Time discounting (delta) and pain anticipation: Experimental evidence

To be published in: Revista Internacional de Sociología (2011), Special Issue on Experimental and Behavioral Economics.

The Economics of "Why is it so hard to save a threatened Language?"

We study the language choice behavior of bilingual speakers in modern societies, such as the Basque Country, Ireland andWales. These countries have two o cial languages:A, spoken by all, and B, spoken by a minority. We think of the bilinguals in those societies as a population playing repeatedly a Bayesian game in which, they must choose strategically the language, A or B, that might be used in the interaction. The choice has to be made under imperfect information about the linguistic type of the interlocutors. We take the Nash equilibrium of the language use game as a model for real life language choice behavior. It is shown that the predictions made with this model t very well the data about the actual use, contained in the censuses, of Basque, Irish and Welsh languages. Then the question posed by Fishman (2001),which appears in the title, is answered as follows: it is hard, mainly, because bilingual speakers have reached an equilibrium which is evolutionary stable. This means that to solve fast and in a re ex manner their frequent language coordination problem, bilinguals have developed linguistic conventions based chie y on the strategy 'Use the same language as your interlocutor', which weakens the actual use of B.1

The Economics of Gasification: A Market-Based Approach

This paper deals with the economics of gasification facilities in general and IGCC power plants in particular. Regarding the prospects of these systems, passing the technological test is one thing, passing the economic test can be quite another. In this respect, traditional valuations assume constant input and/or output prices. Since this is hardly realistic, we allow for uncertainty in prices. We naturally look at the markets where many of the products involved are regularly traded. Futures markets on commodities are particularly useful for valuing uncertain future cash flows. Thus, revenues and variable costs can be assessed by means of sound financial concepts and actual market data. On the other hand, these complex systems provide a number of flexibility options (e.g., to choose among several inputs, outputs, modes of operation, etc.). Typically, flexibility contributes significantly to the overall value of real assets. Indeed, maximization of the asset value requires the optimal exercise of any flexibility option available. Yet the economic value of flexibility is elusive, the more so under (price) uncertainty. And the right choice of input fuels and/or output products is a main concern for the facility managers. As a particular application, we deal with the valuation of input flexibility. We follow the Real Options approach. In addition to economic variables, we also address technical and environmental issues such as energy efficiency, utility performance characteristics and emissions (note that carbon constraints are looming). Lastly, a brief introduction to some stochastic processes suitable for valuation purposes is provided.

Experimental Economics Meets Language Choice

Roughly one half of World's languages are in danger of extinction. The endangered languages, spoken by minorities, typically compete with powerful languages such as En- glish or Spanish. Consequently, the speakers of minority languages have to consider that not everybody can speak their language, converting the language choice into strategic,coordination-like situation. We show experimentally that the displacement of minority languages may be partially explained by the imperfect information about the linguistic type of the partner, leading to frequent failure to coordinate on the minority language even between two speakers who can and prefer to use it. The extent of miscoordination correlates with how minoritarian a language is and with the real-life linguistic condition of subjects: the more endangered a language the harder it is to coordinate on its use, and people on whom the language survival relies the most acquire behavioral strategies that lower its use. Our game-theoretical treatment of the issue provides a new perspective for linguistic policies.

Analysis and Use of Information and Communication Tools in Economics of Climate Change

16 p.

Economics of Energy and Climate Change: Origins, Developments and Growth

27 p.

The economics of hydro-meteorological disasters: approaching the estimation of the total costs

21 p.

On the economics of the "meeting competition defense" under the Robinson-Patman Act

Documento de trabajo

MW, Medical Watches

My project is a business plan about the set up of a company and the development of a new and innovative product aimed for the elders. I decide do this project when I discover that one of the more important needs that have the elders is to remember the medicines that they have to take. I thought that a good way could be through a smart watch. My watch have an only function, is a cheap device, easy to use, easy to understand and easy to set up, because the elders usually do not know to use complex electronics devices. There are other similar smart watches and other devices but do not have the necessary characteristics to be a good reminder for elders. My watch is centred to improve the life of the elders, but my product could also be useful for ill people who have to take many medicines during the day. After realizing this business plan, I have proved that my company is viable in the environment and profitable in the market.

Towards Application of One-Class Classification Methods to Medical Data

In the problem of one-class classification (OCC) one of the classes, the target class, has to be distinguished from all other possible objects, considered as nontargets. In many biomedical problems this situation arises, for example, in diagnosis, image based tumor recognition or analysis of electrocardiogram data. In this paper an approach to OCC based on a typicality test is experimentally compared with reference state-of-the-art OCC techniques-Gaussian, mixture of Gaussians, naive Parzen, Parzen, and support vector data description-using biomedical data sets. We evaluate the ability of the procedures using twelve experimental data sets with not necessarily continuous data. As there are few benchmark data sets for one-class classification, all data sets considered in the evaluation have multiple classes. Each class in turn is considered as the target class and the units in the other classes are considered as new units to be classified. The results of the comparison show the good performance of the typicality approach, which is available for high dimensional data; it is worth mentioning that it can be used for any kind of data (continuous, discrete, or nominal), whereas state-of-the-art approaches application is not straightforward when nominal variables are present.