1,720,969 research outputs found
An economic agent in my brain? A critical analysis of multiple-self models in neuroeconomics
No full textNeuroeconomic multiple-self models describe individuals’ choices as the equilibrium of the interaction amongst neural sites modelled as economic agents. This approach aims at explaining some inter-temporal inconsistency problems and the rejection of unfair offers in ultimatum games. However, the experiments on these models do not provide replicable results. The standard view interprets this problem as due to inadequate econometric techniques. Conversely, this paper shows that the non-replicability problem arises from a conundrum of multiple-self models’ (MSMs) theory. It illustrates how the assumption of neuroeconomic agents is deduced from the revealed preferences theory applied to the neuro-level. Therefore, the paper shows how experiments on MSMs cannot test the assumption of neuroeconomic agents but only the empirical hypotheses that derive from it. This entails that the assumption of neuroeconomic agents is a tautology, which might generate hypotheses that do not robustly identify the neural correlates of behaviour
Consciously Uncertain: A Bayesian Analysis of Preferences Formation
Full text linkWe investigate experimentally whether players deliberately use irrelevant market cues to shape their evaluations of a traded item. We implement a repeated Vickrey median price selling auction of an unusual bad where players are informed on the market price and on the three lowest or highest asks. We elicited players’ consideration of market signals through a questionnaire at the end of the auction. We find that extreme information has a stronger influence on players’ evaluations than the market price. However, players’ consideration of the market signals explains their behavioral reactivity to the market price but not to the extremes. Hence, players deliberately use an unbiased estimator of the central tendency of the appraisals distribution, while extreme asks’ influence is consistent with a priming effect
Individual Autonomy in Evolutionary Game Theory: Defending Sugden against Ross's accusation of eliminativism
No full textIn this paper, I provide a defence of Robert Sugden’s contribution to
evolutionary game theory against Donald Ross’s accusation of eliminating the
individual’s autonomy by denying the explanatory role of rationality, utility maximization and rational beliefs. In this regard, I claim that Sugden’s methodological
remarks on evolutionary game theory do not imply a characterization of real agents
as automata. On the methodological level, Sugden claims that it is not correct to
conceive the empirical phenomenon of social evolution in terms of normative
concepts, whose empirical status is not obvious. However, Sugden proposes a
theory that explains the agent’s behaviour in terms of inductive reasoning, adaptive
beliefs, salience and pattern recognition. The latter are psychological features that
describe the way agents manage to self-determine their own actions. From these
clarifications, I draw the conclusion that Ross’s critique misunderstands Sugden’s
contribution both on the methodological and empirical level
Trust and reciprocity in youth labor markets. An experimental approach to analyzing the impact of labour market experiences on young people
Full text linkIn this experiment, we study whether individuals’ labour market state (i.e.
employed, student or NEET) affect their trusting and trustworthy behavior. To
identify both the effect of labour market state and the effect of information on others’
labour market state over one’s behavior, we implement an experiment with two oneshot trust games with random and anonymous matching: in the first game, subjects
receive no information on the counterpart; in the second one, the labour market state
of both players is common knowledge. We find that, amongst the different subcategories of NEETs, the status of unemployed has a markedly negative effect on
trust and trustworthiness. Furthermore, precariousness in the labour market results to
be as damaging as unemployment for trust and trustworthiness
Much ado about extremes: An experimental test of the shaping effect of prices on preferences
No full textThere is evidence of a shaping effect of market prices on subjects’ evaluations in repeated private value auctions. This evidence has been traditionally interpreted as a pure behavioural phenomenon in contexts where the only available information is the market price. In this paper, we enrich the subjects’ information set by providing in treatment groups additional information on extreme asks. Our main results show a shaping effect both in the control and in the treatments and a stronger effect of the extreme information that more than halves the effect of the market price on subjects’ asks. Differently from the existing literature, we find that the provision of additional information inactivates the well-documented tendency of the market price to fall at each auction round as a consequence of over-asking correction. We discuss different possible mechanisms underlying this key finding
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