This paper refers to the ranking of densities that describe the distribution of an attribute in a given set of populations. The key elements of the problem are: (i) The distributions refer to ordered categorical data (e.g. health statuses, educational achievements, prestige positions,...

Many economic decisions involve a substantial amount of uncertainty, and therefore crucially depend on how individuals process probabilistic information. In this paper, we investigate the capability for probability judgment in a representative sample of the German population. Our results show...

A substantial number of people exhibit social preferences, which means they are not solely motivated by material self-interest but also care positively or negatively for the material payoffs of relevant reference agents. We show empirically that economists fail to understand fundamental economic...

Experimental and behavioral economics are well established branches in the economic science. This essay presents and discusses some results and behavioral regularities from these fields which are of potential importance for public policy. After a brief introduction of what experimental and...

Experimental and behavioral economics are well-established branches of economic science. This essay presents and discusses some results and behavioral regularities from these fields, which are of potential and actual importance for public policy. After a brief introduction to what experimental...

How SWB affects individual states, outcomes, or decisions is well established in the literature, but how it affects macroeconomic states, outcomes, or decisions remains an open empirical question. This paper focuses on the public policy issue of economic progress defined as either rapid economic...

The discussion of power measures and fairness concepts follows two isolated strings of thought that have rather different traditions. This paepr argues that it is exactly this restriction that confuses the discussion. By making use of the theory of power indices and Binmore's theory of justice,...

We argue that socializing is an important economic activity because it is vital to our well being, and that an important input into the activity of socializing is the set of experiences that is shared by the participants.

It has been known that, in aggregating infinite utility streams, there does not exist any social welfare function, which satisfies the axioms of Pareto, inter-generational equity and continuity. We show that the impossibility result persists even without imposing the continuity axiom, and in...

Institutions are the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic, and social interaction. They consist of both informal constraints (sanctions, taboos, customs, traditions, and codes of conduct), and formal rules (constitutions, laws, property rights). Throughout history,...