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Ingela Alger, and Jörgen W. Weibull

vol. 11, August 2019, pp. 329–354

The literature on the evolution of preferences of individuals in strategic interactions is vast and diverse. We organize the discussion around the following question: Supposing that material outcomes drive evolutionary success, under what circumstances does evolution promote Homo economicus,...

Jonathan Stieglitz, Benjamin C. Trumble, Caleb Finch, Dong Li, Matthew Budoff, Hillard Kaplan, and Michael Gurven

August 2019

Modern humans have more fragile skeletons than other hominins, which may result from physical inactivity. Here we test whether reproductive effort also compromises bone strength, by measuring using computed tomography thoracic vertebral bone mineral density (BMD) and fracture prevalence among...

Quang Le Van, Manh-Hung Nguyen, and Thanh-Viet Nguyen

vol. 28, n. 5, July 2019, pp. 675–687

Facing the challenge of environmental degradation in Vietnam, a growing number of firms have begun to integrate environmental management systems into their business strategies and develop green product diversification strategies. On the basis of the stakeholder theory, this paper attempts to...

Bruno Jullien, and Alessandro Pavan

vol. 86, n. 4, July 2019, pp. 1666–1703

We study platform markets in which the information about users' preferences is dispersed. First, we show how the dispersion of information introduces idiosyncratic uncertainty about participation decisions and how the latter shapes the elasticity of the demands and the equilibrium prices. We then...

Ujjayant Chakravorty, Marie-Hélène Hubert, and Beyza Ural Marchand

vol. 10, n. 3, July 2019, pp. 1153–1193

More than 40% of US grain is used for energy due to the Renewable Fuels Mandate (RFS). There are no studies of the global distributional consequences of this purely domestic policy. Using micro-level survey data, we trace the effect of the RFS on world food prices and their impact on household...

Céline Nauges, and Dale Whittington

vol. 5, n. 3, July 2019, p. 1850026

Social norms comparisons are tools that are being used more and more often by energy and water utilities all over the world in order to induce households to conserve resources. Such conservation programs are appealing to utilities since they are an easy-to-implement alternative to raising prices...

Vittoria Cerasi, Barbara Chizzolini, and Marc Ivaldi

vol. 48, n. 2, July 2019, pp. 1–27

We propose a new test to evaluate the impact of horizontal mergers on competition in the banking industry. The test is designed to be applied ex ante to potential mergers while being parsimonious in terms of data, as it only uses information on branches in local markets. The test is a...

Jonathan Stieglitz, Brooke Scelza, Sean Prall, Tami Blumenfield, Alyssa Crittenden, Michael Gurven, Michelle Kline, Jeremy Koster, Geoff Kushnick, Siobhan Mattison, Elizabeth Pillsworth, Mary K. Shenk, Kathrine Starkweather, Chun-Yi Sum, Kyoko Yamaguchi, and Richard McElreath

vol. 4, July 2019, pp. 20–26

Long-lasting, romantic partnerships are a universal feature of human societies, but almost as ubiquitous is the risk of instability when one partner strays. Jealous response to the threat of infidelity is well studied, but most empirical work on the topic has focused on a proposed sex difference in...

Lisa A. Robinson, James K. Hammitt, and L. O’Keeffe

vol. 10, July 2019, pp. 15–50

The estimates used to value mortality risk reductions are a major determinant of the benefits of many public health and environmental policies. These estimates (typically expressed as the value per statistical life, VSL) describe the willingness of those affected by a policy to exchange their own...

Lisa A. Robinson, William Raich, James K. Hammitt, and L. O’Keeffe

vol. 10, n. 2, July 2019, pp. 156–177

In benefit-cost analysis, fatality risk reductions are usually valued based on estimates of adults’ willingness to pay for changes in their own risks, regardless of whether the risk reduction accrues to adults or children. This approach reflects the relatively large number of valuation studies that...