Suchergebnisse

This paper extends the concept of weak renegotiation-proof equilibrium (WRP) to allow for costly renegotiation and shows that even small renegotiation costs can have dramatic effects on the set of equilibria. More specifically, the paper analyzes the infinitely repeated Bertrand game. It is shown that for every level of renegotiation cost, there exists a discount factor such that any collusive profit can be supported as an equilibrium outcome. Hence, any arbitrary small renegotiation cost will suffice to facilitate collusive outcomes for sufficiently patient firms. This result stands in stark contrast to the unique pure strategy WRP equilibrium without renegotiation costs, which implies marginal-cost pricing in every period. Moreover, in comparison to the findings of McCutcheon (1997), who states that renegotiation costs have to be substantial to facilitate collusion, this result points to a quite different conclusion.

AbstractSeveral behavioural models of choice assume that decision makers place more weight on attributes where options differ more, an assumption we test in a set of experiments. We find that subjects are more likely to choose an option when we add options increasing the maximal difference in the original option's strongest attribute, suggesting that the decision maker's focus is drawn to attributes with a high spread. Additional experiments corroborate this finding. Still, we document that the focusing effect diminishes when options are presented using numbers instead of graphs or when subjects are forced to wait before submitting their answers.

AbstractRecent experimental evidence suggests that noisy behavior correlates strongly with personal characteristics. Since decision noise leads to bias in most elicitation tasks, there is a risk of falsely interpreting noise-driven relationships as preference driven. This puts previous studies that found a negative relation between personality measures and risk aversion into perspective and in particular raises the question of how to achieve robust inference in this domain. This paper shows, by way of an economic experiment with subjects from all walks of life, that using structural estimation to model heterogeneity of noise in combination with a balanced design allows us to mitigate the bias problem. Our estimations show that cognitive ability is related to noisy behavior rather than risk preferences. We also find age and education to be strongly related to noise, but the personality characteristics obtained using the Big Five inventory are less related to noise and more robustly correlated to risk preferences.

Introduction There is limited knowledge on how the SARS-CoV-2 affects pregnancy outcomes. Studies investigating the impact of COVID-19 in early pregnancy are scarce and information on long-term follow-up is lacking. The purpose of this project is to study the impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy outcomes and long-term maternal and child health by: (1) establishing a database and biobank from pregnant women with COVID-19 and presumably non-infected women and their infants and (2) examining how women and their partners experience pregnancy, childbirth and early parenthood in the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods and analysis This is a national, multicentre, prospective cohort study involving 27 Swedish maternity units accounting for over 86 000 deliveries/year. Pregnant women are included when they: (1) test positive for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 group) or (2) are non-infected and seek healthcare at one of their routine antenatal visits (screening group). Blood, as well as other biological samples, are collected at different time points during and after pregnancy. Child health up to 4 years of age and parent experience of pregnancy, delivery, early parenthood, healthcare and society in general will be examined using web-based questionnaires based on validated instruments. Short- and long-term health outcomes will be collected from Swedish health registers and the parents experiences will be studied by performing qualitative interviews. Ethics and dissemination Confidentiality aspects such as data encryption and storage comply with the General Data Protection Regulation and with ethical committee requirements. This study has been granted national ethical approval by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (dnr 2020-02189 and amendments 2020-02848, 2020-05016, 2020-06696 and 2021-00870) and national biobank approval by the Biobank Vast (dnr B2000526:970). Results from the project will be published in peer-reviewed journals. ; Funding Agencies|Swedish government [ALFGBG-77860, 2020-YF0016]; Swedish county councils, the ALF agreement [ALFGBG-77860, 2020-YF0016]; Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Sahlgrenska Academy, Gothenburg University Sweden; Western health care region [VGFOUREG-938771]; Swedish Research CouncilSwedish Research CouncilEuropean Commission [2018-00470, 2016-00526, 2019-02082]

Introduction: There is limited knowledge on how the SARS-CoV-2 affects pregnancy outcomes. Studies investigating the impact of COVID-19 in early pregnancy are scarce and information on long-term follow-up is lacking.The purpose of this project is to study the impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy outcomes and long-term maternal and child health by: (1) establishing a database and biobank from pregnant women with COVID-19 and presumably non-infected women and their infants and (2) examining how women and their partners experience pregnancy, childbirth and early parenthood in the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods and analysis: This is a national, multicentre, prospective cohort study involving 27 Swedish maternity units accounting for over 86 000 deliveries/year. Pregnant women are included when they: (1) test positive for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 group) or (2) are non-infected and seek healthcare at one of their routine antenatal visits (screening group). Blood, as well as other biological samples, are collected at different time points during and after pregnancy. Child health up to 4 years of age and parent experience of pregnancy, delivery, early parenthood, healthcare and society in general will be examined using web-based questionnaires based on validated instruments. Short- and long-term health outcomes will be collected from Swedish health registers and the parents' experiences will be studied by performing qualitative interviews. Ethics and dissemination: Confidentiality aspects such as data encryption and storage comply with the General Data Protection Regulation and with ethical committee requirements. This study has been granted national ethical approval by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (dnr 2020-02189 and amendments 2020-02848, 2020-05016, 2020-06696 and 2021-00870) and national biobank approval by the Biobank Väst (dnr B2000526:970). Results from the project will be published in peer-reviewed journals.