In some, but not all, contexts, respondents to stated preference valuation studies state a willingness to pay (WTP) higher than what lab or field experiments indicate is the actual amount they would pay. However, several ex ante survey design strategies and ex post calibration techniques can be used to minimize or eliminate hypothetical bias. This article reviews and presents evidence on the ef...

We analyze a model of competition in Bayesian persuasion in which two or more senders vie for the patronage of a receiver by disclosing information about their respective proposal qualities. The model’s primitives that define the competitive environment are: the ex-ante correlation of senders’ proposal qualities; the respective ex-ante expected proposal qualities; and the number of competing se...

This study was conducted to identify some of ante and post-mortem surface defects in Sudanese raw sheep and goat skins and to evaluate the effect of some of these defects on some of the key physical properties of the leather produced. The results indicated that most of the ante-mortem defects disappear during the tannage, re-tannage and finishing operations. However some defects remain visible ...

We look at a principal–agent model in which the agent has to perform an action, the difficulty of which is better known ex interim than ex ante. We compare two contracting regimes; one with commitment to an ex ante negotiated contract, and one with an ex interim negotiated contract. The ex ante contract can not be too steep, but attempts to negotiate a steeper ex interim contract may result in ...

How does an ex ante contract affect behavior in an ex post renegotiation game? We address this question in a canonical buyer-seller relationship with renegotiation. Our paper provides causal experimental evidence that an initial contract has a highly significant and economically important impact on renegotiation behavior that goes beyond the effect of contracts on bargaining threat points. We c...

THE AIM OF THIS PAPER is to study core convergence in economies with asymmetric information. We will argue that the positive results of Debreu and Scarf (1963) and Aumann (1964) do not extend to a model with incomplete information in which decisions are made at the interim stage.2 Consider first the case in which decisions are made at the ex-ante stage, i.e., before information is revealed to a...

As organizations continually implement changes to their information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure, change has become an increasing part of "business as usual". Managers are routinely requested to justify expenditure, explain business benefits, and provide ex-ante and ex-post evaluations of ICT initiatives. Ex-ante evaluation is defined as predictive evaluation, and is ofte...

In this paper, we experimentally investigate in a large game four matching mechanisms related to China’s college admission system: Boston or serial dictatorship with students submitting their preferences either before (incomplete information) or after (complete information) the score realization. We find significant differences in the proportion of truth-telling across the mechanisms, but there...

The paper tests the unbiasedness of interest differentials and term structure as predictors of inflation differentials and inflation changes, respectively, using three-, sixand twelve-month maturities in eight major industrial countries over the period 1981—1992. The first hypothesis requires rational expectations (RE) and equality of ex-ante real interest rates, which in turn holds only in the...

Most studies of legislative control of agencies have focused on national level institutions. In this paper we undertake a comparative study of political control by looking at state legislatures and the control of Medicaid policy. We develop and test a theory about the conditions under which state legislatures should opt to rely on detailed legislation (ex ante control) in order to limit the dis...