A mathematical expression known as Benford's law provides an example of an unexpected relationship among randomly selected sequences of first significant digits (FSDs). Newcomb [Note on the frequency of use of the different digits in natural numbers, Am. J. Math. 4 (1881) 39–40], and later...

In this article, we consider the problem of criterion choice in information recovery and inference in a large-deviations (LD) context. Kitamura and Stutzer recognize that the Maximum Entropy Empirical Likelihood estimator can be given a LD justification (Kitamura and Stutzer, 2002). We...

"It is 15:00 in Nairobi. Do you know where your enumerators are??" Good quality data is paramount for applied economic research. If the data are distorted, corresponding conclusions may be incorrect. We demonstrate how Benford’s law, the distribution that first digits of numbers in certain...

We study the impacts of risk and ambiguity aversion on the adoption of new technologies, specifically genetically modified (GM) corn and soy seeds. We conduct experiments measuring risk and ambiguity aversion with Midwestern grain farmers. Risk aversion has only a small impact on the timing of...

In developing countries lacking legal enforcement, villagers may use implicit contracts to minimize crime. I construct a dynamic limited-commitment model, in which a thief cannot commit to forego stealing, but is induced to steal less by the promise of future gifts. Combining survey data on...

Rabin (Econometrica 68(5):1281–1292, <CitationRef CitationID="CR19">2000</CitationRef>) argues that, under expected-utility, observed risk aversion over modest stakes implies extremely high risk aversion over large stakes. Cox and Sadiraj (Games Econom. Behav. 56(1):45–60, <CitationRef CitationID="CR5">2006</CitationRef>) have replied that this is a problem of expected-utility...</citationref></citationref>