When Does Learning in Games Generate Convergence to Nash Equilibria? The Role of Supermodularity in an Experimental Setting

By Yan Chen and Robert Gazzale

American Economic Review, December 2004

This study clarifies the conditions under which learning in games produces convergence to Nash equilibria in practice. We experimentally investigate the role of supermodularity, which is closely related to the more familiar concept of strategic complement...

Addiction and Cue-Triggered Decision Processes

By B. Douglas Bernheim and Antonio Rangel

American Economic Review, December 2004

We propose a model of addiction based on three premises: (i) use among addicts is frequently a mistake; (ii) experience sensitizes an individual to environmental cues that trigger mistaken usage; (iii) addicts understand and manage their susceptibilities....

Economic Understanding in US High School Courses

By William B. Walstad

American Economic Review, May 2013

The effects of courses on student achievement are studied using 2006 data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in economics. A regression analysis showed expected and significant achievement differences by course, with the highest s...

Aggregating Local Preferences to Guide Marginal Policy Adjustments

By Daniel J. Benjamin, Ori Heffetz, Miles S. Kimball, and Nichole Szembrot

American Economic Review, May 2013

We propose a social choice rule for aggregating preferences elicited from surveys into a marginal adjustment of policy from the status quo. The mechanism is: (i) symmetric in its treatment of survey respondents; (ii) ordinal, using only the orientation of...

Status Incentives

By Timothy Besley and Maitreesh Ghatak

American Economic Review, May 2008

Telling Better Stories in Introductory Macro

By David Colander

American Economic Review, May 2000

The Continuous Combinatorial Auction Architecture

By Charles R. Plott, Hsing-Yang Lee, and Travis Maron

American Economic Review, May 2014

The paper reports the architecture of a continuous combinatorial auction. Preferences are based on sets of items and feasibility requires the nonintersection of sets. Countdown clocks replace eligibility and activity requirements typical of rounds-based a...

The Changing Distributions of New Ph.D. Economists and Their Employment: Implications for the Future

By Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1999

This essay addressed the changing demographic composition of new Ph.D.s in economics and the changing distribution of the jobs that they are obtaining. It discusses how future trends may interact to influence the types of training that economists may prov...

Correspondence

By Douglas Holtz-Eakin

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1993

The Evolution of Egalitarian Sociolinguistic Conventions

By Suresh Naidu, Sung-Ha Hwang, and Samuel Bowles

American Economic Review, May 2017

Motivated by historical examples and ideas from socio-linguistics, in particular the "non-reciprocal power semantic" of Brown and Gilman (1960), we extend evolutionary models of language to incorporate intentional linguistic innovations among conventions ...

Symposium on Public and Private Unionization

[Symposium: Explaining Savings]

By Edward P. Lazear

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1988

Understanding the source of the decline of private sector unions and concomitant rise of public sectors unions is essential. Without that knowledge, the welfare effects of the changes cannot be ascertained. The two essays that follow take us a long way do...

Owner-Occupied Housing: Life-Cycle Implications for the Household Portfolio

By Marjorie Flavin and Takashi Yamashita

American Economic Review, May 2011

The paper constructs a model of optimal portfolio allocation incorporating the role of housing as collateral. Current house value is a state variable in the portfolio decision due to a nonconvex adjustment cost. Holding risk aversion constant, the percent...

Business Fixed Investment and "Bubbles": The Japanese Case

By Robert S. Chirinko and Huntley Schaller

American Economic Review, June 2001

Adult Antiretroviral Therapy and Child Health: Evidence from Scale-Up in Zambia

By Adrienne M. Lucas and Nicholas L. Wilson

American Economic Review, May 2013

One in five Zambian children lives with an HIV/AIDS-infected adult. We estimate the effect that the availability of adult antiretroviral therapy (ART) has on the health of such children. Using a triple difference specification, we find that adult access t...

The Effects of School Calendar Type on Maternal Employment across Racial Groups: A Story of Child Care Availability

By Jennifer Graves

American Economic Review, May 2013

This paper presents evidence that school districts' use of an alternative academic calendar, the year-round school calendar, results in a reduction in maternal employment for women with school-aged children that varies in magnitude across racial groups. N...

An Asset Allocation Puzzle: Comment

By Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou, James V. Jordan, and Roland Portait

American Economic Review, September 2001

Betrayal Aversion: Evidence from Brazil, China, Oman, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States

By Iris Bohnet, Fiona Greig, Benedikt Herrmann, and Richard Zeckhauser

American Economic Review, March 2008

Due to betrayal aversion, people take risks less willingly when the agent of uncertainty is another person rather than nature. Individuals in six countries (Brazil, China, Oman, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States) confronted a binary-choice tru...

An Investigation of the Effects of Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol Policies on Youth Risky Sexual Behaviors

By Sara Markowitz, Robert Kaestner, and Michael Grossman

American Economic Review, May 2005

Heterogeneous Beliefs, Wealth Distribution, and Asset Markets with Risk of Default

By Viktor Tsyrennikov

American Economic Review, May 2012

We study asset markets and wealth dynamics in the economy with heterogeneous beliefs and risk of default. Agents can trade a full set of Arrow securities but are allowed to default on their delivery promises. Financial markets rationally subject agents to...

The Value of Groups

By Shaun P. Hargreaves Heap and Daniel John Zizzo

American Economic Review, March 2009

We present the results of an experiment that attempts to measure the social value of groups. In the experiment, group membership is induced artificially: subjects interact with insiders and outsiders in trust games and periodically enter markets where ...