Assumption Of Rationality Research Articles

Localization Optimization Algorithm Based on Phase Noise Compensation

Phase noise is a consequence of the instability inherent in the operation of oscillators, making it impossible to entirely eliminate. For low-cost internet of things (IoT) devices, this type of noise can be particularly pronounced, posing a challenge in providing high-quality localization services. To tackle this issue, this paper introduces an improved localization algorithm that includes phase noise compensation. The proposed algorithm enhances the direction of arrival (DoA) estimation for each base station by employing the EM–MUSIC method, subsequently forming a non-convex optimization problem based on the mean square error (MSE) of the estimated DoA results. Finally, a closed-form solution is derived through rational assumptions and approximations. Results show that this algorithm effectively minimizes localization errors and achieves accuracy levels within the sub-meter range.

Herding Bias and Investment Performance in Kenya's Dynamic Real Estate Sector.

One fundamental question remain unanswered, are investments free from behavioral biases? This study explores the impact of herding bias on investment performance, with a focus on real estate investors in Kenya. Behavioral finance highlights how psychological factors influence investment decisions, challenging the assumptions of rationality and market efficiency. Herding, characterized by individuals imitating the decisions of others, emerges as a key bias affecting financial markets. It creates inefficiencies by distorting prices and returns, driven by social influences and noise trading. This research employed both descriptive and inferential analyses to assess the relationship between herding behavior and investment outcomes. Respondents were evaluated on their reliance on personal judgment, external opinions, and group influence when making investment decisions. Findings indicate a statistically significant effect of herding bias on investment performance, with 26.1% of performance variation attributable to herding. Regression analysis demonstrated a moderate correlation (R = 0.511) between herding and performance, underscoring the influence of behavioral biases. The study aligns with previous findings that herding can diminish return dispersion and, under extreme conditions, lead to negative dispersion. Notably, investors' reliance on group trends and noise rather than fundamental data often results in suboptimal decisions, adversely affecting financial outcomes. The results emphasize the need for strategies to mitigate the negative impacts of behavioral biases. Investors should evaluate investments based on portfolio performance rather than isolated returns and risks. Furthermore, the establishment of regulatory frameworks could guide investors toward informed decision-making and market stability. This study contributes to the understanding of behavioral finance in emerging markets, providing insights into the interplay between herding bias and investment performance in Kenya's dynamic real estate sector

Consumption as a Social Phenomenon in the Modern Theory of Intertemporal Choice

ABSTRACT The modern theory of intertemporal choice rests on the idea that individuals allocate resources over time so as to maximise lifetime expected utility. This analytical framework rests on the theories developed in the 1950s by Modigliani and Friedman and revisited in the 1970s with the introduction of the rational expectations assumption. In response to the poor empirical performance of the original model, during the last decades a number of modifications and extensions have been proposed in the attempt at making the model able to explain the data. An extremely popular extension involves the dependence of utility on either individual’s own past consumption or aggregate consumption. Such models, usually referred to as including ‘habit-forming preferences’ or ‘social preferences’, are viewed as incorporating insights belonging to the approach that views consumption as largely determined by social factors. The idea is that consumption is affected by individuals’ concern for the display of their social status, an insight dating back at least to the work of Veblen. The paper discusses the implications of the assumptions of ‘habit formation’ and ‘social preferences’, inquiring into their relationship with the view of consumption as a social phenomenon and their compatibility with neoclassical theory of intertemporal choice.

Grounded Immoral and Irrational Features of Armed Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Purpose: This study aims to construct a moral and rational understanding of the Congolese armed conflict by anatomically decomposing its war violations and stupors. The intensification of armed violence in DR Congo between 1993 and 2003 gave the country an awful notoriety for the systematic crimes against humanity committed. The Congolese armed conflict perfectly manifested war’s immorality and irrationality through numerous and recurrent violent incidents. This study’s approach goes beyond their typical legal and political descriptions, which explicatively attenuate the wrongfulness and harmfulness of these incidents. From moral and rational lenses, it seeks to feature, understand, and explain violent actions against non-liable civilians in the conflict, their contexts, and perpetrators. This novel approach resorts to moral and rational cognitive assumptions to clarify emerging features and provides a different perspective on the Congolese armed conflict. Methodology: The study used the grounded theory methodology to comprehend the complexity of the Congolese armed conflict's moral and rational considerations directly from the data on violent incidents registered from 1993 to 2003. The study utilized different international, regional, and local reports, mainly the UN Mapping Report on human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1993 to 2003, as its secondary data source. The study applied memoing, coding, and constant comparison to retrieving properties from the reported incidents and their contexts from which it identified, formulated, and developed conceptual subcategories and categories. The study used content and cross-analysis to interpret and discuss the conceptualized data categories, definitions, and background, ensuring a thorough and rigorous research process. The study resorted to armed conflict and cognitive theories to validate findings and enrich the discussion. Findings: This study is comprehensive research that conveyed a consistent and objective picture of the Congolese armed conflict's immoral and irrational features. Using substantially moral inquiry based on unduly harmfulness to others and rational inquiry centered on favoring common ends, the study found that violent incidents bore four types of harmful actions: subjective, objective, proactive, and extreme, committed by political and military agents from different belligerents. The conflict experienced three harm-prone contexts that cultivated and amplified these harmful actions and conditioned harming agents affiliated with two main categories of belligerents, aspirational and non-aspirational, according to political ends. The political aspirations with moral grounds did not prevent harming agents from committing various harmful actions. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice, and Policy: The study articulated a new explanatory approach to African armed conflict studies by exploring human rights and international law violations as manifestations of war’s immorality and irrationality. While many studies substantially explain violent conflict incidents in legal, social, and political terms, this approach emphasizes their comprehension as wrongfulness and harmfulness related to moral and rational cognition linked to contextual conditions. The reflection offered practitioners, politicians, and militaries a blueprint of conceptual dispensation that morally and rationally featured armed conflict’s violent actions, contexts, and perpetrators.

A106: Motivations for Grassroots Inheritance of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Background: The protection movement for intangible cultural heritage is gradually becoming a global trend. However, the intangible heritage protection movements led by governmental organizations have been criticized for issues related to "authenticity" and "nationalism." Bottom-up inheritance and protection, or grassroots heritage preservation, refers to the process where intangible cultural heritage is continuously passed down within local communities and by the people themselves. Currently, there is limited research discussing intangible cultural heritage from the perspective of grassroots inheritance. This study selects collective action theory as the analytical framework and examined the motivations behind the formation of the Yingge team in DH village in the Chaoshan area of China, exploring the strategies they employ to achieve common goals collaboratively, providing references for grassroots involvement in the planning and protection of intangible cultural heritage preservation. Method: Data were collected through participatory observation and semi-structured interviews, with two core questions being "Why did you join the Yingge team?" and "What motivates you to continue training?" Finally, a three-step content analysis process was used to analyze the data and extract key insights. Results: The study concluded three main points: 1. Collective nostalgia motivates villagers to participate in the inheritance of the Yingge dance, strengthening collective identity by preserving traditional customs. 2. A stable living environment and superior material foundation have shifted villagers' needs towards seeking greater social recognition and attention, with participation in the Yingge team being one way to achieve this. 3. The activities of the Yingge team are not only a form of intangible cultural heritage inheritance but also a way to bring the extended family together again, driven by the belief in fighting for family honor. Conclusion/Discussion: The villagers' motivation to participate is more rooted in respect for cultural traditions and the maintenance of clan honor. This collective action driven by internal beliefs and values reflects the behavior model of the "conceptual person." This finding effectively refutes the rational actor assumption in traditional collective action theory. Therefore, understanding and utilizing this motivational mechanism based on the conceptual person assumption is crucial for promoting the grassroots inheritance and protection of intangible cultural heritage.

Beyond a binary theorizing of prosociality

Stylized experiments, the public goods game and its variants thereof, have taught us the peculiar reproducible fact that humans tend to cooperate (or contribute to shared resources) more than expected from economically rational assumptions. There have been two competing explanations for this phenomenon: Either cooperating is an innate human trait (the prosocial preference hypothesis) or a transitory effect while learning the game (the confused learner hypothesis). We use large-scale experimental data in the two-player version of the public goods game-the prisoner's dilemma-from an experimental design to distinguish between these two hypotheses. By monitoring the effects of zealots (persistently cooperating bots) and varying the participants' awareness of them, we find a considerably more complex scenario than previously reported. People indeed have a prosocial bias, but not to the degree that they always forego taking action to increase their profit. While our findings end the simplistic theorizing of prosociality, an observed positive, cooperative response to zealots has actionable policy implications.

Research on the Value Creation Mechanism of Green-Driven Products in the Internet+ Era

In order to improve the value of green-driven products, this paper studies the value creation mechanism of green-driven products in the Internet+ era. Under the framework of the classic Cournot output game, based on the bounded rationality assumption of the participants, this paper constructs a novel Cournot duopoly investment game model, and analyzes the dynamic adjustment mechanism of the participants' investment. The decision variable of participating enterprises is to select the optimal investment amount, and each production enterprise makes investment decisions in the next period according to the observed marginal profit of the current period to maximize the profit. Through calculation and analysis, it can be known that three boundary equilibriums and one interior point equilibrium of the discrete dynamic model system are obtained in this paper. The experimental analysis shows that the value creation mechanism of green-driven products proposed in this paper can effectively promote the value of green-driven products.

HORSE-CFR: Hierarchical opponent reasoning for safe exploitation counterfactual regret minimization

Opponent modeling-based game decision-making algorithms relax the assumption of rationality, having the potential to achieve higher payoffs than Nash equilibrium strategies. For opponent modeling methods, existing work primarily suffers from incompatibility between computational complexity and robustness, leading to difficulties in achieving high payoff decisions from limited historical interactions in imperfect information games. This paper introduces the HORSE-CFR algorithm, which incorporates Hierarchical Opponent Reasoning (HOR) and Safe Exploitation Counterfactual Regret Minimization (SE-CFR) to enhance decision-making robustness in imperfect information games. HOR combines neural networks with Bayesian theory to accelerate reasoning, improve interpretability, and reduce modeling errors. SE-CFR optimizes the balance between profitability and conservatism, integrating opponent modeling-based strategy adaptation into a constrained linear binary optimization framework. In experiments, HORSE-CFR outperformed Nash equilibrium strategies when playing against various opponents, increasing payoffs by 16.4% in Leduc Hold’em and 36.8% in the Transit game, respectively. It also improved payoffs by more than 9.0% compared to the best-known opponent modeling-based safe adaptive algorithm in both games.

Instrumental variable analysis with categorical treatment.

Current instrumental variable methodology focuses mainly on estimating causal effects for a dichotomous or an ordinal treatment variable. Situations with more than two unordered treatments are less explored. The challenge is that assumptions needed to derive point-estimators become increasingly stronger with the number of relevant treatment alternatives. In this article, we aim at deriving causal point-estimators for head-to-head comparisons of the effect of multiple relevant treatments or interventions. We will achieve this with a set of plausible and well-defined rationality assumptions while only considering ordinal instruments. We demonstrate that our methodology provides asymptotically unbiased estimators in the presence of unobserved confounding effects in a simulation study. We then apply the method to compare the effectiveness of five anti-inflammatory drugs in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. For this, we use a clinical data set from an observational study in Norway, where price is the primary determinant of the preferred drug and can therefore be considered as an instrument. The developed methodology provides an important addition to the toolbox for causal inference when comparing more than two interventions influenced by an instrumental variable.

Three Duopoly Game-Theoretic Models for the Smart Grid Demand Response Management Problem

Demand response management (DRM) significantly influences the prospective advancement of electricity smart grids. This paper introduces three distinct game-theoretic duopoly models for the smart grid demand response management problem. It delineates several rational assumptions regarding the model variables, functions, and parameters. The first model adopts a Cournot duopoly form, offering a unique closed-form equilibrium solution. The second model adopts a Stackelberg duopoly structure, also providing a unique closed-form equilibrium solution. Following a comparison of the economic viability of the two model equilibria and an assessment of their sensitivity to parametric changes, the paper proposes a third model with a Cartel structure and discusses its advantages over the earlier models. Finally, the paper examines how demand forecasting affects the equilibrium quantities and pricing solutions of each model.

Measuring and improving the cradle-to-grave environmental performance of urological procedures.

An urgent need for societal transformation exists to reduce the environmental impact of humanity, because environmental healthaffects human health. Health care causes ~5% of global greenhouse gas emissions and other substantial and ongoing environmental harms. Thus, health-care professionals and managers must lead ongoing efforts to improve the environmental performance of health systems. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a methodology that enables estimation of environmental impacts of products and processes. It models environmental effects from 'cradle' (raw material extraction) to 'grave' (end of useful life) and conventionally reports a range of different impact categories. LCA is a valuable tool when used appropriately. Maximizing its utility requires rational assumptions alongside careful consideration of system boundaries and data sources. Well-executed LCAs are detailed and transparently reported, enabling findings to be adapted or generalized to different settings. Attention should be given to modelling mitigation solutions in LCAs. This important step can guide health-care systems towards new and innovative solutions that embed progress towards international climate agreements. Many urological conditions are common, recurrent or chronic, requiring resource-intensive management with large associated environmental impacts. LCAs in urology have predominantly focussed on greenhouse gas emissions and have enabled identification of modifiable 'hotspots' including electricityuse, travel, single-use items, irrigation, reprocessing and waste incineration. However, the methodological and reporting quality of published urology LCAs generally requires improvement and standardization. Health-care evaluation and commissioning frameworks that value LCA findings alongside clinical outcomes and cost could accelerate sustainable innovations. Rapid implementation strategies for known environmentally sustainable solutions are also needed.

Community Interaction, Influence, and Child Maltreatment: Variations by Rural and Urban Residence Status

Effects of community interventions on child maltreatment are interpreted via rational deterrence theory’s assumption of instrumental rationality. However, recent contrasting findings have raised questions about the social exchange currency that regulates human behaviour within the rational deterrence framework. This study contributes to this debate by examining the social currency of influence and its role in child maltreatment prevention. We hypothesized that both individual and community wealth of influence would predict physical abuse severity. Data was obtained from 1,100 nationally representative sample of female mothers in Ghana, and associations were examined using random effects regression models. We found a negative association between physical abuse severity and individual level influence as well as community wealth of influence. Results were only significant in the rural sample. The findings suggest that interventions aiming to increase community commitment to deter and prevent child maltreatment should focus on strengthening the currency of influence in communities.

Breaking the Rationality Assumption

This paper explores the role of Behavioral Economics in understanding how psychological factors influence consumer decisions, often leading to irrational choices. Traditional economics assumes rational decision-making, but in reality, emotions, cognitive biases, and social factors drive behavior. The paper highlights how illiteracy impacts decision-making, forcing short-term thinking over long-term benefits. It also discusses how psychological barriers like overconfidence, peer pressure, and emotional responses prevent rational decisions. Several Indian government policies, such as the Population Control Policy, Reservation System, and Demonetization, are reviewed to show how poor execution can lead to negative consequences. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need for better education, critical thinking, and informed policymaking to improve decision-making and empower people to make rational choices. Effective decision-making requires understanding both economic and psychological factors, which can lead to more balanced, thoughtful choices for the betterment of society.

Understanding Behavioural Biases Driving Equity Investors in India: A Factor Analysis Approach

In the dynamic realm of equity investment decisions, this study challenges the traditional assumption of investor impartiality and rationality, arguing that investors’ choices are often shaped more by beliefs and psychological inclinations than by objective reasoning alone. Drawing from behavioural finance theory, which contests the adequacy of the standard finance model in capturing the nuances of decision-making, this research delves into the psychological forces influencing private investors. Recognizing the prevalent biases coloring their decisions, the study investigates common prejudices impacting investor choices. Leveraging survey data from 375 equity investors, the research employs exploratory factor analysis and regression models to disentangle the effects of cognitive biases, such as the gambler’s fallacy, overconfidence, aversion to ambiguity, lack of representativeness, aversion to loss, and anchoring. The findings challenge the assumption of investor rationality, offering valuable insights into the complexities of financial decision-making. Notably, the study underscores a robust and positive association between these biases and equity investment decisions, shedding light on the intricate interplay between psychological factors and investment behaviour.

Is it Irrational to Assume Rationality in Business?

Purpose: Academic research continuously introduces new theories, methodologies, etc. to improve upon prior studies. Researchers commonly base their theories on the assumption that managers and stakeholders have calculated motives and make well-educated decisions. However, they ignore the fact that certain corporate decisions are completely random with no logical explanations. Researchers still are not comfortable with this idea and always try to justify business decisions by advancing new sophisticated theories while in fact, many executives and stakeholders are not that sophisticated. This paper discusses such instances of irrationality. Methodology: This paper discusses several instances of irrational business decisions in various aspects of finance including capital budgeting, capital structure, stock buybacks, executive compensation, overinvestment, and stock market irregularities. By examining a historical set of corporate events, it is shown that various forms of irrationality, when abundant, may cause empirical studies to refute theories. Findings: Theories cannot always be justified by empirical work not necessarily because of flaws in these theories but possibly because of irrational behavior of ill-informed executives and stakeholders. That is, if the assumption of rationality commonly imbedded in academic studies does not hold, then it may be the culprit, at least in part, behind the discrepancy between theory and empirical findings. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: This paper postulates that the discrepancy between theory and empirical findings may, in part, be caused by the common assumption of rationality that may not hold true. By discussing numerous instances of irrational behavior in various aspects of business, this paper attempts to show that irrationality is not uncommon and should be considered in the design of academic research.

On the intersection form of fillings

AbstractWe prove, by an ad hoc method, that exact fillings with vanishing rational first Chern class of flexibly fillable contact manifolds have unique integral intersection forms. We appeal to the special Reeb dynamics (stronger than ADC in [Lazarev, Geom. Funct. Anal. 30 (2020), no. 1, 188–254]) on the contact boundary, while a more systematic approach working for general ADC manifolds is developed independently by Eliashberg, Ganatra and Lazarev. We also discuss cases where the vanishing rational first Chern class assumption can be removed. We derive the uniqueness of diffeomorphism types of exact fillings of certain flexibly fillable contact manifolds and obstructions to contact embeddings, which are not necessarily exact.

Количественный анализ финансовых инструментов на основе портфельной теории и теории игр

The article focuses on modern methods of quantitative analysis of financial instruments based on the Markowitz portfolio theory, which allows designing optimal portfolios of financial instruments under the assumption of extreme rationality of investors and game theory, which allows taking into account the factor of player interaction between those participating in financial markets. The relevance of the research topic concerns the need to improve the quality of financial decisions made in conditions of increased volatility of financial markets. An initial set of financial instruments was built, consisting of fifty alternative options for placing funds. A preliminary analysis of the initial set of financial instruments allowed us to narrow it down to ten elements that are most preferable for placing funds. The classic Markowitz portfolio model, which assumes maximizing the expected return on a portfolio at a given level of risk, is complemented by auxiliary constraints that allow taking into account individual investor preferences. The presented six modifications of Markowitz portfolios help to identify the dynamics of the quantitative characteristics of portfolios depending on the individual preferences of investors. Expected profitability and expected risk, estimated from real financial data, are accepted as quantitative characteristics of portfolios. The game model is constructed in the form of a game with nature, which allows taking into account the complex nature of player interaction, which in most cases is not characterized by antagonism. The game model is designed to select the optimal net strategy of the investor, which takes into account various financial market conditions expressed by a market index (market portfolio). The study of the game model is implemented on the basis of the integrated Hodge-Lehman criterion regarding profitability and risk. Its use made it possible to take into account the individual level of investor confidence in the available financial information. In the process of practical implementation of these techniques, results were obtained that allow us to conclude about the degree of sensitivity of optimal investment strategies to individual preferences and perceptions of investors. The constructed models can be used to update the content of professional training of students in the higher economic school system, as well as to set up courses of additional professional education.

Rekonstrukcja pojęcia prawniczego domniemania interpretacyjnego

Juridical presumptions, including interpretative juridical presumptions, have not been elaborated on in detail in theoretical and legal terms, although they are an interpretative tool often used in jurisdiction and literature. Recently there has been a revival of the discussion on the presumption of constitutionality (conformity with the constitution) of laws (statutes). Another example of an interpretative juridical presumption is the presumption of rationality of the legislator, based on the assumption of rationality of the legislator elaborated in the 1970s by Leszek Nowak and Jerzy Wróblewski. A comparative analysis of interpretative juridical presumptions with institutions such as legal presumptions and legal fictions allows to reconstruct the most important features of the former in terms of their structure and functions, and this in turn will allow to claim that interpretative juridical presumptions are directly referred to by the authorities applying the law in difficult cases in which it is impossible to complete the interpretation process without taking into account the basic values of the legal system, not directly expressed in this system or only sketched at the level of constitutional standards. Due to the special role that interpretative juridical presumptions play in the process of interpretation, their law-making function may be also discussed.

Behavioral Finance: The Impact of Investor Expectation on Financial Decision-Making

Behavioral finance challenges traditional financial theories by questioning the assumption of investor rationality, highlighting the influence of cognitive biases, emotions, and psychological factors on decision-making. This deviation from conventional models like the Efficient Market Hypothesis recognizes the complexity of human decision-making in financial contexts. The field focuses on key phenomena: loss aversion, market anomalies, the framing effect, and the endowment effect. Loss aversion reveals a stronger reaction to losses than equivalent gains, influencing overly cautious decisions. Market anomalies, such as momentum and trend reversals, challenge efficient market expectations. The framing effect shows how decision-making is swayed by information presentation. The endowment effect impacts perceived asset value, affecting financial decisions. These biases significantly impact investor behavior, potentially leading to suboptimal portfolio choices. Recognizing these biases is crucial for making informed financial decisions. Behavioral finance research has profound implications, emphasizing the integration of behavioral insights with traditional models. Future studies should explore cumulative behavioral effects, conduct cross-cultural analyses, and investigate diverse market conditions for more effective investment strategies and regulations. Understanding global financial behavior through behavioral finance is essential for comprehensive insights into market dynamics and decision-making processes.

Does sadness bring myopia: an intertemporal choice experiment with college students.

While economics often interprets individual intertemporal choice preferences through the rationality assumption of utility maximization, the reality is that as emotional beings, individuals' preferences for intertemporal behavior are much more diverse and inconsistent. Prior research has predominantly focused on positive or negative emotions based on prospect theory, such as anxiety, anger, disgust, and depression. However, there has been relatively little research on how sadness affects individuals' preferences for immediate and future rewards. In this study, 170 college students are recruited as participants, and their emotions are primed with a video before engaging in an intertemporal task. Covariance analysis and logit regression model are established to examine the main and interactive effects of sadness on individuals' immediate reward preferences. The findings reveal that sadness led individuals to prefer smaller immediate rewards, demonstrating a more myopic behavioral pattern, but didn't affect time discount rate. As the reward baseline increases, sadness's impact on immediate reward preferences is more pronounced, exacerbating individuals' myopic behavior. In conclusion, these findings underscore the importance of considering emotional states in economic decision-making models and suggest avenues for future research to explore the complex dynamics of emotions and intertemporal choices.