Altruistic Preferences Research Articles

The influence of the altruistic preferences of e-commerce platforms on the carbon emission reduction of manufacturers

The influence of the altruistic preferences of e-commerce platforms on the carbon emission reduction of manufacturers

Minimum cost consensus model with altruistic preference

The minimum cost consensus model (MCCM) aims at reaching group consensus for either conflict or polarized opinions evaluated in group decision making. Decision makers (DMs) consider both their own and other interests in real-world minimum cost consensus problems, exhibiting the altruistic preference behavior. To quantify the behavior, we define a satisfaction degree function to reflect the interaction among DMs. On this basis, the MCCM with altruistic preference (MCCM-AP) is built, in which a novel consensus measurement for concentrated or scattered opinions is introduced. Furthermore, the MCCM-AP based satisfaction improvement model is established. Finally, an illustrative example and a practical case study are carried out to illustrate the performance of the proposed models, together with sensitivity and comparative analyses are conducted to explore the impact of altruistic preference and discuss the merits of our proposal. The findings indicate that total adjustment cost is nonincreasing with the increase of altruistic preference degree, which provides the decision support for managers to handle the altruistic preference behavior and reduce the consensus cost.

Survival of altruistic preferences in a large population public goods game

A large population of agents play a public goods game. Agents’ subjective payoff differs according to their level of altruism. More altruistic agents generate greater positive externality in Nash equilibrium. The strength of institutions determines the extent to which agents can materially benefit from the positive externalities they generate. Therefore, stronger institutions confer evolutionary advantage on more altruistic preferences, enabling such preferences to survive and proliferate.

Using willingness to pay to measure the strength of altruistic motives

We introduce a novel experimental procedure to measure altruistic giving along a spectrum, from warm glow to pure altruism, by eliciting willingness to pay to increase the likelihood that a donation is received by a recipient. Whereas previous methods identify pure warm-glow motives, our approach directly measures altruistic preferences and is validated by a survey measure developed by Carpenter (2021). Participants who identify in the survey as altruistic givers are more likely to pay to increase the probability that the donation is implemented and pay more on average than those who identified as mainly motivated by warm glow.

Introducing user preferences for peer-to-peer electricity trading through stochastic multi-objective optimization

Peer-to-peer electricity markets are dedicated markets that enable the direct participation of small electricity end-users in energy trading activities. They are seen as a promising alternative that can empower end-users and accelerate the energy transition, by researchers, business developers, and legislators. Moreover, they can include environmental, social, or altruistic preferences that are relevant to end-users, in addition to the economic perspective. Such preferences are sometimes included in the modeling of P2P markets in the existing literature, but the assumptions behind them are rarely validated in practice. To investigate the desired attributes and preferences of end-users to participate in P2P markets, an online survey including a discrete choice experiment was conducted in The Netherlands The results of the survey are used to design a P2P electricity market with product differentiation. The participants in the market are residential end-users that are equipped with a home energy management system that can control some of the household appliances and automate the decision-making process for participation in the market. To facilitate this, a multi-objective stochastic optimization model is presented that incorporates results from the discrete choice experiment and real smart-meter measurements. The case study results demonstrate user preferences’ influence on market outcomes.

Risk-Averse and Self-Interested Shifts in Groups in Both Median and Random Rules

The purpose of this study was to determine whether attitudes toward risk and altruism are affected by being in a group or being alone. In contrast to previous economic research on group decision-making, we excluded the effects of group informal discussions, which are thought to be a “black box” when individuals make decisions in a group. In this regard, the subjects in our experiment were only requested to show their faces to the other members, without further communication. Moreover, we adopted two collective decision rules, i.e., the median rule and the random rule, which provide the truth-telling mechanism. In the experiments of both anonymous investment and donation, we found that the subjects who made decisions in a group offered significantly lower amounts than those who made decisions alone, after controlling for individuals’ risk and altruistic preferences. The findings imply that people are more risk-averse and self-interested when they are in a group, regardless of which collective decision rules are adopted.

Pricing Decision of Three-Level Agricultural Supply Chain Based on Blockchain Traceability and Altruistic Preference

The traceability of blockchain is crucial to the quality and safety of agricultural products, primarily when bacterial contamination occurs in the agricultural supply chain. To gain a deeper understanding of the impacts on the quality and safety of agricultural products, we built a three-level agricultural supply chain model comprising one retailer, one manufacturer, and one supplier. We aimed to explore the impact of blockchain traceability and retailers’ altruistic preference on pricing decisions and channel member profit, and to then examine the motivation of enterprises to participate in blockchain technology. Our study showed that: (1) blockchain technology has the potential to improve the prices and profits of supply chain members without considering the cost of blockchain; and (2) blockchain technology has the potential to improve the retailer’s price when the unit variable cost of blockchain is higher than a certain threshold. It can also reduce the manufacturer’s price and the supplier’s output. However, the excessive cost of blockchain can also aggravate the double marginalization effect of the supply chain. When both the unit variable cost and the fixed input cost of the blockchain are low, each enterprise has the incentive to participate in the blockchain. (3) In the scenario of the altruistically-preferred retailer, when the blockchain variable cost is lower than a certain threshold, the retailer’s altruistic preferences can improve the manufacturer’s and supplier’s profit, but it will reduce the retailer’s profit.

Decisions for a Retailer-Led Low-Carbon Supply Chain Considering Altruistic Preference under Carbon Quota Policy

With the release of the national energy-saving emission reduction policy and the improvement of consumers’ awareness of environmental protection, the demand for low-carbon products is growing rapidly. In a retailer-led low-carbon supply chain, the increased cost of carbon emission reduction puts manufacturers at a disadvantage. Under the carbon quota policy, to improve manufacturers’ profits as well as enhance carbon emission reduction, this paper studies the players’ decisions in a low-carbon supply chain consisting of one dominant retailer and one manufacturer. To maintain the supply chain’s stability and sustainability, the dominant retailer tends to employ altruistic preference policies towards the manufacturer. The optimal decision, carbon emission reduction and supply chain profit are compared and analyzed under three decision models: (i) centralized decision, (ii) decentralized decision without altruistic preference and (iii) decentralized decision with altruistic preference. The results indicate that the carbon emission reduction rate, market demand and profit in the centralized model are higher than in the decentralized model. The retailer’s altruistic preference is beneficial to the improvement of carbon emission reduction, market demand and the profit of the manufacturer and the supply chain. Under certain conditions, carbon trading can effectively reduce the cost pressure of manufacturers and improve the level of carbon emission reduction and the overall profit of the supply chain. These results will guide low-carbon supply chain decision-making and provide insight into the research of irrational behaviors in supply chain decision-making under carbon policies.

The promotion strategies of heat metering and charging in China’s heating region based on complex network evolutionary game model

Abstract Heat metering and charging can help raise residents’ awareness of energy conservation and save heat consumption in buildings. The heat metering and charging in China, however, was promoted insignificantly. To explore the behavior mechanism of heat-supply enterprises implementing heat metering and charging under the background of complex network in China’s heating region, and put forward the promotion strategies of heat metering and charging, this paper uses the heat-supply enterprises as the sample, improves the utility function of heat-supply enterprises by considering their difference aversion preference and altruistic preference at the same time based on the Difference Averse Surplus Maximizer Model. Then, we establish a complex network evolutionary game model among different heat-supply enterprises, and an empirical analysis is conducted to examine the impact of different factor on heat-supply enterprises in China’s heating region to implement heat metering and charging. The conclusions are as follows: (1) With the current heating cost and income, even if the government subsidizes all environmental benefit generated by heat metering and charging to heat-supply enterprises, the heat metering and charging could not be promoted in different scales of networks. (2) Increasing metering heat price, government fine, environmental protection tax and carbon emission trading price have positive effects on the promotion of heat metering and charging in different scales of networks. (3) The value of metering heat price, government fine, environmental protection tax and carbon emission trading price have no significant impacts on the evolutionary speeds of different scales of networks.

Dynamic decision in a retailer-led closed-loop supply chain under altruistic preference

The dynamic decision-making strategies on the altruistic behavior of a manufacturer, a retailer, a third-party recycler and tripartite in the closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) are researched. We respectively considered four altruistic preference models of differential game and Bellman theory that contrasted and analysed the wholesale price and transfer payment price strategies of the manufacturer, the unit profit of products strategy of the leader retailer, the recycling price and the investment in recycling efforts strategies of the third-party recycler and the recycling rate of used products and the value functions of members. The numerical analysis further analyses the rule of the time evolution of CLSC performance under four altruistic preference models. In this paper we can see that: altruistic preference has an optimistic influence to our society; the manufacturer's altruistic preference can effectively lessen the duple marginal influence on the CLSC while increase the rest of consumers; in contrast, tripartites’ altruistic preference model has the optimal outcome of the CLSC, which can bring about both economic and environmental benefits.

政府补贴下考虑利他偏好的供应链扶贫效果

This paper studies the influence of government poverty alleviation policy and altruistic preference on supply chain decision-making in a supply chain consisting of one supplier and two manufacturers. The two manufacturers produce poverty alleviation products and non-poverty alleviation products (general products) respectively, which are competing in the same market, and the manufacturer who produces poverty alleviation products chooses a level of investment and receives government subsidies. The dynamic game model is established to analyze the influence of government subsidy rate, supplier altruistic preference and market share of poverty alleviation products on supply chain decision-making. Through numerical analysis, the effectiveness of supply chain in poverty alleviation is analyzed from the perspective of absolute poverty and relative poverty. The results show that enhancing these three factors (government subsidy rate, supplier altruistic preference and market share of poverty alleviation products) can effectively improve the level of poverty alleviation investment, the output of poverty alleviation products, the market price and the profit of poverty alleviation product manufacturers, however the profit of general product manufacturers is decreased. The market share of poverty alleviation products and the intensity of competition between these two products are key factors which are influencing the effect of poverty alleviation. Increasing the market share of government subsidies or poverty-relief products can effectively increase the profit of suppliers and the overall profit of supply chain, which provides a foundation for supply chain members to realize Pareto improvement. The conclusion provides theoretical reference for the stabilization and marketization of poverty-relief products.

The influence of group identity on the hold-up problem

The hold-up problem plays an important role in the study of corporate boundaries and is also an important factor in the study of economics in organizations. It not only causes underinvestment, but also leads to the loss of corporate earnings and social welfare. The hold-up problem has been a hot topic for scholars since its introduction. However, most of the scholars' studies are based on the assumption of rational economic man and do not consider the factor of human beings' social preferences. In recent years, the development of behavioral experimental research methods has changed this situation. Many scholars have demonstrated that people's behavior deviates from the assumption of rational economic man because they have different social preferences. Therefore, this paper introduces a frontier theoretical perspective in the game study of the hold-up problem. Based on social identity theory, and speculates that group identity enhances the altruistic preference of individuals toward group members, and combines behavioral experiments with controlled laboratory experiments to obtain experimental data. The experimental results also support our speculation and provide an individual experimental basis for the theoretical study of the hold-up problem, which will help alleviate the hold-up problem in the future.

Who exhibits fairness concern is better for supply chain stability and the environment

In practice, long-term unfair distribution of profit may cause cooperation partnerships between firms to break down. For example, Xuzhou Wanji Trading Co., as a distributor, terminated the business cooperation with Procter & Gamble. Thus, to maintain supply chain cooperation, firms no matter reap high profits or low profits begin to be concerned about fairness. Based on this, we explore how fairness attitudes affect operation and emission reduction decisions in a supply chain with one manufacturer and one retailer, especially under cap-and-trade (C&T) regulation. This paper develops three Stackelberg game models: no fairness concern, with retailer’s fairness concern, and with manufacturer’s altruistic preference, respectively, and then derive equilibrium outcomes to analyze the joint effect of fairness attitudes and C&T regulation. First, the results demonstrate that the retailer’s fairness concern increases his own profit while decreases the manufacturer’s optimal emission reduction and profit. Second, the manufacturer’s altruistic preference not only facilitates a more equitable distribution of overall profits but also results in lower emissions of unit product, achieving a win–win situation. Consequently, the manufacturer’s altruistic preference performs better than the retailer’s fairness concern in balancing fairness and emission reduction. Interestingly, if the manufacturer decides to reduce emissions, the total emissions are lower under a loose C&T regulation; otherwise, the total emissions are lower under a strict C&T regulation.

The formation of physician altruism

We study how patient-regarding altruism is formed by medical education. We elicit and structurally estimate altruistic preferences using experimental data from a large sample of medical students (N = 733) in Germany at different progress stages in their studies. The estimates reveal substantial heterogeneity in altruistic preferences of medical students. Patient-regarding altruism is highest for freshmen, significantly declines for students in the course of medical studies, and tends to increase again for last year students, who assist in clinical practice. Also, patient-regarding altruism is higher for females and positively associated to general altruism. Altruistic medical students have gained prior practical experience in healthcare, have lower income expectations, and are more likely to choose surgery and pediatrics as their preferred specialty.

Group cooperation of village officials in Chinese rural resettlement: A lab in the field

AbstractWe examine decisions made by village officials in a public goods game and their impact on villagers' attitudes toward a resettlement project in seven rural villages in China. The data comes from two sources: (i) a laboratory experiment with village officials, and (ii) a survey of villagers. Villages whose officials exhibited more cooperative behavior in the laboratory reported higher support levels from the villagers. We find that teams with higher average contribution levels in the PGG game relayed the resettlement news to their villagers earlier than other teams and also possess greater altruistic preferences.

Altruistic preferences of pre-service teachers: The mediating role of empathic concern and the moderating role of self-control.

Empathy and altruistic behavior are more crucial abilities for pre-service teachers to possess when compared with other study fields. The relationship between empathy and altruistic behavior in Chinese pre-service teachers and their underlying mechanisms, however, has received relatively little attention in the literature. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to examine the links between study fields (i.e., pre-service teachers whose study field is pedagogy and non-pre-service teachers whose study field is non-pedagogy), self-control, emotional empathy (i.e., empathic concern), and altruistic preferences among undergraduates and graduates in five Chinese universities (the age range of participants is 18-20 years; 58.4% women) with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index-C Questionnaire, the Self-Control Scale, and the Chinese Self-Report Altruism Scale tests. The results showed a significant difference between pre-service and non-pre-service teachers in empathic concern and self-control. Furthermore, empathic concern and altruistic behavior tendency of pre-service teachers were significantly higher than those of non-pre-service teachers. Moreover, mediation analyses indicated that empathic concern partially mediated the relationship between study fields and altruistic tendency. Moderated mediation analysis further revealed that self-control buffered the relation between empathic concern and altruistic behavior tendency. These results demonstrate that altruistic tendency of pre-service teachers is influenced by empathic concern and self-control.

Pricing Policies of Green Dual-Channel Supply Chain with Fairness Concerns and Altruistic Preferences Based on Consumers' Environmental Awareness and Channel Preference.

Taking into consideration fairness concerns and altruistic preferences of manufacturers, this paper aims to propose a green dual-channel supply chain that incorporates consumers’ environmental awareness (CEA) and channel preference. The purpose of this work is to explore and further compare the optimal outcomes in a green dual-channel supply chain in three scenarios, which are the fairness-neutrality scenario (Model N), the manufacturer is concerned with fairness scenario (Model F), and the manufacturer has altruistic preference (Model A), respectively. The game-theoretical models with different fairness preferences, comparative, and numerical analyses are used to put forward the impacts of consumers’ channel preference and CEA on pricing, profits, and utilities, and to identify the differences in decisional outcomes between the three models. The results indicate that CEA always contributes to developing the green market while adversely affecting common products. Moreover, consumers’ channel preferences might enable the manufacturer and retailer to enhance profitability under certain conditions. The findings also reveal that manufacturer’s fairness concerns can possibly increase the demand for green products but impair the overall performance of the supply chain in general. Moreover, while the manufacturer’s altruistic preference benefits the retailer’s profits, it has a detrimental effect on the performance of the green supply chain. The practical implications of this research come to promote green consumption and increasing consumer awareness of environmental protection are effective ways to develop a green supply chain. It is also important to note that in order to maintain the durability and stability of the sup-ply chain, the manufacturer must maintain a moderate level of fairness preference behaviors so that downstream retailers will remain enthusiastic about establishing long-term relationships.

Concern for animals, other farmers, or oneself? Assessing farmers' support for a policy to improve animal welfare

AbstractPublic acceptance of farming practices relating to animal welfare is becoming increasingly important for dairy farmers. In this study, we assess dairy farmers' willingness to pay to support a policy aimed at improving calf welfare and link this to farmers' social preferences. We conceptualize the farmer's decision into private reasons and motivations to improve animal welfare or industry reputation. Our data come from a survey with over 400 Irish dairy farmers that included an experimental component. Specifically, we utilized a contingent valuation referendum method to elicit farmers' willingness to pay. We also used a financially incentivized social value orientation scale based on competitive, individualistic, prosocial, and altruistic preferences. Our findings indicate that most farmers are supportive of a policy scheme to improve animal welfare, and higher social value orientation (i.e. more altruistic preferences) is positively associated with higher willingness to pay. More detailed analysis suggests that industry concern is associated with more altruistic preferences but not concern for animal welfare. Our findings have important policy implications as we show that the majority of farmers are willing to financially support the implementation of a policy that can help to prevent public bads.

Altruist Talk May (also) Be Cheap: Revealed Versus Stated Altruism as a Predictor in Stated Preference Studies

Altruistic preferences have been found to be important for explaining the substantial non-use values identified in numerous stated preference surveys. However, studies analysing the effect of altruism on willingness to pay (WTP) have underestimated the challenges of measuring altruism by stated measures. We exploit a naturally occurring decision domain to investigate the role of altruism in stated preference studies. We employ a novel dataset, collected from an Internet survey panel, that contains respondents’ past donations of earned survey coins to charities and use these data to analyse the effect of donation behaviour on the same respondents’ WTP. We analyse donation behaviour across two contingent valuation surveys on environmental topics. Donators are proven givers in an anonymous and unrelated setting, much like decision-making in a dictator game. We find that respondents’ past donations are associated with higher WTP, even after controlling for stated measures of altruism, ecological, and environmental attitudes. The results suggest that measures of stated altruism fail to capture important aspects of altruism, implying that previous studies of altruism based on such measures may be questioned. The results also support research demonstrating that altruistic behaviour in one decision domain is a good predictor of altruistic behaviour in other domains.

Less Than Zero: A Positive Theory of Negative Prices in for Donative Nonprofits

The paper introduces a simplified platform model of nonprofit pricing, where client and donor prices are determined jointly. The interaction of donor and client markets has been discussed for decades but has not been addressed formally. Recent advances in economic theory offer analytic tools to model interaction of multiple markets explicitly, via a platform theory of the firm. Our model extents this tool to the case of pricing decisions for donative nonprofits and offers novel guidance to managers based on the relative elasticities among its clients and donors. We demonstrate that negative prices may be optimal for the nonprofit when cross-market elasticity between clients and donors is less than the own-price elasticity to its clients. Under this circumstance, the losses endured by lowering prices to clients will be more than offset by higher donation revenues. We further demonstrate analytically that low or negative prices are not an indicator of altruistic preferences of the organization. Alternatively, altruistic preferences are not necessary to drive prices below marginal cost. Our formulation offers a novel and clearly defined framework for nonprofit managers, funders, and researchers to distinguish optimal pricing decisions for their distinct charitable missions.