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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Theory choice'
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Ivanova, Milena. "Realism, conventionalism and theory choice." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.684741.
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Two prominent debates in the philosophy of science literature - namely the scientific realism debate and the conventionalism debate - originate in the work of Pierre Duhem and Henri Poincare. This thesis explores problems in the current scientific realism and conventionalism debates and analyses Duhem's and Poincare's roles within these debates. In particulal~ it discusses the problems of underdetermination and theory choice, the problem of constitutivity, the problem of theory change and shows how Duhem and Poincare develop and address them. I present the current scientific realism debate and show Duhem's and Poincare's contribution to it. I evaluate Duhem's and Poincare's arguments against instrumentalism, explain their defence of structuralism and argue that their position is not realist, contrary to what is often assumed. I explore different solutions to the problem of underdetermination and develop objections to them. Following Duhem, I argue that the employment of theoretical virtues does not solve the problem of theory choice on the grounds that they are inconclusive and lead to a further form of underdetermination. Furthermore, I analyse Duhem's notion of 'good sense', which is an attempt at providing a normative non-rule governed account of rationality in theory choice. I address recent interpretations of this concept and develop problems for them. I develop a reading that overcomes the objections to the current readings. I present the evolution of conventionalism, from Poincare's conventions and Hans Reichenbach's constitutive a priori, to Michael Friedman's relativized a priori. I analyse Poincare's arguments for conventionalism and remove some longstanding confusions regarding his view. I discuss Friedman's defence of rationality in scientific revolutions as a solution to the Kuhnian objection of irrationality. Last, I analyse the epistemological status of the relativized a Priori and its intricate relationship with structuralism, which originates in Poincare's philosophy, and argue against current attempts that aim to connect the two theses.
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Sprumont, Yves. "Three essays in collective choice theory." Diss., Virginia Tech, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/40872.
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Perrin, Nancy Ann. "The general recognition theory of preference : a new theory of choice /." The Ohio State University, 1986. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487267546981579.
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McClellon, Morgan. "Essays on Random Choice." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17465146.
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Chapter 1 introduces and axiomatizes a new class of representations for incomplete preferences called confidence models, which describe decision makers who behave as if they have probabilistic uncertainty over their true preferences, and are only willing to express a binary preference if it is sufficiently likely to hold. Confidence models provide a natural way to connect incomplete preferences with stochastic choice; this connection is characterized by a simple condition that serves to identify the behavioral content of incomplete preferences. Chapter 2 studies random choice rules over finite sets that obey regularity but potentially fail to satisfy all of the Block-Marschak inequalities. Such random choice rules can be represented by capacities on the space of preferences. The higher-order Block-Marschak inequalities are shown to be related to the degree of monotonicity that can be achieved by a capacity representation. Finally, Chapter 3 shows that failures of uniqueness for random utility representations are widespread. Uniqueness can be restored by introducing a finite state space and considering random choice over Savage acts. A representation is characterized in which acts are chosen according to the probability that they are optimal in every state.Economics
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Nunes, Monica Maria, Ming-tak Kalwan Kwan, Rajvinder Singh, Wai-shun Wilson Tam, 羅嘉雯, and 譚威信. "Explaining money laundering with rational choice theory." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10722/205834.
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This research aims to explore if rational choice theory can be applied to explain money laundering in Hong Kong by drawing on the characteristics of stooges and their motives for colluding in money laundering activities and the effectiveness of imprisonment or other forms of punishments as a means of deterrence. An actor has limited cognitive capacity, makes decisions based on incomplete information and his actions reflect personal optimal beliefs (Piquero and Tibbetts, 2002; Hindmoor, 2006). Findings from the seven in-depth interviews conducted as part of the research and documentary reviews of local court cases support that financial reward is the major reason “why” offenders engage in money laundering activities at both the individual and institutional level. The findings also show that, in addition to ignorant and vulnerable individuals being chosen as stooges, well-regarded individuals and charitable organizations are also possible candidates. The research highlights a luring process experienced by the stooges which supports the psychosocial dynamics of rational choice. The research findings also challenge one of the cornerstones of classical criminology that maximum penalty is an effective means of deterrence.published_or_final_version
Criminology
Master
Master of Social Sciences
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Crim, Stephen J. (Stephen Johnson). "Developing a theory of nightclub location choice." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44354.
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Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-77).
This work is an investigation of the factors that influence where nightclubs locate within a city. Nightclubs, like other social spaces, provide important social and economic benefits in the urban environment. As amenities, they attract labor to cities, and as sites of social exchange, they provide space in which individuals can create the networks necessary for innovative industrial production, especially in the fine arts and other creative sectors. Nightclubs also appear to have a role in neighborhood upgrading or gentrification. Despite their importance, this is the first study on the factors that determine nightclub location choice. New York City and primarily Manhattan were chosen as sites for investigation because of the City's high number of nightclubs, and because of the regulatory as well as real estate pressures that are currently affecting the industry. A variety of sources, including personal interviews with nightclub owners and their employees, various government documents, as well as spatial and non-spatial databases, were consulted to formulate conclusions. As is the case with other forms of retail, nightclub owners are most concerned with patron accessibility and proximity to complimentary businesses when deciding where to locate their businesses. Other factors are also discussed, as is a theory of how super-regional nightclub clusters form. Not surprisingly, the author finds that nightclub location choice is highly constrained by the content, administration, and evolution of various city and state laws. Finally, recommendations designed to ease the regulatory burden on nightclubs while still controlling for nuisance concerns are presented for both government agencies and the industry.
by Stephen J. Crim.
M.C.P.
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Frick, Mira Anna Phyllis. "Essays on Learning, Uncertainty, and Choice." Thesis, Harvard University, 2015. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17463976.
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This dissertation presents three independent essays in microeconomic theory.
Motivated by the rise of social media, Chapter 1 (co-authored with Yuhta Ishii) builds a model studying the effect of an economy's potential for social learning on the adoption of innovations of uncertain quality. Provided consumers are forward-looking (i.e. recognize the value of waiting for information), equilibrium dynamics depend non-trivially on qualitative and quantitative features of the informational environment. We identify informational environments that are subject to a saturation effect, whereby increased opportunities for social learning slow down adoption and learning and do not increase consumer welfare (possibly even being harmful). We also suggest a novel, purely informational explanation for different commonly observed adoption patterns (S-shaped vs. concave curves).
Chapter 2 (co-authored with Assaf Romm) studies the solution concept $S^\infty W$ (one round of elimination of weakly dominated strategies followed by iterated elimination of strongly dominated strategies) in incomplete-information games. Under complete information, Dekel and Fudenberg (1990) and Börgers (1994) motivate $S^\infty W$ via its connection with "approximate common certainty" (ACC) of admissibility. Under incomplete information, we cast doubt on this connection: $S^\infty W$ corresponds to ACC of admissibility only when this is not accompanied by even the slightest changes to players' beliefs about states of nature. If we allow for vanishingly small perturbations to beliefs, then $S^\infty W$ is a (generally strict) subset of the predicted behavior, which we characterize in terms of a generalization of Hu's (2007) perfect $p$-rationalizable set.
Motivated by the literature on "choice overload", Chapter 3 studies a boundedly rational agent whose choice behavior admits a monotone threshold representation: There is an underlying rational benchmark, corresponding to maximization of a utility function $v$, from which the agent departs in a menu-dependent manner. The severity of the departure is quantified by a threshold map $\delta$, which is monotone with respect to set inclusion.
I axiomatically characterize the model, extending familiar characterizations of rational choice. I classify monotone threshold representations as a special case of Simon's theory of "satisficing", but as strictly more general than both Tyson's (2008) "expansive satisficing" model as well as Fishburn (1975) and Luce's (1956) model of choice behavior generated by a semiorder. I axiomatically characterize the difference, providing novel foundations for these models.Business Economics
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Drever, Andrew William. "A defence of ideal theory approaches to just choice." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/22977.
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One of the most common goals of political theory is to inform just choice; with ‘just choice’ referring to the class of practical, political decisions that result in society becoming more just. However, important questions can be asked about the best way political theory can perform this informing function. In this thesis I look to answer some of these questions through my defence of an ideal theory approach to just choice. This approach claims that ideals, that is, conceptions of the rules that would govern a fully just society, are necessary in order to arrive at just choices. I look to show the conditions ideal theory and ideals have to satisfy in order to perform this just choice informing role. In doing this this thesis underlabours for ideal theory by providing theoretical support for future substantive work in this area. This thesis proceeds as follows. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the structure of the thesis, the main areas of debate, and the implications of my research. Chapter 2 addresses the fundamental question discussed above, seeking to demonstrate that it is only when our choices are informed by ideals that we are consistently able to make just choices. Chapter 3 considers the distinction between short-term choice, which aims to make society immediately more similar to an ideal, and long-term choice, which aims to ultimately realise an ideal in full. I look to show the conditions that ideals have to satisfy in order to inform each type of just choice. Particularly important here are the feasibility conditions that have to be met by ideals that are to inform long-term choice. Chapter 4 considers a conundrum confronting those aiming to make just choices. All other things being equal long-term choice offers greater rewards than short-term choice does; however short-term choice is lower risk, requiring less investment of political resources such as time, labour, and money, and promising more likely returns on these investments. In this chapter I look to show the conditions that have to hold for it to be defensible to favour a long-term approach over a short-term approach. Chapter 5 considers whether the methods required of ideal theory, particularly the feasible ideal theory required of long-term choice, may be inherently contradictory. This is due to possible tensions between fact-sensitive and fact-insensitive aspects of the theorising process. In this chapter I look to show that this is not the case and that the ideal theory process is not contradictory. Chapter 6 summarises my key arguments and reflects on some of the main themes of this thesis.
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Madiraju, Santhosh Kumar. "Discourse on rationality : rational choice and critical theory." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1996. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6102/.
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The thesis contrasts two hostile and divergent intellectual paradigms in social sciences: rational choice and critical theory. Both rational choice and critical theory offer contrasting perspectives on the structures of social interaction. However, both critical theory and rational choice theory share overlapping concerns ie., both are preoccupied with determining what rational can mean in the realm of social and political interaction. In the case of rational choice paradigm, instrumental reason forms the cornerstone of the theoretical edifice. Ever since the publication of Jurgen Habermas' The lhemy qf Communicative Action Vol. / (1984) and Vol. II (1986) instrumental reason has come under severe attack. His critique anchors on a theory of communicative reason. What makes Habermas' work distinctive is that he does not regard instrumental reason as the single inevitable concomitant of modernity. Habermas sees in modernity an alternative way of conceptualising social interaction in terms of communication rather than strategy. So in a way, his work is a challenge to the defenders of modernity aiming to build a unified social science Jurgen Habermas advances the notion of communicative reason as the centerpiece of a social theory as opposed to instrumental reason. By providing a systematic grounding of the concept of reason in human language, he hopes to establish normative basis of critical theory. This model of reaching agreement or consent constitutes a process of dialogue in which reasons are exchanged between participants. This process is perceived to be a joint search for consensus. Such a dialogic concept of collective choice would necessarily work not with fixed preferences to be amalgamated (as rational choice theories do) but with preferences that are altered or modified as competing reasons are advanced in the course of discussion. In rational discussion, the only thing supposed to count is the power of better argument. Both rational choice and critical theory conceptualise politics in different ways. Rational choice theories critique democratic mechanisms failing to generate general will. Consequently, the political prescriptions offered are limited government or market. On the contrary, the political implications of Habermas' theory of deliberative democracy is anchored in the notion of liberal public sphere envisaging a cognitivist, rationalist vision in which discourse forms a critical normative basis for evaluating the political and moral principles.
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Chambers, Molly. "Informing the theory of collective entrepreneurship investment choice /." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/4881.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007.The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on March 19, 2009) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.
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Aliabadi, Youssef Samadi. "The Correspondence Principle and theory choice in physics." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1997. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2846/.
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A conception of the Correspondence Principle which Bohr deployed implicitly in developing a new theory of atomic constitution in 1913, is made explicit through an extensive examination of his classic paper of that year. Arguments are considered which purport to show that the application of the principle must be restricted to few isolated cases. These arguments are either defused or rejected. In particular an extensive review of issues concerning the interpretation of Quantum Mechanics is made to counter the claims that an insurmountable conceptual gap exits between the tenets of this theory and those of Classical Mechanics which makes it logically impossible for the latter to be regarded as the 'limiting case' of the former. In the light of a particular interpretation adopted and defended, a proposal is made that suggests that the Hamilton-Jacobi formulation of Classical Mechanics, as well as Maxwell's electromagnetic theory, can be viewed as 'limiting cases' of Quantum Mechanics. Having established a case for the global validity of the requirement imposed on physics by the Correspondence Principle, it is then argued that this requirement is indispensable if a particular brand of realism is adopted for the interpretation of theories in physics. Taking on board the assumption that an ultimate theory exists which mirrors the underlying physical constitution of the world, it is subsequently argued that the intertheory order established by the global imposition of the principle in physics, can be used to solve the problem of rational theory choice for this brand of realism.
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Lamb, Timothy Jerome. "Patterns of brand and store choice." Thesis, City University London, 1989. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/8327/.
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The sublects of brand choice and store choice have been widely studied, but these two aspects of consumer behaviour have tended to be treated in isolation from each other. This thesis therefore provides a detailed examination of the way in which brand choice and store choice patterns compare and interact. The results are based on AGB consumer panel data, and relate to three frequently-bought grocery products. Despite the multiplicity of factors believed to influence brand and store choice, at the aggregate level many highly regular patterns (concerning for instance the rate of purchase at a store, or the extent to which a brand's buyers also buy another brand) are found in each context. These various patterns are shown to be predictable by the Dirichlet, a stochastic model of buying behaviour, using only market share as brand-specific or store-specific input. Importantly, the Dirichlet is shown to apply not only to the "whole-market" contexts of brand choice and store choice (as is known from previous research), but to the "submarket" contexts of within-store brand choice and within-brand store choice. This indicates that, although the numerical values may differ, at a rather more fundamental level brand choice patterns are the same within different stores, and store choice patterns are the same for different brands. It also means that the practical utility of the Dirichiet - generating theoretical norms to help interpret the observed data - has been extended, providing retailers and manufacturers with a more detailed and flexible market analysis tool. A wide range of new findings are reported regarding the relationship between brand and store loyalty. For instance, it is found (via a new methodology to take account of the crucial influence of market share) that the levels of brand loyalty and store loyalty are quite similar in degree, although the latter does tend to exceed the former - a result which holds important implications for consumers' reactions to a brand delisting or stock-out. It is also found on a number of measures that the overall level of within-store brand loyalty varies little from store to store, and that consumers exhibit marked brand loyalty across stores (i.e. they show no tendency to switch brands when switching stores). In all these cases, the value of structuring the (often complex) observed patterns via the Dirichlet is amply demonstrated.
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Isacsson, Marcus. "Topics in hardness of approximation and social choice theory /." Göteborg : Chalmers University of Technology, 2010. http://publications.lib.chalmers.se/cpl/record/index.xsql?pubid=120378.
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Smith, Andrew Peter. "Consumer's product choice behaviour : an application of chaos theory." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/1452.
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The primary aim of this thesis is to apply chaos theory to consumer behaviour research. Chaos theory is essentially a theory of time series. The specific focus is product choice consumption behaviour. The conceptual basis for the work is taken from a theory thus far developed entirely outwith the topic focus of consumer research and marketing. The concepts and methods developed by chaos theorists in the natural sciences and some social and behavioural sciences are synthesised with concepts and methods from consumer research. The objective is to both shed light on the consumption process and explore the potential of chaos theory in this field. Ultimately the work attempts to address the question of whether consumer behaviour can be 'chaotic' as described by chaos theory.In order to facilitate these objectives a diary study was conducted using sixty respondents. They were required to record their consumption of branded products for a period of three months. Five product categories were used with informants recording consumption of only one product type (twelve informants in each group). The product groups were as follows: soft drinks; savoury snacks; beer; chocolate snacks and packaged yoghurts and desserts. The data was coded and analysed by methods selected prior to data capture: weighted time series, spectral analysis and phase space analysis. One of the principal findings of the research was that distinctive forms of behaviour were identifiable within the data set as a whole from which a five-fold typology is proposed. However the complexity and individuality of the forms was marked despite this apparent typology. The spectral analysis shows little evidence of regular or periodic patterned behaviour; the series are essentially aperiodic. The phase space analysis reinforces and enhances the analysis of the weighted time series and suggests the series tend more towards chaos than ordered behaviour. The series obey certain 'rules' (i.e. they are 'randomised' but not random) consistent with the existence of determnistic chaos. Moreover they appear globally stable and locally unstable. These findings have a number of implications for various areas of consumer research (e.g. varety seeking, loyalty and other aspects of consumption) and successfully extend the application of chaos theory to another area of human behaviour research.
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Lev, Julian. "Self-monitoring processes and Holland's theory of vocational choice." Virtual Press, 1989. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/720300.
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The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between self-monitoring and the constructs of the Holland vocational theory. Two hundred thirty nine subjects from two schools in the Pacific Northwest, a small university and a vocational school, completed the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI; Holland, 1985a), My Vocational Situation (Holland, Daiger, Power, 1980a), the revised Self-Monitoring Scale (SMS; Snyder & Gangestad, 1986) and a demographic questionnaire that included the Occupational Alternatives Question.A regression analysis tested hypotheses about the relationship between the Enterprising and Social subscales of the VPI and self-monitoring for both sexes. A 2x2 MANOVA investigated sex by self-monitoring differences on three measures of congruent vocational decision-making. Three 2x2 ANOVAs on sex by self-monitoring investigated differences on measures of consistency and definition of vocational personality and stability of choice. Factor analyses were performed for two self-monitoring groups to test the extent to which the groups' responses to the VPI conform to Holland's theory.Results for men indicated that high self-monitors tended to prefer Enterprising occupations and low self-monitors preferred Realistic occupations. No significant relationships were found for women between the VPI and SMS. Low self-monitors scored significantly higher on one measure of congruence, between college major and first vocational choice. High self-monitors scored significantly higher on consistency and their responses to the VPI conformed more with the Holland theory. There were no other significant differences found between groups. No sex differences were found in these analyses.These results suggest that high self-monitors have more information about vocational roles and that they use this information to make vocational decisions. A further suggestion is that low self-monitors make decisions on the basis of their attitudes and tend to act more consistently on those decisions. It is argued that the two groups have different decision-making processes with highs seeking information about a job's task demands and lows considering internal responses in order to make vocational decisions.Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services
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Hern, Richard. "Rational choice theory when tastes are changing through time." Thesis, University of Bristol, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.264091.
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Gerasimou, Georgios. "Essays on the theory of choice, rationality and indecision." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.609536.
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Sharpe, Keiran Anthony. "Towards a modern classical theory of consumption and choice." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.625089.
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Smith, Barry Vaughan. "A Rational Choice Theory of Bureaucratic Responsiveness in Democracies." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1991. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc279171/.
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Baigent, N. "Papers in social choice and welfare economics." Thesis, University of Essex, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.371893.
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Thomson, Lisa, and FRANCISandLISA@bigpond com. "Clerical Workers, Enterprise Bargaining and Preference Theory: Choice & Constraint." La Trobe University. School of Social Sciences, 2004. http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au./thesis/public/adt-LTU20050801.172053.
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This thesis is a case study about the choices and constraints faced by women clerical workers in a labour market where they have very little autonomy in negotiating their pay and conditions of employment. On the one hand, clerical work has developed as a feminised occupation with a history of being low in status and low paid. On the other hand, it is an ideal occupation for women wanting to combine work and family across their life cycle. How these two phenomena impact upon women clerical workers ability to negotiate enterprise agreements is the subject of this thesis.
From a theoretical perspective this thesis builds upon Catherine Hakim�s preference theory which explores the choices women clerical workers� make in relation to their work and family lives. Where Hakim�s preference theory focuses on the way in which women use their agency to determine their work and life style choices, this thesis gives equal weighting to the impact of agency and the constraints imposed by external structures such as the availability of part-time work and childcare, as well as the impact of organisational culture.
The research data presented was based on face-to-face interviews with forty female clerical workers. The clerical workers ranged in age from 21 to 59 years of age. The respondents were made up of single or partnered women without family responsibilities, women juggling work and family, and women who no longer had dependent children and were approaching retirement. This thesis contends that these clerical workers are ill placed to optimise their conditions of employment under the new industrial regime of enterprise bargaining and individual contracts. Very few of the women were union members and generally they were uninformed about their rights and entitlements.
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Ruan, Shiling. "Poisson race models theory and application in conjoint choice analysis /." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1173204902.
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Thomson, Lisa. "Clerical workers, enterprise bargaining and preference theory : choice & constraint /." Access full text, 2004. http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/thesis/public/adt-LTU20050801.172053/index.html.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- La Trobe University, 2004. Submitted to the School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 283-294). Also available via the World Wide Web.
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Höijer, Rolf. "A rational choice theory of state-formation : with empirical applications." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.270076.
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Starmer, Chris. "Exploring the theory of choice under uncertainty by experimental methods." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.317589.
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Siregar, Mulya E. "Time series analysis of mortgage choice : history, theory, and methods /." The Ohio State University, 1998. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487953567772079.
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Caves, Richard Laurence John. "Metaontology, emergence and theory choice : in defence of Mereological Nihilism." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2014. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/8298/.
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This thesis offers detailed remarks on debates in metametaphysics, the question of ontological emergence and the merits of extra-empirical theory choice criteria, such as ontological and ideological parsimony, in the course of defending Mereological Nihilism (nihilism). Part I is primarily a discussion of the metaontology of the composition debate and how nihilism begins to look like a more attractive theory once a certain metaontological framework is adopted. §0. provides an overview of the background assumptions of my thesis and outlines the dialectical strategy I will be employing. §1. Explains why a strategy is needed to reconcile revisionary ontological claims, such as nihilism, with common sense: I argue for the Ontologese Strategy (OS) over the more established neo-Quinean paraphrase strategy. §2. Elucidates OS and defends it from objections, while §3. discusses the status of non-fundamental existential claims on OS and responds to further objections. §4. Employs OS to defend nihilism from epistemic dismissivism, which threatens to undercut the prima facie theoretical advantages of nihilism— demonstrating the utility of OS in advancing the first order debate. In Part II I defend nihilism from what I take to be the major challenge to the theory once certain metaontological assumptions are in place: the epistemic possibility of ontological emergence. §5. sets out the main line of defence – a strategy employing plural instantiation. §6. explores alternative strategies such as entanglement relations, fundamental indeterminacy and extended simples. §7. Looks at arguments for monism vs. pluralism in light of putative emergence from quantum mechanics and argues there is conceptual room for a third way – Local Holism. §8. Tries to bolster the assumption of this thesis that parsimony considerations are relevant to the composition debate. In §9. I make some concluding remarks for the thesis as a whole.
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Iaria, Alessandro. "Essays on choice set heterogeneity in demand estimation." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2014. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/62609/.
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The estimation of demand systems is a key activity in empirical economics. The most prominent use of demand estimates relates to the computation of social welfare changes due to modifications in the economic environment. Examples include the introduction of a new tax (Griffith et al. 2010), a change in the regulation of an industry (Crawford & Yurukoglu, 2011), the introduction of a new product (Petrin, 2002), mergers between companies (Nevo, 2000, 2001), the legalization of soft drugs (Jacobi & Sovinsky, 2012). Any sort of welfare exercise, essential for policy making, would require—ideally—perfect knowledge of the economy; in particular individuals’ preferences. In practice, individuals’ preferences cannot be directly observed and have to be estimated. Economic policies based on biased demand estimates may prove rather ineffective or, even worse, counterproductive. In the practice of demand estimation, the empirical literature has prevalently favoured the use of discrete choice models. An individual is represented by a preference relation and, under the assumption of preference maximization, chooses one alternative among a finite collection of them, the choice set. It has been commonly assumed choice set homogeneity among individuals: that is, each decision-maker faces the same set of alternatives. This is a strong assumption that is likely violated in many settings: different individuals involved in apparently similar choice situations do face heterogeneous choice sets. Unfortunately, the very presence of choice set heterogeneity raises new challenges on the way of consistent estimation of consumers’ preferences, i.e., meaningful welfare analyses.
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Hostetler, Traci J. "School Choice: Academic, Financial, and Societal Implications." Youngstown State University / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1613056526287479.
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Smith, Howard. "Supermarket choice and supermarket competition : an econometric study." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.287545.
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Pace, Dennis. "Axiom of Choice: Equivalences and Applications." Youngstown State University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1340993084.
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Hall, Robert M. "PARENTAL CHOICE OF NONDENOMINATIONAL CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: REASONS FOR CHOICE, EXIT, AND THE TYPES AND SOURCES OF INFORMATION USED." Lexington, Ky. : [University of Kentucky Libraries], 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10225/1011.
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Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Kentucky, 2009.Title from document title page (viewed on July 27, 2009). Document formatted into pages; contains: iii, 214 p. : ill. Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-212).
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Balduzzi, Paolo. "Game theoretic models of public choice and political economy." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/869.
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This thesis is composed of three chapters, which can be read independently. In the first one, we present and solve some bargaining games a la Rubinstein, where the subjects can delegate the negotiating process to agents. Delegation is aimed to provide the delegating party with a higher bargaining power. When both parties delegate, uncertainty arises about the final distribution of the payoffs and multiple equilibria are possible. The seller loses his usual first mover's advantage. When we allow for delegation costs, the range of multiple equilibria shrinks. the final outcome of the game may be now inefficient for the principals and a prisoners' dilemma may arise. In the second chapter, we develop a model of simultaneous and sequential voting in a committee where members do not share their private information and do not have the same preferences. When objective functions differ, an optimal order of voting in the sequential game is found, leading to a unique socially optimal equilibrium. Our result rationalizes the presence of biased (i.e. partisan) voters in small committees as a way of reaching social optimality. Finally, in the third chapter, we acknowledge that, beside the traditional public-private dichotomy for the provision of public services, an increasing attention has been devoted to the use of partnerships. We compare relative inefficiencies of public provision, traditional private provision and PPPs. We also analyze the effect of workers' efforts and incentives on the success of the device.
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Enflo, Karin. "Measures of Freedom of Choice." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Avdelningen för praktisk filosofi, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-179078.
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This thesis studies the problem of measuring freedom of choice. It analyzes the concept of freedom of choice, discusses conditions that a measure should satisfy, and introduces a new class of measures that uniquely satisfy ten proposed conditions. The study uses a decision-theoretical model to represent situations of choice and a metric space model to represent differences between options. The first part of the thesis analyzes the concept of freedom of choice. Different conceptions of freedom of choice are categorized into evaluative and non-evaluative, as well as preference-dependent and preference-independent kinds. The main focus is on the three conceptions of freedom of choice as cardinality of choice sets, representativeness of the universal set, and diversity of options, as well as the three conceptions of freedom of rational choice, freedom of eligible choice, and freedom of evaluated choice. The second part discusses the conceptions, together with conditions for a measure and a variety of measures proposed in the literature. The discussion mostly focuses on preference-independent conceptions of freedom of choice, in particular the diversity conception. Different conceptions of diversity are discussed, as well as properties that could affect diversity, such as the cardinality of options, the differences between the options, and the distribution of differences between the options. As a result, the diversity conception is accepted as the proper explication of the concept of freedom of choice. In addition, eight conditions for a measure are accepted. The conditions concern domain-insensitivity, strict monotonicity, no-choice situations, dominance of differences, evenness, symmetry, spread of options, and limited function growth. None of the previously proposed measures satisfy all of these conditions. The third part concerns the construction of a ratio-scale measure that satisfies the accepted conditions. Two conditions are added regarding scale-independence and function growth proportional to cardinality. Lastly, it is shown that only one class of measures satisfy all ten conditions, given an additional assumption that the measures should be analytic functions with non-zero partial derivatives with respect to some function of the differences. These measures are introduced as the Ratio root measures.
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Wilson, Robyn Suzanne. "What motivates choice? Behavioral decision theory for environmental policy and management /." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1164665160.
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Yao, Jie. "Community service and post-college career choice a theory-based investigation /." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1197391509.
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Anand, P. "Axiomatic choice theory : A critique of decision-theoretic analysis under uncertainty." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.371507.
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Antrup, Andreas Hermann. "Three essays on the economic theory of mating and parental choice." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6460.
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Chapter 1: Relative Concerns and the Choice of Fertility Empirical research has shown that people exhibit relative concerns, they value social status. If they value their children's status as well, what effect will that have on their decisions as parents? This paper argues that parents and potential parents are in competition for status and rank in the generation of their children; as a consequence richer agents may cut back on the number of children they have and invest more in each child to prevent children of lower income agents from mimicking their own children. This effect need not be uniform so that equilibrium fertility may e.g. be a U-shaped function of income, even when agents would privately like to increase fertility when they receive greater income. These findings have wide ramifications: they may contribute to our understanding of the working of the demographic transition; they also suggest that the low fertility traps seen in some developed countries are rather strongly entrenched phenomena; and they o er a new explanation for voluntary childlessness. Chapter 2: Relative Concerns and Primogeniture While pervasive in the past, differential treatment of children, i.e. different levels of attention and parental investments into children of the same parent, has become rare in modern societies. This paper offers an explanation based on technological change which has rendered the success of a child more uncertain for a parent who is deciding on how much to invest into each of his children. Within a framework of concerns for social status (or relative concerns), agents decide on how many children to have and how much to invest in each child. When their altruism towards each child is decreasing in the total number of children, it is shown that they may solve the trade-off between low investment, high marginal return children (that come in large numbers and hence hurt parental altruism) and high investment, low marginal return children (that come in low numbers) by demanding both types and hence practice differential treatment. Uncertainty over status or rank outcomes of children reduces the range of equilibrium investment levels intro children so that the difference in the numbers they come in is reduced. Eventually the concern for return dominates and differential treatment disappears. Chapter 3: Co-Evolution of Institutions and Preferences: the case of the (human) mating market This paper explores the institutions that may emerge in response to mating preferences being constrained in their complexity in that they can only be conditioned on gender not other characteristics of the carrier of the preferences. When the cognitive capacity of the species allows a sophisticated institutional setup of one gender proposing and the other accepting or rejecting to be adopted, this setup is shown to be able to structure the mating allocation process such that preferences evolve to forms that, conditional on the setup, are optimal despite the constraint on complexity. Nature can be thought of as delegating information processing to the institutional setup. In an application to humans it is shown that the mechanism of the model can help explain why men and women may exhibit opposed preferences in traits such as looks and cleverness. The anecdotal fact that women do not marry down while men do can be interpreted as a maladaptation of female preferences to modern marriage markets.
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Engelen, Bart. "Rationality and institutions on the normative implications of rational choice theory." Saarbrücken VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2007. http://d-nb.info/989561313/04.
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Brege, Nicholas John. "Rational Choice Theory for Financial Strategy in Rural Michigan Community Colleges." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7123.
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Since 2011, drastic declines in tuition revenue for many rural community colleges have hindered institutional budgets and have been the primary driver for the financial strategy decisions made by college leaders. Recent declines in revenue for rural community colleges have created a constrained fiscal environment causing college leaders to increase focus on internal operations. The aim of this research was to expand the understanding of how management decisions influence tuition revenue when demand fluctuates. Data from multiple archival sources including several national and state statistical databases were used. This study used a multiple regression analysis to investigate the relationships between tuition revenue and (a) tuition rate setting strategy, (b) the management of institutional funds, (c) local economic conditions, and (d) age demographics. It was found that tuition rate setting strategy had the largest influence on tuition revenue among the internally controlled factors. Age demographics and economic conditions were found to be significant external factors that influence the tuition revenue at rural community colleges. This study promotes positive social change by providing financial leaders at community colleges greater insight into budgeting strategies that may help protect the financial viability of rural community colleges. The financial strength of community colleges is important for positive social change in rural communities because it assures that these institutions can continue to offer and expand solutions that meet the educational needs of the local communities they serve at a price affordable by all.
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Bryan, Lona. "A Limited Rational Choice Theory in Local Public Health Decision Making." ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/5542.
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The threat and occurrence of terrorist attacks have increased in the United States since September 2011, heightening concerns for weaponized anthrax, other biological pathogens, and epidemics and pandemics. Early decisions and funding levels in local public health agencies can be the first line of defense or first point of failure; yet little is understood about how decisions are made when there are budget cuts before a biological event happens. Using Lindblom's conceptualization of limited rational choice theory, the purpose of this single case study was to understand how a local public health official made decisions after budget cuts in a single public health entity in the mid-Atlantic area of the United States. Data were collected through an interview with 1 public health official and publicly available plans, procedures, and funding documents. These data were inductively coded and then subjected to Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis procedure. Findings indicated that the public health agency's ability to make the best decisions were negatively impacted by limited resources, though adequate planning before a catastrophic event, active and continual communication with stakeholders, and clarity about financial and resource needs can partially offset the impact of budgetary reductions. The implications for social change include recommendations to anticipate and address the needs of the public health system through decision making to protect the health care community and the reduction or elimination of the spread of disease in the wake of a biological incident.
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Wilson, Robyn S. "What motivates choice? Behavioral decision theory for environmental policy and management." The Ohio State University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1164665160.
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Scott, Peter J. "An analysis of judgemental bias in housing choice." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2011. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/242424.
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Buying a home is among the most important choices that any individual is likely to make in their lifetime. It has lasting consequences for happiness, well-being and personal finances. Yet, given the infrequency with which such decisions are made; the difficulty getting information from an opaque and decentralised marketplace; and the high transactions costs involved, there is a significant risk that decision making may depart from the high standard imposed by the normative economic concept of 'rational choice'. This thesis uses the insights of the economic theory of choice - from behavioural economics in particular - to examine housing choice from a new perspective. It considers the potential for estate agents, knowingly or otherwise, to exploit behavioural biases in decision making to influence preference and, ultimately, choices over housing. This naturally is of interest to estate agents and policy makers involved in housing markets; but most importantly to individuals as decision makers: making better decisions relies on understanding when and where vulnerability to manipulation may lie. Using evidence from a series of classroom experiments with 280 student volunteers and from two online surveys with over 4,000 adult respondents, significant areas where individuals may be consistently vulnerable to manipulation of judgement are found and recorded. In particular, both student and adult respondents are susceptible to biases involving manipulation of the decision making context, known as the choice frame. Students also tend to rely on arbitrary 'anchor' points to make value estimates, which results in significantly impaired judgements, even in the presence of incentives for accuracy. Finally, evidence of a significant new form of behavioural bias is found, in which elements of the choice frame have an unexpectedly negative impact on perceptions. This new bias is persistent across several experimental scenarios and is labelled the 'choice pollution effect'.
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Malmros, Ingegärd Enander. "Optimal Foraging Theory - OFT : Background, Problems and Possibilities." Thesis, Högskolan på Gotland, Institutionen för kultur, energi och miljö, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hgo:diva-1488.
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Optimal Foraging Theory (OFT) has its origin in processualistic ideas in 1960s with traces back to the dawn of the archaeological science in the 19th century. The OFT model is based on the construction of an individual’s food item selection understood as an evolutionary construct that maximizes the net energy gained per unit feeding time. The most common variants are diet patch choice, diet breadth/prey choice models and Marginal Value Theorem (MVT). The theory introduced experimental studies combined with mathematically data analyses and computer simulations. The results visualized in the experimental diagrammed curve are possible to compare with the archaeological records. What is “optimal” is an empirical question not possible to know but still useful as a benchmark for measuring culture. The theory is common in USA but still not in Europe. OFT seems to be useful in hunter-gatherer research looking at human decisions, energy flow, depression of resources and extinction. This literature review concludes that the prey-choice/diet-breadth model seems to be useful for hunter-gatherer research on Gotland focusing on possible causes of the hiatus in archaeological records between 5000-4500 BC.Optimal Foraging Theory (OFT) har sitt ursprung i de processualistiska ideérna under 1960-talet med spår tillbaka till arkeologins början som vetenskap under 1800-talet. OFT modellen baseras på konstruktionen av en individs födoämnesval som förstås som en evolutionär konstruktion som maximerar nettoenergiintaget per tidsenhet som gått åt för försörjningen. De vanligaste varianterna är patch-choice, diet breadth/prey choice modellerna och Marginal Value Theorem (MVT). Experimentella studier genomförs och data bearbetas matematiskt och visar datorsimulerade kurvdiagram möjliga att jämföra med arkeologiska källmaterial. Vad som är ”optimalt” är en empirisk fråga omöjlig att veta men användbar ändå som en slag referens för att mäta kultur. Teorin är vanlig i USA men ännu inte i Europa. OFT förefaller användbar inom forskning av jägare-samlare om man fokuserar på beslutsfattande, energiflöde, depression av resurser och utrotning av arter. Slutsatsen i denna litteraturöversikt är att prey choice/diet breadth modellen tycks vara användbar för gotländsk jägare-samlare-forskning som fokuserar på möjliga orsaker till de arkeologiska fyndens hiatus mellan 5000-4500 BC.
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Letsou, Christina. "Preferences for Randomization in Social Choice:." Thesis, Boston College, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:108719.
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Thesis advisor: Uzi SegalThis dissertation consists of three chapters analyzing preferences for randomization in social choice problems. The first two chapters are related and in the fields of distributive justice and social choice. They concern allocation of an indivisible good in social choice problems where efficiency is at odds with equality. The last chapter addresses a social choice problem from an individual's perspective using decision theoretical analysis. In this dissertation I demonstrate why randomization may be an attractive policy in social choice problems and demonstrate how individuals may have preferences over the precise method of randomization. The first chapter is titled "Live and Let Die." This paper discusses how to allocate an indivisible good by social lottery when agents have asymmetric claims. Intuition suggests that there may exist agents who should receive zero probability in the optimal social lottery. In such a case, I say that these agents have weak claims to the good. This paper uses a running example of allocating an indivisible medical treatment to individuals with different survival rates and reactions to the treatment in order to provide conditions for consistency of weak claims. As such, I develop two related assumptions on a social planner's preferences over lotteries. The first -- survival rate scaling -- states that if an individual has a weak claim, then his claim is also weak when survival rates increase proportionally. The second -- independence of weak claims -- states that if an individual has a weak claim, then his removal does not affect others' probabilities of receiving the treatment. These assumptions imply that a compatible social welfare function must exhibit constant elasticity of substitution, which results in potentially-degenerate weighted lotteries. The second chapter is titled "Why is Six Afraid of Seven? Bringing the "Numbers" to Economics." This chapter discusses the numbers problem: the question of if the numbers of people involved should be used to determine whether to help certain people or to help certain other people. I discuss the main solutions that have been proposed: flipping a coin, saving the greater number, and proportionally weighted lotteries. Using the economic tools of social choice, I then show how the model of the previous chapter, "Live and Let Die," can be extended to address numbers problems and compare the implications of prominent social welfare functions for numbers problems. I argue that potentially-degenerate weighted lotteries can assuage the main concerns discussed in the literature and I show that both the Nash product social welfare function as well as constant elasticity of substitution (CES) social welfare functions are compatible with this solution. Finally, I discuss a related problem known as "probability cases," in which individuals differ in survival chances rather than numbers of individuals at risk. When the model is extended to allow for both asymmetries in survival chances and numbers of individuals in groups, CES results in potentially-degenerate weighted lotteries whereas Nash product does not. The third chapter is titled "All Probabilities are Equal, but Some Probabilities are More Equal than Others," which is joint work with Professor Uzi Segal of the Economics Department at Boston College and Professor Shlomo Naeh of the Departments of Talmud and Jewish Thought at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In this chapter we compare preferences for different procedures of selecting people randomly. A common procedure for selecting people is to have them draw balls from an urn in turn. Modern and ancient stories (for example, by Graham Greene and the Talmud) suggest that such a lottery may not be viewed by the individuals as "fair.'' In this paper, we compare this procedure with several alternatives. These procedures give all individuals equal chance of being selected, but have different structures. We analyze these procedures as multi-stage lotteries. In line with previous literature, our analysis is based on the observation that multi-stage lotteries are not considered indifferent to their probabilistic one-stage representations. As such, we use a non-expected utility model to understand the preferences of risk-averse individuals over these procedures and show that they may be not indifferent between them
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Economics
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Büttner, Bettina. "Five essays in public economic theory /." [S.l. : s.n.], 2005. http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&doc_number=014735840&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA.
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Bó, Inácio G. L. "Essays in Matching Theory and Mechanism Design." Thesis, Boston College, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104172.
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Thesis advisor: Utku ÜnverThis dissertation consists of three chapters. The first chapter consists of a survey of the literature on affirmative action and diversity objective in school choice mechanisms. It presents and analyzes some of the main papers on the subject, showing the evolution of our understanding of the effects that different affirmative action policies have on the welfare and fairness of student assignments, the satisfaction of the diversity objectives as well as the domain of policies that allows for stable outcomes. The second chapter analyzes the problem of school choice mechanisms when policy-makers have objectives over the distribution of students by type across the schools. I show that mechanisms currently available in the literature may fail to a great extent in satisfying those objectives, and introduce a new one, which satisfies two properties. First, it produces assignments that satisfy a fairness criterion which incorporates the diversity objectives as an element of fairness. Second, it approximates optimally the diversity objectives while still satisfying the fairness criterion. We do so by embedding "preference" for those objectives into the schools' choice functions in a way that satisfies the substitutability condition and then using the school-proposing deferred acceptance procedure. This leads to the equivalence of stability with the desired definition of fairness and the maximization of those diversity objectives among the set of fair assignments. A comparative analysis also shows analytically that the mechanism that we provide has a general ability to satisfy those objectives, while in many familiar classes of scenarios the alternative ones yield segregated assignments. Finally, we analyze the incentives induced by the proposed mechanism in different market sizes and informational structures. The third chapter (co-authored with Orhan Aygün) presents an analysis of the Brazilian affirmative action initiative for access to public federal universities. In August 2012 the Brazilian federal government enacted a law mandating the prioritization of students who claim belonging to the groups of those coming from public high schools, low income families and being racial minorities to defined proportions of the seats available in federal public universities. In this problem, individuals may be part of one or more of those groups, and it is possible for students not to claim some of the privileges associated with them. This turns out to be a problem not previously studied in the literature. We show that under the choice function induced by the current guidelines, students may be better off by not claiming privileges that they are eligible to. Moreover, the resulting assignments may not be fair or satisfy the affirmative action objectives, even when there are enough students claiming low--income and minority privileges. Also, any stable mechanism that uses the current choice functions is neither incentive compatible nor fair. We propose a new choice function to be used by the universities that guarantees that a student will not be worse off by claiming an additional privilege, is fair and satisfies the affirmative action objectives whenever it is possible and there are enough applications claiming low--income and minority privileges. Next, we suggest a stable, incentive compatible and fair mechanism to create assignments for the entire system
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Economics
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Malmberg, Hannes. "Random Choice over a Continuous Set of Options." Licentiate thesis, Stockholms universitet, Matematiska institutionen, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-89917.
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Random choice theory has traditionally modeled choices over a -nite number of options. This thesis generalizes the literature by studyingthe limiting behavior of choice models as the number of optionsapproach a continuum.The thesis uses the theory of random elds, extreme value theoryand point processes to calculate this limiting behavior. For a numberof distributional assumptions, we can give analytic expressions forthe limiting probability distribution of the characteristics of the bestchoice. In addition, we also outline a straightforward extension to ourtheory which would signicantly relax the distributional assumptionsneeded to derive analytical results.Some examples from commuting research are discussed to illustratepotential applications of the theory.
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Zhou, Zhuzhu. "Essays in Social Choice and Econometrics:." Thesis, Boston College, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:109181.
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Thesis advisor: Uzi SegalThe dissertation studies the property of transitivity in the social choice theory. I explain why we should care about transitivity in decision theory. I propose two social decision theories: redistribution regret and ranking regret, study their properties of transitivity, and discuss the possibility to find a best choice for the social planner. Additionally, in the joint work, we propose a general method to construct a consistent estimator given two parametric models, one of which could be incorrectly specified. In “Why Transitivity”, to explain behaviors violating transitivity, e.g., preference reversals, some models, like regret theory, salience theory were developed. However, these models naturally violate transitivity, which may not lead to a best choice for the decision maker. This paper discusses the consequences and the possible extensions to deal with it. In “Redistribution Regret and Transitivity”, a social planner wants to allocate resources, e.g., the government allocates fiscal revenue or parents distribute toys to children. The social planner cares about individuals' feelings, which depend both on their assigned resources, and on the alternatives they might have been assigned. As a result, there could be intransitive cycles. This paper shows that the preference orders are generally non-transitive but there are two exceptions: fixed total resource and one extremely sensitive individual, or only two individuals with the same non-linear individual regret function. In “Ranking Regret”, a social planner wants to rank people, e.g., assign airline passengers a boarding order. A natural ranking is to order people from most to least sensitive to their rank. But people's feelings can depend both on their assigned rank, and on the alternatives they might have been assigned. As a result, there may be no best ranking, due to intransitive cycles. This paper shows how to tell when a best ranking exists, and that when it exists, it is indeed the natural ranking. When this best does not exist, an alternative second-best group ranking strategy is proposed, which resembles actual airline boarding policies. In “Over-Identified Doubly Robust Identification and Estimation”, joint with Arthur Lewbel and Jinyoung Choi, we consider two parametric models. At least one is correctly specified, but we don't know which. Both models include a common vector of parameters. An estimator for this common parameter vector is called Doubly Robust (DR) if it's consistent no matter which model is correct. We provide a general technique for constructing DR estimators (assuming the models are over identified). Our Over-identified Doubly Robust (ODR) technique is a simple extension of the Generalized Method of Moments. We illustrate our ODR with a variety of models. Our empirical application is instrumental variables estimation, where either one of two instrument vectors might be invalid
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Economics
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Sinha, Ashish Kumar. "Towards a positive theory of rational choice, from substantive to procedural rationality." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq21637.pdf.
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