Sponsored search mechanisms, where advertisers bid for placement to beas close to the top in the listing of search results, are the fastestgrowing among online search models. Sponsored search in popular searchservices such as Google and Yahoo! employ an auction mechanism whereinfirms can bid,...

Can pay-for-performance increase the motivation of public employees? By providing a basis for personnel decisions, particularly linking rewards to performance, performance appraisals aim to increase employees' work motivation and ultimately to improve their work performance and organizational...

This thesis contributes to the development of theoretical and experimental approaches that extend the analysis of risk preferences beyond the classical concept of expected utility theory. The thesis contains four main chapters.The first two chapters are concerned with extensions and applications...