Rank and response: A field experiment on peer information and water use behavior

Perception of peer rank, or how we perform relative to our peers, can be a powerful motivator. While research exists on the effect of social information on decision making, there is less work on how ranked comparisons with our peers influence our behavior. This paper outlines a field experiment conducted with 3896 households in Castro Valley, California, which uses household mailers with various forms of social information and peer rank messaging to motivate water conservation. The experiment tests the effect of a visible peer rank on water use, and how the competitive framing of rank information influences behavioral response. The results show that households with relatively low or high water use in the pre-treatment period responded differently to how rank information was framed. I find that a neutrally-framed peer rank caused a small “boomerang effect” (i.e., an increase in average water use) for low water use households, but this effect was eliminated by competitive framing. At the same time, a competitively-framed peer rank demotivated high water use households, increasing their average water use over the full period of the experiment. This result is supported by evidence that the competitive frame on rank information increased water use for households who ranked “last” in the peer group – a detrimental “last place effect” from competitively-framed rankings.     

Exploitation aversion: When financial incentives fail to motivate agents

Studies of the principal-agent relationship find that monetary incentives work in many instances but that they can also backfire. Various mechanisms for this failure have been examined (e.g., intrinsic motivation, image concerns). We posit that an aversion to being exploited, i.e., being used instrumentally for another’s benefit, can also cause incentives to fail. Using an experiment we find that compliance is lower for exploitative principals compared to neutral ones despite using the same contracts. To corroborate our results we show that surveyed “exploitation aversion” mediates this effect. Our results have implications for the design and implementation of incentives within organizations.     

Young Norwegians and their views on climate change and the future: findings from a climate concerned and oil-rich nation

Young people represent the future, but little is known about their attitudes towards climate change, one of the most serious issues facing the world today. The purpose of the present study is to contribute with improved and new knowledge of young Norwegians’ understanding of and attitudes towards this issue, with a special focus on perspectives of the future. Of particular interest is the influence of divergent framings of the climate question in Norway, due to conflicting interests between the petroleum industry and climate concern. The young people's voices are elicited through two different surveys undertaken during the fall of 2013, one national (Norwegian Citizen Panel) and one local (School survey conducted among high-school students). The study generated both quantitative and qualitative findings, stemming from closed-ended as well as open-ended questions. The data were handled through a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative analyses. The results show that the voices tend to be oriented towards the opinion that Norway has a responsibility to help poor countries as well as a duty to prevent climate change and that the country should reduce its oil production. We further observe that young Norwegians have an optimistic view of the future, based on a pronounced belief in technology and science.     

Why bother with testing? The validity of immigrants’ self-assessed language proficiency

Due to its central role in social integration, immigrants’ language proficiency is a matter of considerable societal concern and scientific interest. This study examines whether commonly applied self-assessments of linguistic skills yield results that are similar to those of competence tests and thus whether these self-assessments are valid measures of language proficiency. Analyses of data for immigrant youth reveal moderate correlations between language test scores and two types of self-assessments (general ability estimates and concrete performance estimates) for the participants’ first and second languages. More importantly, multiple regression models using self-assessments and models using test scores yield different results. This finding holds true for a variety of analyses and for both types of self-assessments. Our findings further suggest that self-assessed language skills are systematically biased in certain groups. Subjective measures thus seem to be inadequate estimates of language skills, and future research should use them with caution when research questions pertain to actual language skills rather than self-perceptions.     

E-commerce: the role of familiarity and trust

Familiarity is a precondition for trust, claims Luhmann [28: Luhmann N. Trust and power. Chichester UK: Wiley, 1979. (translation from German)], and trust is a prerequisite of social behavior, especially regarding important decisions. This study examines this intriguing idea in the context of the E-commerce involved in inquiring about and purchasing books on the Internet. Survey data from 217 potential users support and extend this hypothesis. The data show that both familiarity with an Internet vendor and its processes and trust in the vendor influenced the respondents’ intentions to inquire about books, and their intentions to purchase them. Additionally, the data show that while familiarity indeed builds trust, it is primarily people’s disposition to trust that affected their trust in the vendor. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

"双因素"问题的理论分析

"双因素"关系存在于诸多的管理问题之中.作为企业参与市场竞争基本资格的保健因素,具有壁垒性、同质性、动态扩展性、系统性和沉没成本等特性;而对企业竞争能力起关键作用的激励因素,具有异质性、生命周期性、增值性、自觉生成性和单项突出性等.本文还就"双因素"现象的来源、类别,保健因素与激励因素的相互关系及其经济学内涵等问题,进行了初步探讨.     

Testing the Normality Assumption in the Tobit Model

This paper examines a number of statistics that have been proposed to test the normality assumption in the tobit (censored regression) model. It argues that a number of commonly proposed statistics can be interpreted as different versions of the Lagrange multiplier, or score, test for a common null hypothesis. This observation is useful in examining the Monte Carlo results presented in the paper. The Monte Carlo results suggest that the computational convenience of a number of statistics is obtained at the cost of poor finite sample performance under the null hypothesis.     

企业一套表与可扩展商业报告语言的比较研究

本文主要研究国家统计局正在试点推行的“企业一套表”与财政部主导推广的可扩展商业报告语言之间的异同点,通过对比研究发现两者在规范数据格式、优化数据加工流程、实现数据共享、推动信息化建设上具有很多相似之处,同时又具有各自的特点。此外,文章还分析了两者在我国工作实践中推广速度差异较大的原因。最后,提出了两者相互融合,共同促进的工作思路和建议。     

从网络语言的特征谈其价值和前景

通过对网络语言语体特征和特点的分析,阐述和解释当代社会语言中网络语言的价值和前景。     

藏-汉-英三语结构下藏族学生英语学习特点浅析

本文从藏族地区英语教学的教学方法以及藏、汉、英三语的对比入手,应用第二语言习得研究领域及教学法研究领域中的相关理论和方法,通过测试、问卷调查和个人访谈等,调查分析了藏族地区英语教学现状以及各种外语教学法特别是语法翻译法在该地区英语教学中的运用情况。