We model agents who use self-deception to rationalize and justify actions that can eventually lead them into temptation. Formally, we extend Gul and Pesendorfer’s (2001) framework to three time periods and obtain a special functional form for the temptation utility at the interim stage. Our representation portrays an agent who is tempted (i) to relax her normative attitude towards future indulg...

This paper explores the issue of banking efficiency in Central Europe by applying the Fourier functional form and the stochastic cost frontier approach in calculating inefficiencies for a large sample of German, Austrian, Swiss and Luxembourg banks between 1997 and 2003. The findings suggest that the largest sized banks are generally the least efficient banks and the smallest sized banks are th...

This paper studies an alternative bias correction for the M-estimator, which is obtained by correcting the moment equations in the spirit of Firth (1993). In particular, this paper compares the stochastic expansions of the analytically-bias-corrected estimator and the alternative estimator and finds that the third-order stochastic expansions of these two estimators are identical. This implies t...

Abstract We calculate the (p,q) string spectrum in a warped deformed conifold using the dielectric brane method. The spectrum is shown to have the same functional form as in the dual picture of a wrapped D3-brane with electric and magnetic fluxes on its world volume. The agreement is exact in the limit where q is large. We also calculate the dielectric spectrum in the S-dual picture. The spectr...

In two previous articles [Phys. Rev. D 71 (2005) 124307 (gr-qc/0503007) and Phys. Rev. D 76 (2006) 0440241 (gr-qc/0607001)] we have discussed several “algorithmic” techniques that permit one (in a purely mechanical way) to generate large classes of general-relativistic static perfect fluid spheres. Working in Schwarzschild curvature coordinates, we used these algorithmic ideas to prove several ...

We give a necessary and sufficient condition for when a set-theoretic function can be written using the recursion operator fold, and a dual condition for the recursion operator unfold. The conditions are simple, practically useful, and generic in the underlying datatype.

Understanding early traces of symbolism and the origins of language is challenging given the difficult access to the psychological and cognitive operations which underlay them from the archaeological record. In order to address this issue, we propose a semiotic framework based on the notion of representational medium. This concept helps bridging the gap between ancient and modern semiotic activ...

A relationship between dislocation internal friction, microplastic and macroplastic behaviour of crystals has been considered. Main attention has been paid to the shape of the dislocation hysteresis responsible for the amplitude-dependent internal fiction (ADIF) and to a comparison between the macroyield stress c, and microyield stress G, evaluated &om the ADIF. It is shown that the same functi...

The oscillation behavior of solutions for higher-order delay dynamic equations of neutral type is investigated by making use of comparison with second-order dynamic equations. The method can be utilized to study other types of higher-order equations on time scales as well.

College Education and Wages in the U.K.: Estimating Conditional Average Structural Functions in Nonadditive Models with Binary Endogenous Variables We propose and implement an estimator for identifiable features of correlated random coefficient models with binary endogenous variables and nonadditive errors in the outcome equation. It is suitable, e.g., for estimation of the average returns to c...