When two or more agents compete for a bonus and the agents' productivity in each of several possible occurrences depends stochastically on (constant) effort, the number of times that are checked to assign the bonus affects the level of un-certainty in the selection process. Uncertainty, in turn,...

As firms implement tournament bonus reward schemes, mainly the idea is to introduce competition amongst their agents in the order to promote their performance. Tournaments in which agents compete for a bonus by investing effort, are frequently applied, e.g., in development races, political...

Understanding how observers attribute intentionality to people in the focus of their attention helps in shedding light on punishment behavior. In this paper we approach impartial observers' attributions of intentionality and the attachment of praise and blame to perpetrators of external effects....

Lacking payment systems become a bottleneck for the vision of the Information Economy. In many cases payments of fractions of a cent, so-called micropayments, are of particular interest. In this paper we propose a framework to evaluate payment systems. The framework consists of a well structured...

We have analyzed the impact of agents and their trading strategies on an experimental electronic market. Therefore, we added an XML-interface to an existing electronic market and implemented artificial agents which acted as elements of disturbance in the trading process. These artificial traders...

In a meta study of 25 political stock markets conducted in Germany in the last decade we analyze their predictive success. Although the predictions of political stock markets are highly correlated with the corresponding polls, the markets are able to aggregate additional information. One...

On May 11, 2001, readers of the Berliner Zeitung were invited to participate in an ultimatum bargaining experiment played in the strategy vector-mode: Each participant chooses not only how much (s)he demands of the DM 1.000-pie but also which of the nine possible offers of DM 100, 200, ..., 900...

Political stock markets (PSM) are sometimes seen as substitutes for opinion polls. On the bases of a behavioral model, specific preconditions were drawn out under which manipulation in PSM can weaken this argument. Evidence for manipulation is reported from the data of two separate PSM during...

For the Euro 2000 Soccer Championships an experimental asset market was condueted, with traders buying and selling contracts on the winners of individual matches. Market-generated probabilities are compared to professional bet quotas, and factors that are responsible for the quality of the...

Dieser Aufsatz gibt einen Überblick über die Optionen nationaler Umweltpolitikgestaltung, sofern ein Land von nationalen oder grenzüberschreitenden Umweltproblemen betroffen und zudem mit anderen Ländern wirtschaftlich eng verflochten ist. Für rein nationale Umweltprobleme wird der Einfluß...