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作者：Lizzeri, Alessandro; Siniscalchi, Marciano
作者单位：New York University; Northwestern University
摘要：We propose a simple theoretical model of supervised learning that is potentially useful to interpret a number of empirical phenomena relevant to the nature-nurture debate. The model captures a basic trade-off between sheltering the child from the consequences of his mistakes and allowing him to learn from experience. We characterize the optimal parenting policy and its comparative-statics properties. We then show that key features of the optimal policy can be useful to interpret provocative fi...
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作者：Autor, David H.; Scarborough, David
作者单位：Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); National Bureau of Economic Research; Black Hills State University
摘要：Because minorities typically fare poorly on standardized tests, job testing is thought to pose an equality-efficiency trade-off. testing improves selection but reduces minority hiring. We develop a conceptual framework to assess when this trade-off is likely to apply and evaluate the evidence for such a trade-off using hiring and productivity data from a national retail firm whose 1,363 stores switched from informal to test-based worker screening over the course of one year. We document that t...
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作者：Caplin, Andrew; Dean, Mark
作者单位：City University of New York (CUNY) System
摘要：The neurotransmitter dopamine has been found to play a crucial role in choice, learning, and belief formation. The best-developed current theory of dopaminergic function is the reward prediction error hypothesis-that dopamine encodes the difference between the experienced and predicted reward of an event. We provide axiomatic foundations for this hypothesis to help bridge the current conceptual gap between neuroscience and economics. Continued research in this area of overlap between social an...
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作者：Goolsbee, Austan; Syverson, Chad
作者单位：University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：We examine how incumbents respond to the threat of entry by competitors (as distinct from how they respond to actual entry). We look specifically at passenger airlines, using the evolution of Southwest Airlines' route network to identify particular routes where the probability of future entry rises abruptly. We find that incumbents cut fares significantly when threatened by Southwest's entry. Over half of Southwest's total impact on incumbent fares occurs before Southwest starts flying. These ...
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作者：Greenstone, Michael; Gallagher, Justin
作者单位：Brookings Institution; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); National Bureau of Economic Research; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
摘要：This paper uses the housing market to develop estimates of the local welfare impacts of Superfund-sponsored cleanups of hazardous waste sites. We show that if consumers value the cleanups, then the hedonic model predicts that they will lead to increases in local housing prices and new home construction, as well as the migration of individuals that place a high value on environmental quality to the areas near the improved sites. We compare housing market outcomes in the areas surrounding the fi...
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作者：Trebbi, Francesco; Aghion, Philippe; Alesina, Alberto
作者单位：Harvard University; University of Chicago; Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR); Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR)
摘要：This paper studies the choice of electoral rules and in particular the question of minority representation. Majorities tend to disenfranchise minorities through strategic manipulation of electoral rules. With the aim of explaining changes in electoral rules adopted by U.S. cities, particularly in the South, we show why majorities tend to adopt winner-take-all city-wide rules (at-large elections) in response to an increase in the size of the minority when the minority they are facing is relativ...
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作者：Tabellini, Guido
摘要：What explains the range of situations in which individuals cooperate? This paper studies a model where individuals respond to incentives but are also influenced by norms of good conduct inherited from earlier generations. Parents rationally choose what values to transmit to their offspring, and this choice is influenced by the spatial patterns of external enforcement and of likely future transactions. The equilibrium displays strategic complementarities between values and current behavior, whi...
