Independent of the left-right model of ideological structure, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food and agriculture are resented across the political spectrum in Switzerland. In the absence of any real experience with genetically modified (GM) food but faced with continuous exposure to...

In the paper, we investigate the Hoede-Bakker index - the notion which computes the overall decisional 'power' of a player in a social network. It is assumed that each player has an inclination (original decision) to say 'yes' or 'no' which, due to influence of other players, may be different...

We study a stochastic model of influence where agents have “yes” or “no” inclinations on some issue, and opinions may change due to mutual influence among the agents. Each agent independently aggregates the opinions of the other agents and possibly herself. We study influence processes...

This study presents the results of an empirical investigation of attitudes toward bribe taking in Egypt. The authors use the Human Beliefs and Values Survey data to examine several demographic variables to determine whether demographics make a difference. The total sample size was over 3000. The...

A tremendous amount of news coverage and analysis of privacy issues has been driven by surveys of consumers showing high levels of concern. For this study, the authors reviewed 23 privacy surveys to assess their real usefulness to policymakers. Polls rarely play as large a role in policymaking...

The standard microeconomic assumption of a household utility function raises two theoretical problems: it contradicts methodological individualism and it ignores economic phenomena such as income and consumption sharing, division of labor, externalities and altruism within a household. This...

We revisit the classical result that taxation of private consumption is distortionary and therefore precludes the efficient provision of public goods. We introduce a nonlinear consumption tax which we call a `tax lottery'. Under this scheme, an ad-valorem consumption tax is supplemented with a...

Over the past few years, organizations and policy-makers have enthusiastically resorted to persuasion appeals to align individuals' behavior with their objectives. Despite the widespread use of appeals and persuasion techniques in various fields, their effectiveness has often been inconsistent...

Online communities generate marketing value for both firms and consumers, and their sustainability relies on continuous user engagement. In an environment in which competition for engagement is fierce, digital platforms seemingly favor the use of negative emotion to engage users. Yet, the impact...

Group buying enables collective bargaining opportunity that individual buyers lack to negotiate prices with sellers. This potential negotiation capability has two opposing effects. On the one hand, the prospect of the group being able to negotiate price with its rival forces each seller to lower...