Would a Universal Basic Income Advance Republican Liberty? Understanding the Impact and Implications of a UBI on the Exit Costs Associated with Unemployment

Discussion on the innovation of enterprise investment management

This paper provides new survey evidence showing that loss aversion and reference dependence are important in shaping people's perception of trade policy. Under the assumption that agents' welfare functions exhibit these behavioral elements, we analyze a model with a welfare-maximizing government and with the lobbying framework of Grossman and Helpman (1994). The policy implications of the augmented models differ in three important ways. One, there is a region of compensating protection, where a decline in the world price leads to an offsetting increase in protection, such that a constant domestic price is maintained. Two, protection following a single negative price shock will be persistent. Three, irrespective of the extent of lobbying, there will be a deviation from free trade that tends to favor loss-making industries. The augmented models are more consistent with the observed structure of protection, and in particular, explain why many trade policy instruments are explicitly designed to maintain prices at a given level.

How do floods affect insurance demand? Evidence from flood insurance take-up in Japan

Agricultural products have the characteristics of high perishability, short life cycles, and low salvage, and agricultural production is easily affected by uncontrollable natural conditions. Therefore, farmers will face great risk when making agricultural production decisions. In addition, farmers have a high demand for basic income security, so they are typically loss-averse decision-makers. Simultaneously, the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic has undoubtedly increased their loss aversion. The piecewise utility function is an effective model for investigating decision-making with consideration of loss aversion, in which the loss aversion parameter will be adjusted by the epidemic to a certain degree. We innovatively involve the impact of COVID-19 epidemic by a quantitative correction factor in the loss-averse newsvendor model to deal with the decision-making problem of agricultural production and investigate the influences of the epidemic and farmers’ loss aversion degree on the optimal production quantity and profits as well as the relationship between the epidemic situation and loss aversion. Through model analysis and numerical experiments on a specific agricultural product by Matlab software, it is found that the effect caused by the epidemic and the increased level of loss aversion will reduce farmers’ production and income. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen regular epidemic prevention and control and formulate corresponding support policies to stimulate farmers’ production motivation. Maintaining relative stability in the agricultural market demand can also alleviate the negative impact of the epidemic to a certain extent. Faced with the impact of the epidemic, farmers need to do their best to control agricultural production costs to relieve their economic pressure.

The evidence shows source-dependent entitlement to income sources and individuals are reluctant to part with income they feel more entitled to, e.g., earned labor income. Taxpayers may also be more reluctant to part with tax payments (evade more) from income sources they feel more entitled to- a form of mental accounting. We embed two main hypotheses within a rigorous theoretical model based on prospect theory. From incomes sources they feel more entitled to, taxpayers experience (i) greater loss aversion from paying taxes, and (ii) lower moral costs of evasion. We confirm the predictions of our model through MTurk experiments. Evasion is increasing in the tax rate and decreasing in the audit penalty. Moral costs influence taxpayers’ decisions. Loss aversion, measured “directly” for the first time for each individual in an evasion experiment, reduces evasion, as predicted by our theory. Loss aversion, risk aversion, and their interaction, are critical determinants of evasion.

We consider income-source-dependent tax evasion and show that this is a generalisation of the well-known endowment effect. We show that loss aversion, moral costs, mental accounting and risk preferences play a role in explaining key features of source-dependent tax evasion. We provide evidence of the first direct link between subject-specific loss aversion and tax evasion, which is central to most successful modern theoretical accounts of tax evasion. We provide some evidence that risk aversion strengthens the cautionary effect of loss aversion and risk loving behaviour attenuates, or reverses, it. However, the underlying effect is also influenced by the source of income. Evasion is increasing in the tax rate and decreasing in the audit penalty, as predicted. Our study provides novel theoretical insights; proposes new methods in the estimation of the underlying behavioural parameters; and confirms the central predictions of the theory, while pointing out challenges for further developments that existing theory is unable to account for. JEL: C91, C92, D82, D91, G21

The present article aims to utilize some insights from behavioral and happiness economics to discuss the consequences that the introduction of an unconditional basic income to cope with technological unemployment may hold for well-being. The impact of 21st-century technological progress on employment has only just begun to make itself felt and it will take time to realize its full extent. However, the main innovation is already common knowledge: robots (and artificial intelligence) are finding their way into the production process. According to several recent (although controversial) contributions, the phenomenon is radically different from past technological revolutions and could generate high levels of unemployment, calling for innovative redistributive public policies. The present article, building on Keynes’ (1930) short essay (“Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren”) and referring to some of the principles and models of behavioral and happiness economics, focuses on the best-known of these policies, namely provision of an unconditional basic income. A series of factors – loss aversion and hedonic adaptation, the impossibility of escalating to higher-grade consumption behaviors, social interaction in the form of active and passive envy, loss of self-esteem and social stigma – are all likely to have a negative impact on well-being if an unconditional basic income that remains unchanging over time is implemented. A policy mix combining a rising basic income with other measures is therefore proposed.

Linking local people's perception of wildlife and conservation to livelihood and poaching alleviation: A case study of the Dja biosphere reserve, Cameroon

WITHDRAWN: An empirical study to analyze the human behavioral aspects on individual financial decisions based on Indian context

The stream of behavioral finance is still in its infancy stage. Behavioral finance is gaining attention and interest of academic fraternity of late. Academicians are now trying to understand the concepts and theories on how investors become irrational while making investment decisions. In a developing economy like India, where there are large number of millennials and by considering their growing amount of interest in investments, studying behavioral finance can definitely add to the deep understanding of the topic. This study aims to investigate the behavioral aspects influencing the individual financial decision making amongst Indians across various age groups, income sources, gender and native regions / domiciles. The objective and the scope of this project is to study two important theories in behavioral finance in Indian Context viz. prospects theory and mental accounting theory. SPSS 20 and STATA 15 have been used to validate the sample characteristics. Multi-stage stratified sampling has been used to collect a sample of 223 respondents. It was found that there are two important factors /biases of prospect theory namely- loss aversion and regret aversion besides mental budgeting bias of mental accounting, which affect the financial decision making of Indians. The outcome of the research is not only important to the retail investors but also to the companies, which offer various investment instruments as it will help them to understand what are biases which are affecting individuals and retail investors.

The theoretical literature on risk aversion and Expected Utility Theory is extensive; however, the analysis of this behaviour with natural experiments could be more comprehensive. In this paper, we use data from 120 episodes of the Portuguese version of the TV game show The Price is Right, namely from The Wheel game, to explore risk aversion as well as the impact of gender in decision-making. The Wheel game has straightforward rules and huge expected payoffs. All contestants have access to the same information and distributions of uncertainty, making it a unique field laboratory to conduct an experimental test of rational decision theory. The objective is to infer the risk aversion levels of decision-makers from their choice to turn the wheel and the influence of gender on risk attitudes. There is a widespread view that women are more risk-averse than men. However, we could not reject the hypothesis that women and men have the same level of risk aversion. Nevertheless, we have evidence that contestants are more risk-averse than risk-seeking. The omission bias, loss aversion and regret can explain that behaviour.

Media coverage of contentious risk issues often features competing claims about whether a risk exists and what scientific evidence shows, and journalists often cover these issues by presenting both sides. However, for topics defined by scientific agreement, balanced coverage erroneously heightens uncertainty about scientific information and the issue itself. In this article, we extend research on combating so-called information and issue uncertainty using weight of evidence, drawing on the discredited autism–vaccine link as a case study. We examine whether people's perceptions of issue uncertainty (about whether a link exists) change before and after they encounter a news message with weight-of-evidence information. We also explore whether message exposure is associated with broader issue judgments, specifically vaccine attitudes. Participants (n = 181) read news articles that included or omitted weight-of-evidence content stating that scientific studies have found no link and that scientists agree that none exists. Postexposure issue uncertainty decreased—in other words, issue certainty increased—from preexposure levels across all conditions. Moreover, weight-of-evidence messages were associated with positive vaccine attitudes indirectly via reduced information uncertainty (i.e., one's belief that scientific opinion and evidence concerning a potential link is unclear) as well as issue uncertainty. We discuss implications for risk communication.

Sustainable production forests are forests that can produce products of economic value that can be used for the needs of today's life and the future. The purpose of this study is to analyze people's perceptions in managing mangrove forests as production forests. Data collected in this study are primary data and secondary data. Primary data were collected directly from informants and respondents through direct interviews. Secondary data obtained through citing data from research results, journals, books, reports that have relevance to the research conducted. The population of this research is people aged 20 - 60 years. The sampling technique is carried out using proportional stratified random sampling, which is based on the stratification of the types of activities around the mangrove forest area. The results showed that it was concluded that people's perceptions of products produced by mangrove forests were very beneficial in addition to being a source of income as well as an alternative source of livelihood. In the case of managing mangrove forests as production forests, the community wants a division of management zones such as protected forest zones, conservation forests, production forests and cultivation zones. They also want them to be involved from the planning stage to the conservation / utilization of the economic resources of the mangrove forest.

ABSTRACTSouth Asia is home to nine species of vultures, and Nepal hosts all of them. Remarkably, all these species have also been recorded in Pokhara. This could be attributed to Pokhara's location along bird migration pathways and the year‐round availability of food sources for most of the vulture species, including the landfill. This landfill site has been translocated due to the construction of Pokhara regional international airport. In this context, we aimed to estimate the seasonal abundance of vultures as well as understand the discrepancy in people's perception on vulture conservation before and after the landfill site is shifted to another location. Data were collected using key informant interviews, household surveys, and direct field observations. The collected data were analyzed employing chi‐squared and Wilcoxon‐signed rank tests. The relative abundance of the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) was found to be the highest among observed species. We found an association between people's perception toward vultures and their socioeconomic factors (age, education, and income source). Older people, individuals with higher levels of formal education, and people involved in farming showed greater appreciation for vultures. Our study revealed that the perceived threat of electrocution increased slightly after the landfill site was relocated. Despite the relocation, the old landfill area continues to provide a suitable habitat for vultures, likely due to consistent food availability and the proximity of nesting habitats near forests, cliffs, and rivers. The risk of collisions with airplanes is likely to increase in the future highlighting the need for proactive management and prioritization.

This paper shows the results of research conducted with the objective of knowing the perceptions of people in Colombia about the possibility of receiving a universal basic income, which does not exist thus far in the country. The research question was: how do the social perceptions of Colombians about receiving a UBI allow them to understand the possibilities of developing a public policy that guarantees it? A qualitative methodology of grounded theory was applied by conducting 37 in-depth interviews with adults of all socioeconomic levels, all educational levels and productive working age. The information obtained was coded. The resultant main categories with which the Grounded Theory was built were mistrust in others, hope for a better society, unconditional support, and implementation scenario. It was concluded that, if there is an intention to implement the UBI in Colombia, there must be policies that contribute to changing the mistrust and fear of citizens to receive support from the State by solidarity and equity so that UBI can be assume as a right that contributes to the construction of justice and social welfare.