393 research outputs found
Learning to Respond: The Use of Heuristics in Dynamic Games
No full textWhile many learning models have been proposed in the game theoretic literature to track individuals’ behavior, surprisingly little research has focused on how well these models describe human adaptation in changing dynamic environments. Analysis of human behavior demonstrates that people are often remarkably responsive to changes in their environment, on time scales ranging from millennia (evolution) to milliseconds (reflex). The goal of this paper is to evaluate several prominent learning models in light of a laboratory experiment on responsiveness in a lowinformation dynamic game subject to changes in its underlying structure. While history-dependent reinforcement learning models track convergence of play well in repeated games, it is shown that they are ill suited to these environments, in which sastisficing models accurately predict behavior. A further objective is to determine which heuristics, or “rules of thumb,” when incorporated into learning models, are responsible for accurately capturing responsiveness. Reference points and a particular type of experimentation are found to be important in both describing and predicting play.learning, limited information, dynamic games
RAIA_ADP_CapeSilleiro_V1.0
No full textThis item is made of 2 files, of which 1 is the dataset in matlab format and the other (Readme .txt) include a small description of the computed variables.-- Dataset contributed to the Projects CAIBEX and RAIA.-- Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). The authors appreciate that users of these data: 1) Contact Des Barton ([email protected]; [email protected] ) to follow the uses of the data, and 2) Include the requested acknowledgment (cite using the DOI of this dataset) in any presentations or publicationsFrom November 2008 to April 2010, an upward-looking Sontek 500 ADP (configured for 3 m cell size and 5 minute sampling interval) was moored on the seabed in 75 m water depth at 42.083°N and 8.933ºW (RAIA station) near Cape Silleiro (NW Iberia, Atlantic Ocean). Each of the 25 current-velocity vertical levels were averaged every 10 minutesThis work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education project “CAIBEX Shelf–ocean exchanges in the Canaries–Iberian Large Marine Ecosystem” (CTM2007–66408–C02–01/MAR, CTM2007–30809–E/MAR, CTM2008–05305–E/MAR); RAIA: ‘Observatorio oceánico del margen Ibérico’ (INTERREG 2009/2011; 0313/RAIA/E) ; and RAIA.co: ’Observatorio marino del margen ibérico y del litoral’ (INTERREG 2011/2013; 052/RAIA.co/1E)N
Análise transaccional, comunicação na família e insucesso escolar: um estudo de caso
No full textCom base nas propostas de Eric Berne (1972), procedeu-se ao estudo do argumento (projecto de vida) dum rapaz de 11 anos ainda a frequentar o 3º ano de escolaridade, procurando-se explicar o caso segundo o paradigma da Análise Transaccional (A. T.), a técnica proposta por aquele autor. Um abandono parental a que foi sujeito desde a mais tenra idade poderá ter resultado numa desconfirmação persistente que poderia por sua vez levá-lo a adoptar com frequência comportamentos provocatórios e de fuga, numa complexa dialéctica com figuras parentais de substituição (sobretudo a avó) acentuadamente ambivalentes no seu modo de interagir com ele: um mandato do tipo “foge daí e une de novo os teus pais” (numa nova união conjugal mítica) poderia dar sentido a esta existência marcada pela negligência parental, terminando por ser transportado igualmente para a escola. O modelo da A. T. poderia então ser adequado à compreensão do insucesso escolar em casos análogos de famílias disfuncionais. Taking as a basis Eric Berne proposals (1972), a study of a script (plan of life) was undertaken, concerning a 11 year old boy who was still attending the 3rd grade, and an attempt is made toward an explanation of the case according to the paradigm of Transactional Analysis (T. A.) – the whole technique proposed by that author. A parental abandonment that he suffered since an early age may have resulted in persistent disconfirmation, which could in turn lead him to escape and adopt behaviours often provocative, in a complex dialectic with substitutive parental figures (especially Grandmother) markedly ambivalents in their interaction with him: some kind of mandate as “run away and attach your parents again” (in a new mythical conjugal union) could make sense of this existence marked by parental neglect, and could ultimately be also transported to school. The model of T. A. might then be appropriate in order to understand school failure in similar cases of dysfunctional families
Longitudinal Analysis of Generic Substitution
No full textUsing an extensive longitudinal dataset extracted from the Norwegian Prescription Database (NorPD) containing all prescriptions written in the period January 2004 to June 2007, we selected two particular drugs (chemical substances) used against cholesterol. The two brand-name products on the Norwegian markets were Provachol (atc code C10AA03) and Zocor (atc code C10AA01). The generics are Provastatine and Simastatine. The model accounts for taste persistence and is estimated on panel data. We find that prices have a negative impact on transitions in the sense that an increase in the brand price will reduce the transition from generics to brand and likewise an increase in the generic price will reduce the transition from brand to generics.generics, substitution, microdata, random utility model, longitudinal data
Project Triton : A study into delivering targeted information to an individual based on implicit and explicit data.
No full textThe World Wide Web is frequently seen as a source of knowledge, however much of this remains undiscovered by its users. In recent times, recommender systems (e.g. Digg and Last.fm) have attempted to bridge this gap, alerting users to previously untapped knowledge. As more socially oriented services appear on the Web (e.g. Facebook and MySpace), it has never been easier to obtain information pertaining to an individual’s interests. At present, solutions for automated data recommendation tend to be highly topic specific (recommending only a certain topic such as news) and often only allow access to the system using monolithic interfaces. This report hopes to detail the stages from research to evaluation involved in creating an extensible framework, which will operate without the need for human intervention. The framework will feature several proof-of-concept plugins residing in a custom workflow, which target information that is useful to the user. Information will be retrieved automatically through plugins involved with data gathering (such as feed processing and page scraping), while users’ interests will be obtained implicitly (for example, using header information to derive location) or explicitly (taking advantage of Social Network APIs such as Facebook Connect). Finally, Third Parties will be able to integrate the framework into their own solutions using the customisable XML API (written in PHP), so that their products can provide custom user interfaces without style constraints
The Standard Deviation of Life-Length, Retirement Incentives, and Optimal Pension Design
No full textIn this paper, we consider how the retirement age as well as a tax financed pension system ought to respond to a change in the standard deviation of the length of life. In a first best framework, where a benevolent government exercises perfect control over the individuals’ labor supply and retirement-decisions, the results show that a decrease in the standard deviation of life-length leads to an increase in the optimal retirement age and vice versa, if the preferences for “the number of years spent in retirement” are characterized by constant or decreasing absolute risk aversion. A similar result follows in a second best setting, where the government raises revenue via a proportional tax (or pension fee) to finance a lump-sum benefit per year spent in retirement. We consider two versions of this model, one with a mandatory retirement age decided upon by the government and the other where the retirement age is a private decision-variable.uncertain lifetime, retirement, pension system
On Fernando's Photograph: The Biopolitics of Aparicion in Contemporary Argentina
No full textThis article concerns the striking photograph of a young man, Fernando Brodsky, taken shortly after he was kidnapped in Argentina in 1979. Brodsky was detained in the notorious Escuela de la Armada (ESMA) in Buenos Aires, and remains disappeared. The negative of the photograph was smuggled out of ESMA and the image became part of a bundle of photographic evidence submitted by families of the disappeared during the trials of the military after the return to democracy in 1983. This article seeks to under- stand the vitality of the photograph, the different courses it takes, the archives it joins and leaves, asking: ‘What sort of life can the photograph have? What sort of desire? What sort of politics?’ The article proposes that we might consider the role of such images ‘biopolitically’, which is to say in the context of the relations established through the attempts to govern populations in times of military rule and in times of transitional democracy. The re-appearance of Fernando in the photograph is part of post-dictator- ship politics in which the demand ‘aparición’ resounds. Fernando, an absolute witness who does not, who cannot, speak nevertheless re-appears in the law courts and in art exhibitions. The article considers the difference between the photograph’s appearance as evidence and its reappearance in the art galleries, arguing that its ‘desires’ can be imagined differently in each. The article argues that while the photograph does not escape archives tout court, in raising the question of how it should be filed, it prompts reflec- tion on the biopolitical present, with its inequitable distribution of life and security among populations. This is a politics of the present, more than it is a politics of memory
Integration, Mobility, and Human Capital Formation
No full textIn this note, we show that labour market integration can be a double-edged sword. In the presence of local human capital externalities, integration and the ensuing agglomeration of skilled labour can cause a decline in human capital and the total wage sum (net of education costs). In particular, integration depresses the incentives for some talented but immobile individuals to become skilled.human capital, migration, labour market integration, agglomeration
A Note on the Design of Experiments Involving Public Goods
No full textConcern about potential free riding in the provision of public goods has a long history. More recently, experimental economists have turned their attention to the conditions under which free riding would be expected to occur. A model of free riding is provided here which demonstrates that existing experimental approaches fail to explore a potentially important real-world dimension of free riding. In a cash-in-advance economy, free riding becomes a two-stage problem, while existing experiments only address the second stage. That is, one would expect households with high demands for public goods relative to private goods to generate less income than households preferring ordinary private goods, because the former are unable to individually increment the public good and leisure is valuable. Existing experiments start with a given number of “tokens” for each decision-maker, effectively only addressing the second stage of the free riding problem, namely, under what conditions free riding becomes a problem out of a given income. A recommended solution to this problem is to incorporate the potential to generate income prior to (or simultaneously with) the decision of how to allocate that income between private and public goods.decision making, choice behavior, public goods, experimental economics, altruism, fairness, conditional reciprocity
Justifying Social Discounting: The Rank-Discounted Utilitarian Approach
No full textThe discounted utilitarian criterion for infinite horizon social choice has been criticized for treating generations unequally. We propose an extended rank-discounted utilitarian (ERDU) criterion instead. The criterion amounts to discounted utilitarianism on non-decreasing streams, but it treats all generations impartially: discounting becomes the mere expression of intergenerational inequality aversion. We show that more inequality averse ERDU societies have higher social discount rates when future generations are better-off. We apply the ERDU approach in two benchmark economic growth models and prove that it promotes sustainable policies that maximize discounted utilitarian welfare.intergenerational equity, social discounting, discounted utilitarianism, sustainability
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