Search

We exploit cross-sectional and temporal differences in search intensity in order to examine the relationship between search costs and price dispersion using a hand-collected panel data set from Jerusalem's Shuk Mahane Yehuda outdoor market. We present empirical evidence that price dispersion increases with the cost of search using several different measures of price dispersion; however, our interpretation of this finding is sensitive to the search proxy in question. We also address several acute difficulties facing empiricists seeking to test theoretical price-dispersion models in which consumers are heterogeneous in their search behavior. (JEL L11, L13), I. INTRODUCTION Many markets exhibit persistent price dispersion even though price information is more accessible than ever before. Concurrently, and perhaps consequently, a considerable amount of research has been devoted [...]

The authors determine the optimal size of a minority considering cooperation and providing ideas about group conflict.

The concept of fairness has been the focal point of most debates on dictatorship and ultimatum games. The meaning of fairness, however, may vary based on context. An unfair action may be considered as otherwise if it amounts to economic survival. The concept of survival enables one to justify an action that may seem improper if the survival issue is not raised. A set of two-stage survival dictatorship and ultimatum games has shown that pressures to survive in the market may temper the desire for fairness.

In this paper a distinction is made between human capital depreciation related to a worker's aging and depreciation due to the obsolescence of the worker's education. Schooling-specific obsolescence of human capital is incorporated in the Mincerian model of earnings, and it is shown how this obsolescence affects the worker's earnings profile. Using the Israeli 1983 Census we show that for 'high-tech' oriented industries (for which obsolescence is relatively important) obsolescence effects are more significant than for 'low-tech' oriented industries, and, consequently, the experience-earnings peak falls faster with increasing education in the former. Keywords: Human capital; Obsolescence; Depreciation; Vintage; Experience-earnings profiles

A modified labor-managed firm model was developed to solve the problem of perversity that is common in the traditional Illyrian model. Under the conventional model, employment is variable in the short-run while membership size is variable in the long run. Perversity results from the decrease in employment with increase in output price and decrease in fixed costs. Analysis of the model, however, led to perversity in the long-run. This result may also have policy implications in the short-run.

The incentives that causes workers to absent themselves from work with no apparent reason was analyzed. This involved the application of a game theoretic model on labor-managed firms and profit-maximizing firms and a comparison of the resulting incentives and equilibria. It was found that incentives causes workers in a profit-maximizing market to show up too often, while in an egalitarian cooperative setting, members tend to under participate. However, this may not be the case for all egalitarian cooperatives.

The theory of money assumes decentralized bilateral exchange and excludes centralized multilateral exchange. However, endogenizing the exchange process is critical for understanding the conditions that support the use of money. We develop a "traveling game" to study the emergence of decentralized and centralized exchange, theoretically and experimentally. Players located on separate islands can either trade locally, or pay a cost to trade elsewhere, so decentralized and centralized markets can both emerge in equilibrium. The former minimize trade costs through monetary exchange; the latter maximizes overall surplus through nonmonetary exchange. Monetary trade emerges when coordination is problematic, whereas centralized trade emerges otherwise. This shows that to understand the emergence of money it is important to amend standard theory such that the market structure is endogenized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]