Lottery Tickets Research Articles

An incentive efficient market for mechanisms in large Akerlof economies

We study ‘Akerlof economies’, that is, economies where goods come in qualities unknown to buyers, and sellers’ quality can be ranked. Cross-subsidies at the constrained efficient allocation arise, even when there are few high-quality types in the economy. Thus, Akerlof’s markets are poorly suited to deliver constrained efficient outcomes. We then design a competitive market for mechanisms. Agents buy lottery tickets to enter mechanisms, and the price system clears the markets. Firms offer tickets to mechanisms on the basis of ‘input’ prices which, unlike in Akerlof’s competitive markets, are quality dependent. Under standard sorting conditions, we show that a ‘no-price-cut’ competitive equilibrium exists and is incentive efficient.

\u201cLike filling a lottery ticket with quite high stakes\u201d: a qualitative study exploring mothers\u2019 needs and perceptions of state-provided financial support for a child with a long-term illness in Finland

BackgroundA child’s long-term illness or disability is always a serious matter that impacts the whole family. Costs related to an illness can substantially affect a family’s financial situation. To date, there is little research on how parents experience available support for financial assistance. Surveys in Finland have found that families of children with long-term illnesses and disabilities could experience financial struggle and perceive the state provided financial support system as too complex. This article aimed to explore how caregivers of children with long-term illnesses perceived their financial situation, need for financial support and experienced its provision by the state in the Helsinki greater region.MethodsConvenience sampling was used. Participants were contacted through peer-support groups on Facebook. Eleven mothers of children with varying long-term illnesses and disabilities residing in the Helsinki greater region were interviewed using in-depth interviews. Recordings of the interviews were transcribed and analysed using framework analysis. An analytical framework was built to label the dataset, which was then charted. Lastly, themes were formed through descriptive analysis.ResultsThe main findings showed how the burden of caring for a child with a long-term illness or disability causes fatigue, which affects a family’s financial situation holistically. This affected both employment and financial management, but also receiving information about and applying for the state provided allowances. Mental resources were further depleted by seeking information and applying for allowances. This contributed to a vicious cycle between parental fatigue and financial struggle. Participants found the allocation of funds inequitable across the country. Finally, participants thought the allowance was insufficient in compensating for time spent caring for their child’s illness and did not consider their mental strain.ConclusionsEven in a welfare state such as Finland, caregivers of children with long-term illnesses are at risk of poverty and struggle with the organization of state provided financial support. Policies should be designed to ensure equity across the country and consider how the parental fatigue should be addressed. The study has implications for achieving sustainable development goals on wellbeing and reducing poverty.

Does Choice Cause an Illusion of Control?

Previous research suggests that choice causes an illusion of control—that it makes people feel more likely to achieve preferable outcomes, even when they are selecting among options that are functionally identical (e.g., lottery tickets with an identical chance of winning). This research has been widely accepted as evidence that choice can have significant welfare effects, even when it confers no actual control. In this article, we report the results of 17 experiments that examined whether choice truly causes an illusion of control (N = 10,825 online and laboratory participants). We found that choice rarely makes people feel more likely to achieve preferable outcomes—unless it makes the preferable outcomes actually more likely—and when it does, it is not because choice causes an illusion but because choice reflects some participants’ preexisting (illusory) beliefs that the functionally identical options are not identical. Overall, choice does not seem to cause an illusion of control.

Small life

small life Dionne Brand (bio) Some days the cops stop you and ask for identification. Because they can do that. You know this. They're fuckers and they can fuck you up. Some days they just follow so you see that they're there. Some days they shoot you. Simple. Then there's a whole hypocritical blah blah blah and then it dies down. Because that's the bullshit they have going on. _____ It was my childhood front yard, but it can't have been. It can't. Is that front yard a graph, a palimpsest? Every thought, every future [End Page 132] move, prefigured in that front yard. In my childhood yard there was no tree. There was a parking lot, and I looked out on it from the third floor of 2955 Falconer Street, apartment 16. Anyway, I dug out a shallow place and a sentence kept going around in my head. This was the palace of the universe and the window of the soul looked out and in.* _____ The flood softened the doorways and the foundation, and before we could turn around, we were afloat in the living room. We took what we could. I took the kitchen knife and the bread and one of my rubber slippers. M. took the fingernail clippers and a book about electricity. Others took other things. Someone took a half-empty suitcase and when they opened it later there was a doll in it and a lottery ticket, the light bills, and three sets of underwear. _____ I confess. I confess, every day that I am going mad. At twenty-five I fell into a great depression. I couldn't move my limbs. One day I sat against the door, and I couldn't move. My neck couldn't bear the weight of my head. Certain years take longer than others. That year was very long. Is this a great revelation? _____ H. was suspect from the start. She was high all the time. I got high but not all the time. And I don't care about shit like that. But when she said to me, "Let's not give all the money to G.," I got wide awake. I thought what the fuck is this. And I didn't call her out and that made it look like we had a conspiracy. [End Page 133] _____ In late July, I couldn't say for certain what would happen. I waited to see what was what. They were the kind of days when the sky is low to the street and the world is impenetrable. I was waiting to hear from P. I was supposed to cross when I got word, but I hadn't heard anything. You can't blame me, I was getting uneasy. I mean you want to go on with life, right? _____ A mop or a broom in your hand, they don't see you. They see you, but they don't look at you. They see you like some thing that leaves places clean or dirty or tells them which place to go—like a circuit in their brain or a finger on their hand. They treat you like that, like you're part of them. A dirty part. _____ Guns and money. Is there a story without guns and money? Not that I've heard. Money we all want, guns we use to get it. That's the only conclusion you'd come to if you live here on this planet. If you think about life as a long sentence, and if you were born in the '80s like I was, you would see the story of your life turn from whatever long elegant sentence you have in mind into this short one—guns and money. So that's why I started all this with guns. _____ one dozen eggs,one can gasoline,light bulb,matcheslemons,newspaper5pm. [End Page 134] I found this list in the wallet of a woman named Hyacinth Barker. I'm sure she's written another list by now. I put the wallet in the mail, but I kept the list. Everything on it...

Pollution Motivates Hope-Seeking Behavior

In developing countries around the world, air pollution remains a serious issue which has possible unexpected influences on a variety of human decisions. Using a rich panel data structure with air quality observations at a daily frequency, we demonstrate a robust positive relationship between air pollution and lottery gambling and investigate the potential mechanisms for this relationship. Psychological influences account for a significant proportion of this positive relationship, as evidenced by a robust significant effect of reduced visibility conditions on lottery ticket purchases. However, chemical components of AQI (Air Quality Index) are also significantly responsible for the decision to purchase tickets, particularly sulfur dioxide (SO2), which suggests a larger impact of the early particulate formation process on human behavior than previously considered in most studies. We further show that limited attention to information about air quality levels is a significant factor, by identifying discontinuous jumps in lottery ticket purchases at government provided color-coded AQI transition thresholds around the “Moderate” or “Unhealthy” level, implying that the increase in ticket purchases is cognitively-driven. Finally, adverse regional economic conditions, namely the unemployment rate, significantly enhances the appeal of lotteries under polluted conditions. Altogether, our findings suggest a significant conscious appeal of lottery tickets as a hope-seeking device, providing ex-ante psychological health benefits under negative environmental conditions.

Eliciting time preferences when income and consumption vary: Theory, validation & application to job search

We propose a simple method for eliciting individual time preferences without estimating utility functions even in settings where background consumption changes over time. It relies on lottery tickets with high rewards. In a standard intertemporal choice model high rewards decouple lottery choices from variation in background consumption. We validate our elicitation method experimentally on two student samples: one asked in December when their current budget is reduced by extraordinary expenditures for Christmas gifts; the other asked in February when no such extra constraints exist. We illustrate an application of our method with unemployed job seekers which naturally have income/consumption variation.

Eliciting Time Preferences When Income and Consumption Vary: Theory, Validation & Application to Job Search

We propose a simple method for eliciting individual time preferences without estimating utility functions even in settings where background consumption changes over time. It relies on lottery tickets with high rewards. In a standard intertemporal choice model high rewards decouple lottery choices from variation in background consumption. We validate our elicitation method experimentally on two student samples: one asked in December when their current budget is reduced by extraordinary expenditures for Christmas gifts; the other asked in February when no such extra constraints exist. We illustrate an application of our method with unemployed job seekers which naturally have income/consumption variation.

Lotteries and Overlapping Providences in Early America

ABSTRACTWhat kind of world did early American men and women believe they were living in? Did God choose lottery winners or did intellectual, economic, and scientific insights engender more reasonable, skeptical, or secular formulations? Lotteries were a common and uncontroversial presence in early American economic and civic life, funding the construction of everything from bridges to churches. George Washington liked giving lottery tickets as gifts. Denmark Vesey purchased his freedom by winning a lottery. Although scholars have used the lottery and other forms of gambling to make important claims about class and culture in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, lotteries hold rich, untapped insights for American religious history. By offering a specific causal experience to explain, lotteries prompted answers from their participants, known as “adventurers,” about why things happened. Relying on firsthand accounts of lottery winners, correspondence among the managers who oversaw lotteries, promotional schemes designed to entice participation, and newspaper coverage, this article demonstrates providence's ongoing centrality to causality in eighteenth and early nineteenth-century America. Far from jettisoning an animated, meaningful universe with the aid of reason or in the face of debilitating doubt, lottery adventurers employed both longstanding and novel versions of providence to explain how the world worked and how God worked in the world.

Irrational Responses to Risk Preference Questionnaires by Patients with Diabetes with or without Retinopathy and Comparison with Those without Diabetes.

PurposeThe risk preferences of patients with diabetes have profound effects on the progression of complications. The present study aimed to clarify whether the preferences of patients with diabetes and retinopathy are deliberately risk-seeking or irrational and whether this propensity is specific to those with retinopathy or is also found in patients without retinopathy compared with those without diabetes.Patients and MethodsA total of 394 patients with diabetes (264 without retinopathy and 130 with retinopathy) and 198 patients without diabetes agreed to participate in this survey. The questions were modified versions of those from the Japan Household Survey on Consumer Preferences and Satisfaction, which sought to determine the participants’ personal socioeconomic status and risk preferences. In the questionnaires, responses were analyzed by determining the participants’ willingness to pay for a lottery ticket and for an insurance policy. Irrational responses were defined as violations of two axioms of the Expected Utility Theory: completeness and transitivity.ResultsThe incidence of irrational responses increased with age and was associated with educational level. The incidence of irrational responses was significantly higher in patients with retinopathy than in those without retinopathy after adjusting for age and educational level. There was no significant difference in the incidence of irrational responses between patients with diabetes but without retinopathy and those without diabetes.ConclusionThe risk-seeking behavior of patients with diabetes and retinopathy was not deliberate but was irrational under uncertainty. Medical professionals should be aware of their patients’ propensity to make irrational decisions, which is an important risk factor for the progression of retinopathy in patients with diabetes regardless of age and educational level.

Robert L. Steffen

Robert L. Steffen, 92, died Oct. 18 in Jasper, Indiana. “Robert (or Bob, as his family called him) was a very quiet and gentle man. He kept to himself but was always ready to share stories of his past with anyone that would listen. Bob loved to walk. He would walk somewhere every day. He preferred to walk than to drive his car. He was a member of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Jasper and a 56-year member of the American Chemical Society. He was an avid fan of Indiana University football and basketball and the stock market. He was also proud of the fact that he never bought a lottery ticket.”—Rose Terwiske, niece Most recent title: Chemist, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division Education: BA, chemistry, Indiana University Bloomington, 1953 Survivors: Sister, Gertrude; nieces, Nancy Cannon, Deb Chamberlain, Karen Malone, Rose Terwiske, and Sarah Wigand; nephews, Mike, Pat, and

VAT lottery incentives: An opportunity for South Africa?

Some countries have introduced receipt-based tax lotteries (value-added tax (VAT) lotteries) in recent years in an effort to improve tax compliance. This acknowledges that the traditional method of tax compliance enforcement through audits, fines and penalties alone may no longer be optimal. The idea of a VAT lottery is to incentivise consumers to ask for a receipt when paying for goods or services, which serves as a lottery ticket that gives the consumer an opportunity to win a prize. The decline in tax compliance globally poses a threat to revenue collection and, ultimately, to governments’ ability to meet their spending commitments. Other countries, but particularly South Africa, may benefit from implementing a VAT lottery to assist in improved VAT collection. This study aims to analyse VAT lotteries that have been implemented across the world – particularly in the European Union (EU) member countries – through a systematised review in order to determine whether such a lottery could improve taxpayer compliance in South Africa. Of the six EU member countries analysed in detail, four showed a decrease in the VAT gap in the years following the VAT lottery implementation. VAT gap data post-implementation was not available for two of the countries. Positive results include an increase in the number of vendors reported for refusing to issue invoices, a reduction in the number of non-validated receipts, and increased VAT collection. The finance ministers of two countries, and the Ministry of Finance of another, publicly declared the VAT lotteries successful.

Pick Your Poison: Attribute Trade‐Offs in Unattractive Consideration Sets

Consumers often have to make trade‐offs between desirable, “more is better,” and undesirable, “less is better,” attributes. What drives whether the desirable or the undesirable attributes will be weighed more heavily in decisions? We show that the extent to which consumers focus on desirable versus undesirable attributes depends on the overall attractiveness of their consideration sets. The less attractive the options under consideration are—the higher is the weight allocated to undesirable attributes, such as price. Three experiments set in the contexts of lottery ticket purchasing (study 1), hotel booking (study 2), elections (study 3), and a conjoint study of online course evaluations (study 4) (N = 2,149, p‐curve power estimate 90%), demonstrate that unattractive sets increase the relative weight of “undesirable” attributes (e.g., price of a product, workload of a course) and lead to increased preference for options superior on these attributes.

The Role of Emotion in Cancer Surgery Decisions: Applying Concepts From Decision Psychology.

The Role of Emotion in Cancer Surgery Decisions: Applying Concepts From Decision Psychology.

Concurrent sequences of Bernoulli trials

Probability and expectation are two distinct measures, both of which can be used to indicate the likelihood of certain events. However, expectation values, which are often associated with waiting times for success, may, at times, speak more clearly and poignantly about the uncertainty of an event than a theoretical probability. To illustrate the point, suppose the probability of choosing a winning lottery ticket is 2.5 × 10−8. This information may not communicate the unlikely odds of winning as clearly as a statement like, “If five lottery tickets are purchased per day, the expected waiting time for a first win is about 22000 years.”

Relationships between socio-economic status and lottery gambling across lottery types: neighborhood-level evidence from a large city.

Lottery gambling participation tends to be higher among lower socio-economic status (SES) individuals, but it is unclear how this relationship differs as a function of lottery type. We estimated how the relationship between SES and lottery gambling rates varies across different types of lottery gambling: fixed-prize, progressive-prize (jackpot) and instant-win (scratch card) lottery tickets in a large Canadian city. Neighborhood-level lottery purchase data obtained from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission were analysed in conjunction with demographic data. Mixed-effects regression was used to assess simultaneously how neighborhood-level SES predicts per-person lottery gambling rates across fixed-prize, progressive-prize lottery and instant-win lotteries. Neighborhoods in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the years 2012-15. Per-capita sales in dollars (CAD) of fixed-prize lottery, progressive-prize lottery and instant-win tickets in Toronto postal codes. SES was estimated as a composite of income, years of education and white-collar employment. Lower-SES neighborhoods engaged in higher rates of lottery gambling overall [β=-0.084, standard error (SE)=0.24, P=0.0007]. The predictive effect of SES varied significantly by lottery type (fixed-prize: β=-0.105, SE=0.004, P<0.0001, instant-win: β=-0.054, SE=0.004, P<0.0001; relative to progressive-prize). The predictive effect of SES was strongest for fixed-prize lotteries and weakest for progressive-prize lotteries, such that we did not observe a significant predictive effect of SES for progressive-prize lotteries (β=-0.031, SE=0.024, P=0.198). People in lower socio-economic status neighborhoods in Toronto, Canada appear to engage in more lottery gambling than those in higher socio-economic status neighborhoods, with the difference being largest for fixed prize lotteries followed by instant win lotteries, and no clear difference for progressive prize lotteries.

الیانصیب إدارته ودوره فی تمویل الأعمال الخیریة فی مصر (1905 ـ 1973م)

تتناول هذه الدراسة جزءا مهما من تاريخ مصر الاجتماعي خلال فترة القرن العشرين, وبمعني أدق ومحدد تاريخ العمل الخيري, وأهم جزء فيه مصادر تمويل الجمعيات الخيرية, وقد تعددت هذه المصادر, وکان من أهمها علي الإطلاق ــــ وهو محور دراستنا ـــ الإيرادات المتحصلة من بيع أوراق اليانصيب . وقد اشتملت هذه الدراسة علي عدة محاور, منها اليانصيب ومسألة تنظيمه خلال الفترة من 1905 إلي 1973م وقد تناول فيه قانون تنظيم أعمال اليانصيب عام 1905م, والاجراءات والتعليمات المترتبة عليه, وکذلک مسألة تراخيص إصدار أوراق اليانصيب العادي فئة القرش صاغ, والمؤقت الطومبلا متنوع الفئات, بالإضافة إلي أهم مسألة في هذه الدراسة, وهي ايرادات اليانصيب ودورها في دعم الأعمال الخيرية, ومقارنة هذه الإيرادات بالإيرادات العامة للجمعيات الخيرية. الکلمات المفتاحية: اليانصيب ـــ الطومبيلا ــ أوراق ــ الجمعيات الخيرية ـ العمل الخيري Running Lottery for financing Egyptian charities during 1905-1973 Salah El-Sayed Abdel-Allam Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Faculty of Arabic Language in Asyut - Al-Azhar University - Egypt. Email: salahallam.47@azhar.edu.eg This study highlights an important episode of Egypt's social history in twentieth century; precisely, the history of charities with particular reference to its numerous funding sources. Selling Lottery tickets has been proved to be most influential of these sources. This study has underscored many perspectives, including lottery and its organizing release acts between 1905 and1973 AD. The lottery business law enforced in 1905 AD, its procedures, instructions, as well as legal permission of variable categories of Lottery-tickets; regular or temporary an Egyptian-penny ticket. The study precisely points out lottery significant contribution to charity revenue compared to gross total income of these charities. Key words: lotteries - tombella - papers - charities - charitable work

A Spectacle of Silencing: A Rural African-Canadian Woman’s Media Trial

This thematic case study explores international, national, and local media coverage of a conflict between Barb Reddick, a rural, working-class, African-Nova Scotian woman, and her nephew over the ownership of a winning ‘Chase the Ace’ lottery ticket. Beginning from general media valuation of lottery winners, and Canadian coverage of the Nova Scotia CTA lottery ‘craze’, we find when Reddick goes off script as loving aunt she is pathologized and degraded in a dramatic reversal from soft to hard news story. Reddick’s habitus and trust in journalists to support her counternarrative became the dramatic content of media spectacle-making – what we call a ‘spectacle of silencing’ – as well as her deviance from Canadian white rurality, and class and gender norms. Rather than mere ‘misrepresentation’ of minorities, we conclude that the dynamics of counternarrative struggle are embedded in reportage itself as spectacle, reproducing the legitimacy and authority of journalistic institutions through a symbolic violence of consensus making.

The Effect of Labor Exploitation on Children’s Psychological Wellbeing in Woldia Town Primary Schools: Implication for Intervention

The main objective of the study aimed at assessing the effect of child exploitation on children psychological well-being Woldia town seven primary schools. Qualitative and quantitative are employed. That is, descriptive survey used to the study. The study used questionnaire and interview as data gathering instruments. Hence, data gathered through questionnaire from students and teachers that are selected through comprehensive sampling. The data analyzed through percentage and one-sample t-test. Then, the finding of the study revealed that the major labor activities in which children are engaged in Woldia town include shoe shining, selling lottery tickets, selling food/drinks/ kollo, and assisting taxi drivers (woyala). Most of the child labor exploitation in the study came from regions to look for job, due to conflicts at home, early marriage and divorce, Poverty, death of one or both parents, child trafficking, high repetition rates, drop out from school and lack of awareness about the consequence of being engaged in labor exploitation are key factors that push children to be involved in different work. The major problems that have been faced by children engaged in labor exploitation include among others: frustration, low self-esteem, self-perception, learning participation, attitude of the community and intimacy on parents. Lobbying and advocacy for the drafting and enactment of laws and policies for the prevention of child labor. Keywords: Child exploitation; Consequence; Psychological well-being; Intervetion; primary schools DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-15-02 Publication date: August 31 st 2020

Improving the Quality of Bowel Preparation: Rewarding Patients for Success or Intensive Patient Education?

Introduction and Objectives: The quality of the bowel preparation is a critical parameter for the outcome of colonoscopies. It is well established that the bowel preparation modality (e.g., split or larger volume preparation) significantly improves the quality of the bowel preparation. Patient compliance is another important factor impacting on the quality of bowel preparations that receives relatively little research attention. We aimed to explore if intensified education or a lottery ticket as reward for good bowel preparation could improve outcomes. Methods: After informed consent, all patients received a standardized printed information booklet. In a randomized fashion, patients were offered (a) a lottery scratchy ticket with an opportunity to win $25,000 as “reward” for good bowel preparation, (b) an education session delivered over the phone by a trained nurse, or (c) no additional measure. Results: Overall, the quality of the bowel preparation was rated good or very good in 69.1% (95% CI 61.7–75.7%) of patients. Reward intervention did not influence the quality of bowel preparation (OR 0.42, 95% CI 0.09–1.91, p = 0.260); however, bowel preparation quality decreased in patients randomized to receive the additional education (OR 0.28, 95% CI 0.08–0.96, p = 0.042). Neither intervention significantly impacted on polyp detection rates. Conclusions: Contrasting general beliefs, additional interventions (e.g., incentives or phone consultation) did not improve the quality of the bowel preparation. The unexpected result shows that utilizing extra resources must be balanced against real-world outcomes and may not always provide the expected result.

Free riders and the optimal prize in public‐good funding lotteries

AbstractWe prove the existence and uniqueness of an equilibrium in a game where players, whose preferences exhibit constant absolute risk aversion or constant relative risk aversion, contribute to a public good via lottery‐ticket purchases. Contrasting models with risk neutrality, we show that an equilibrium with a strictly positive amount of the public good may not exist without a sufficient number of participants who are not too risk‐averse. We show that players who are more risk‐averse purchase fewer lottery tickets and are more likely to free ride in equilibrium. In fact, it is possible for free riders to place a larger value on the public good than do those who contribute. In a symmetric equilibrium, we show that an upper bound exists for the amount of the public good, even though there are infinitely many participants. Furthermore, we derive a lottery prize that maximizes the amount of the public good in a symmetric equilibrium and find that such a prize always results in an overprovision of the public good.