April 20th, Shawn Kantor, Ph.D. – Do Research Universities Generate Local Economic Growth? Abstract: We estimate the local agglomeration spillovers from research university activity in a sample of urban counties. We use the fact that universities follow a rigid endowment spending policy based on the market value of their endowments to identify the causal effect
Apr. 13th, Sean Crockett, Ph.D. – Do Reference Dependent Preferences Really Matter? Bio: Sean Crockett is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics and Finance at Baruch College, City University of New York. He received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004 and was a postdoc at Caltech for two years afterward. His
The article “Underwater Recession” authored by Economic Science Institute’s Professors Steven Gjerstad, Vernon L. Smith and, Graduate of the Economic Systems Design program, Joy Buchanan will be published in The American Interest: Policy, Politics & Culture’s May/June 2012 issue. “The U.S. economy is stuck in a painfully slow recovery. Neither accommodative monetary policy nor fiscal
Mar. 23rd, Max Krasnow, Ph.D. – Evolution of direct reciprocity under uncertainty can explain human generosity in one-shot encounters Abstract: Are humans too generous? The discovery that subjects choose to incur costs to allocate benefits to others in anonymous, one-shot economic games has posed an unsolved challenge to models of economic and
Congratulations Dr. Bart Wilson of the Economic Science Institute! The 2012 Oliver E. Williamson Prize for Best Article in the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization was awarded to Bart J. Wilson, Taylor Jaworski, Karl E. Schurter, and Andrew Smyth for their article entitled, “The Ecological and Civil Mainsprings of Property: An Experimental Economic History
“ObamaCare will be argued next week in the Supreme Court. While the justices will consider the intricacies of constitutional law, at their heart the arguments in favor of the legislation have to do with the economics of health care.” Read the full article on The Wall Street Journal Online, Opinion section.
Mar. 16th, Alex Brown, Ph.D. – Experimental Analysis of Envy-Free Auction Dr. Alex Brown, a guest of the IFREE/ESI Lecture SeriesAbstract: Economic concerns for equity have motivated game theorists to study envy-free mechanisms. Though not incentive compatible, these mechanisms implement in Nash equilibria efficient allocations at which no agent prefers the consumption of
Mar. 9th, Keith Murnighan, Ph.D. – On Greed – Watch Lecture Dr. Keith Murnighan, a guest of the IFREE/ESI Lecture SeriesAbstract: Greed is a central element in human existence. It is also frequently mentioned as a factor in many recent organizational and financial scandals. Thus, it was surprising to discover that empirical research on greed
Dr. Vernon L. Smith of the Economic Science Institute was interview by Rick Reiff with the SoCal Insider on China, experimental economics, and the housing crisis and outlook. You can download the episode here!
Mar. 2nd, Jeff Smith, Ph.D. – Remarks on Field Experiments in Labor Economics and the Economics of Education – Watch lecture Abstract: The talk will consider issues in field experiments in labor economics and the economics of education in the developed world. These issues include threats to internal and external validity, using experimental data to
Feb. 24th, John Tooby, Ph.D. – The Welfare Tradeoff Architecture, Cooperation, and Social Emotions – For further reading please see: Formidability and the logic of human anger and The architecture of human kin detection. – Watch lecture Abstract: Individuals in social species continually face choices among alternatives that have different impacts on the welfares of
Feb. 17th, Stefan Szymanski, Ph.D. – Contests on a Line – Watch Lecture Abstract: This paper examines the idea of a Tullock contest between competitors on a line (in the manner of Hotelling). The problem is modeled as a two stage game in which competitors choose location and then choose how much to invest in