Business Angels are private individuals who invest their personal financial resources in new and growing small firms. To study Business Angels’decisions we design an experiment based on the Trust Game (Berg et al., 1995) and add a third party, the Business Angel, who decides whether and how much to invest in a firm that is…
The theory of orthogonal polynomials constitutes a nice example of the interplay between classical analysis, numerical analysis, linear algebra, probability theory and mathematical physics. In this talk we will deal with orthogonal polynomials associated with measures supported on the real line with a special emphasis on the situations where they are eigenfunctions of higher order…
Abstract: I analyze how the loss aversion of consumers affects the strategies of the government and the incumbent to avoid commercial piracy and the price competition between the incumbent and the pirate. To that end, I develop a sequential duopoly model of vertical product differentiation with price competition in which consumers have a reference-dependent utility….
El diseño experimental es la única situación en la que es significativo dentro de la teoría Bayesiana promediar sobre el espacio muestral. Como la muestra aún no se ha observado, se aplica el principio general de promediar sobre lo desconocido. Este marco justifica muchos criterios de optimalidad y abre nuevas posibilidades, por lo que varios…
A Bayesian method of moments/instrumental variable (BMOM/IV) approach is developed and applied in the analysis of the important mean and multiple regression models. Given a single set of data, it is shown how to obtain posterior and predictive moments without the use of likelihood functions, prior densities and Bayes’ Theorem. The posterior and predictive moments,…
Abstract: We explore the role of public funds sharing in the framework of laboratory federalism, viewed as a learning process of policy innovation and imitation. In a model of decentralized, rich-to-poor redistribution with labor mobility, such a learning dynamics leads to the complete erosion of the welfare state. We show that suitably designed funds sharing schemes can correct this…
Abstract: Are connections to decision makers valuable? Do connections lead to better or worse decisions? And if they do, why is that? We set out to answer these questions by studying connections to the editorial board members of more than 100 economics and finance journals over the period 1990-2011. Departments double their publications in a journal when…
Abstract: When measuring multidimensional poverty it is reasonable to expect that the trade-offs between variable pairs can differ depending on whether the concerned pairs are complements or substitutes. Yet, currently existing approaches based on deprivation count distributions unrealistically assume that all pairs of variables are related in the same way, an unfortunate circumstance that undermines…
We study the problem of dividing a budget among the districts of a city taking into account their population and wealth. We focus on order preservation properties that ensure higher transfers to those districts with larger populations and, at the same time, introduce a policy redistribution so that districts with lower wealth per capita obtain…
Abstract: This paper revisits the link between income inequality and social conflict. In spite of its plausibility such link is not finding any clear, strong empirical backing. We explore a particular variation around the basic rent-seeking model of conflict with the goal of obtaining predictions more aligned with evidence [see Esteban and Ray 2008, 2011…
