMMON COMPONENTS OF RISK AND UNCERTAINTY ATTITUDES ACROSS CONTEXTS AND DOMAINS: EVIDENCE FROM 30 COUNTRIES

Attitudes towards risk and uncertainty have been indicated to be highly context‐dependent, and to be sensitive to the measurement technique employed. We present data collected in controlled experiments with 2,939 subjects in 30 countries measuring risk and uncertainty attitudes through incentivized measures as well as survey questions. Our data show clearly that measures correlate not only within decision contexts or measurement methods, but also across contexts and methods. This points to the existence of one underlying “risk preference”, which influences attitudes independently of the measurement method or choice domain. We furthermore find that answers to a general and a financial survey question correlate with incentivized lottery choices in most countries. Incentivized and survey measures also correlate significantly between countries. This opens the possibility to conduct cultural comparisons on risk attitudes using survey instruments.     

Comparing mining and manufacturing supply chain processes: challenges and requirements

The mineral raw materials industry is essential for manufacturing by providing the basic materials for their value adding processes. In the last decade, the integration of operations of the industry within global manufacturing supply chains has progressed greatly. The processes of the different stakeholders have been extensively analysed and modelled according to standardised frameworks such as the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model. However, as of today, not all stakeholders are integrated to the same extent. Especially, in the early part of the supply chain, deep integration of the mineral raw materials industry is still an exception. This industry and its processes differ greatly from the average manufacturing company’s processes. Not being directly comparable results in the absence of applications of standardised modelling tools for supply chains like the above-mentioned SCOR model. These circumstances hinder the integration, understanding and exchange between industries that rely significantly on each other. In a first attempt to create a basis for further research, this study analyses, elaborates and compares the challenges and requirements of supply chain processes, with a special focus on sourcing processes, in manufacturing and mining. Based on these findings, an adaption of the SCOR model towards applicability in mining and mining supply processes is presented, followed by a critical discussion of the results and implications, later concluded by a short outlook on further research.     

Did Unilateral Divorce Laws Raise Divorce Rates in Western Europe?

The increase in European divorce rates over the past decades was accompanied by several changes in divorce laws. Yet for European countries, research on the effects of divorce law on the divorce rate is scarce. Most of the existing studies are based on data from North America and provide numerous, but inconsistent, results. We use fixed‐effects regression models to examine the impact of the introduction of unilateral divorce on the divorce rate in Western European countries. We find that de facto unilateral divorce practices led to a sustainable increase in the divorce rate, whereas legal rights to unilaterally divorce had no long‐run effects.     

Population, population density and technological change

In a model on population and endogenous technological change, Kremer (1993) combines a short-run Malthusian scenario where income determines the population that can be sustained, with the Boserupian insight that greater population spurs technological change and can therefore lift a country out of its Malthusian trap. We show that a more realistic version of the model, which combines population and population density, allows deeper insights into these processes. The incorporation of population density also allows a superior interpretation of the empirical regularities between the level of population, population density, population growth, and economic development at aggregated and disaggregated levels.

Curve registration by local regression

Functional data analysis involves the extension of familiar statistical procedures such as principal‐components analysis, linear modelling and canonical correlation analysis to data where the raw observation is a function x, (t). An essential preliminary to a functional data analysis is often the registration or alignment of salient curve features by suitable monotone transformations h_i(t). In effect, this conceptualizes variation among functions as being composed of two aspects: phase and amplitude. Registration aims to remove phase variation as a preliminary to statistical analyses of amplitude variation. A local nonlinear regression technique is described for identifying the smooth monotone transformations h_i, and is illustrated by analyses of simulated and actual data.