Traditionally economics is based on very narrow presumptions about human behavior, namely selfishness. In the last 20 years, however, experimental research has accumulated overwhelming evidence that is at odds with these classical assumptions. It has been shown that people very often care about the distributional consequences of their actions and intentions.<p>Against this background, in this thesis the impact of broader models of human behavior on decision making and human interactions is studied, for example the impact of indirect reciprocity on human relationships. If educational expenditures of parents into children depend on grandparents' investments into the parent’s education, then private educational spending is inefficiently low and should be supported by the state. This finding stands in contrast to earlier results that show that parents might invest optimally into the education of their children out of pure altruism or strategic transfer motives.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

La prémisse de la rationalité décisionnelle des agents, généralement définie comme la « prise de décision optimale sous l’information disponible », occupe une place centrale dans la théorie économique, à tel point que, lorsque la rationalité décisionnelle passe à la loupe, c’est souvent l’ensemble de la science économique qui l’est à sa suite. Pourtant, le quotidien abonde de cas ne se conformant pas à une certaine définition de l’optimalité; pour des décisions de faibles enjeux, les agents économiques pourront couper court à leur réflexion et se contenter d’une décision potentiellement sous-optimale afin de minimiser le coût de la prise de décision. Or, avec l’ubiquité d’Internet, l’information et la puissance de calcul sont plus disponibles que jamais, à tel point où le tri de l’information dans la surabondance d’Internet constitue une nouvelle forme de coût de décision. Ce mémoire s’intéresse donc à deux questions concernant la prise de décision avec échéances; la première est: à quels types de décisions, en fonction de la taille de leur enjeu, les agents économiques consacreront-ils le plus de temps de réflexion? La seconde est: à quels types d’informations les agents se fient-ils le plus? Essentiellement, nous testons si les individus optimisent l’effort qu’ils mettent à optimiser . Nous utilisons une méthodologie expérimentale basée sur un jeu-questionnaire, avec incitatifs financiers à la performance, simulant différentes décisions à caractère économique auxquelles des personnes sont appelées à être exposées au cours de leur vie. Comme résultats, nous trouvons une relation concave entre la taille de l’enjeu sur lequel porte une décision et les ressources allouées à la décision. Cette relation s’estompe lorsque les contraintes de temps se resserrent. Nous tentons également de vérifier s’il existe un lien entre et le choix de sources d’informations à des fins de décision et la familiarité de celles-ci pour l’agent, mais ne trouvons pas de relation significative. De plus, nous ne parvenons pas à établir de relation entre le temps consacré à prendre une décision et l’optimalité de celle-ci.

Dans cette thèse, nous proposons une perspective méthodologique sur le double rôle du langage dans la rationalité économique, les utilisations de langage par les économistes pour la théoriser et les utilisations de langage par les agents économiques pour l’exprimer, pour clarifier trois principales questions (et leurs connexions) qui sous-tendent les débats entre économie comportementale et économie standard : le problème de l’unification théorique vis-à-vis des trois dimensions de la rationalité économique, la question de l’interdisciplinarité entre économie et Psychologie, et le problème du positif/normatif dans les modèles de comportements individuels. Concernant le problème du positif/normatif et le rôle du langage dans les comportements des agents économiques, notre intention est de fournir, au-delà de la simple clarification, une critique constructive des contributions de l’économie standard comme de l’économie comportementale. Suivant la position de l’enchevêtrement du philosophe Hilary Putnam et des philosophes-économistes Vivian Walsh et Amartya Sen, il est soutenu que l’économie tant standard que comportementale propose une articulation insatisfaisante des dimensions positive et normative dans les modèles de comportements individuels; et que la reconnaissance de l’enchevêtrement de faits, de valeurs et de conventions peut être théoriquement et empiriquement fructueuse. Prêter attention au rôle du langage dans les comportements des agents économiques montre parfois qu’un comportement apparemment irrationnel peut en fait être défendu comme rationnel; c’est pourquoi nous soutenons que, et montrons comment, l'axiome implicite - connu sous le nom d’invariance à la description - dans les modèles standards de comportements individuels empêchant l’influence du langage doit être affaibli (mais pas complètement supprimé), contrairement aux positions de la plupart des économistes standards et comportementaux. / In this dissertation, we propose a methodological perspective on the twofold role of language in economic rationality, economists’ uses of language to theorize it and economic agent’s uses of language to express it, can clarify three main issues (and their connections), underlying the behavioral versus standard economics debates: the issue of the theoretical unification regarding the three dimensions of economic rationality, the issue of interdisciplinarity between economics and Psychology and the positive/normative issue within models of individual behaviors. Regarding the positive/normative issue and the role of language in the behaviors of economic agents, the intention is to provide a constructive criticism of contributions from behavioral as well as standard economists. Following the entanglement thesis of philosopher Hilary Puntam and philosophers-economists Vivian Walsh and Amartya Sen, it is argued that both standard and behavioral economists propose an unsatisfying articulation between the positive and normative dimensions of models of individual behaviors; and that recognizing the entanglement of facts, values and conventions can actually be theoretically and empirically fruitful. Paying some attention to the role of language in the behaviors of economic agents may sometimes show that a seemingly irrational behavior can in fact be defended as rational; hence we argue that, and show how, the implicit axiom -- known as ‘description invariance’ -- in standard models of individual behaviors preventing the influence of language needs to be weakened (though not dropped entirely), contrary to the positions of most behavioral and standard economists.

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Hurricanes have been considered one of the most costly disasters in United State, which lead to both economic loss and human fatalities. Therefore, understanding the characteristics of those who evacuated and of those who did not evacuate have been principal focus of some previous researches related to hurricane evacuation behavior. This research presents two sets of decision-making models for analyzing hurricane evacuation behavior, using two statistical methods: standard logistic model and mixed logistic model.The receipt of evacuation order, elevation, expenditure, the presence of children and elderly people, ownership of a house, and receipt of hurricane warning are found to be extremely important in evacuation decision making. When the mixed logistic model is applied, the rate of concern about hurricane threat is assumed to be random according to normal distribution. Mixed logistic models which account for the heterogeneity of household responses are found to perform better than standard logistic model.

Expected damages of environmental risks depend both on their intensities and probabilities. There is very little control over probabilities of climate related disasters such as hurricanes. Therefore, researchers of social science are interested identifying preparation and mitigation measures that build human resilience to disasters and avoid serious loss. Conversely, environmental degradation, which is a process through which the natural environment is compromised in some way, has been accelerated by human activities. As scientists are finding effective ways on how to prevent and reduce pollution, the society often fails to adopt these effective preventive methods. Researchers of psychological and contextual characterization offer specific lessons for policy interventions that encourage human efforts to reduce pollution. This dissertation addresses four discussions of effective policy regimes encouraging pro-environmental preference in consumption and production, and promoting risk mitigation behavior in the face of natural hazards. The first essay describes how the speed of adoption of environment friendly technologies is driven largely by consumers’ preferences and their learning dynamics rather than producers’ choice. The second essay is an empirical analysis of a choice experiment to understand preferences for energy efficient investments. The empirical analysis suggests that subjects tend to increase energy efficient investment when they pay a pollution tax proportional to the total expenditure on energy consumption. However, investments in energy efficiency seem to be crowded out when subjects have the option to buy health insurance to cover pollution related health risks. In context of hurricane risk mitigation and in evidence of recently adopted My Safe Florida Home (MSFH) program by the State of Florida, the third essay shows that households with home insurance, prior experience with damages, and with a higher sense of vulnerability to be affected by hurricanes are more likely to allow home inspection to seek mitigation information. The fourth essay evaluates the impact of utility disruption on household well being based on the responses of a household-level phone survey in the wake of hurricane Wilma. Findings highlight the need for significant investment to enhance the capacity of rapid utility restoration after a hurricane event in the context of South Florida.

US Foster Care is already known to be an under researched and complex topic, and the literature that is done tends to focus on the need for more investigation to improve this ineffective system. Foster care has even been described as “one huge experiment that has been conducted on children”, at a “cost of untold billions of dollars” (Courtney, 2000). This comment doesn’t seem too far off—there is a consensus that more work needs to be done in the realm of child welfare services, and some studies have even questioned whether removals and placements by foster care are beneficial at all (Doyle, 2006). In order to improve foster care and decisions in treatment (as these decisions have significant impact on children’s safety and well-being), we need to be more effective in using our resources and understanding the needs of the population, and the trends that might be influencing foster care. On that note, research by the US Department of Health and Human Services has shown a clear relationship between parental substance abuse and child abuse, and a study reported by Economic Inquiry (Cunningham, 2013), investigates this in terms of foster care. Cunningham’s study investigates the impact of methamphetamine abuse on admissions in foster care, and reports a significant causal relationship. This interesting report motivated me to investigate this further, and in terms of the recent opioid epidemic in the US. In this study, I adapt Cunningham’s strategies to investigate the effect of the opioid epidemic on US Foster Care, at a more recent time period. Surprisingly, I find different results for the opioid epidemic than the meth shocks, despite many variations of the model to proxy opioid use. My results show a negative relationship from opioid use on foster care admissions, while also confirming Cunningham’s study with a positive relationship with methamphetamine use and foster care at a more recent time period. This study will explain the methods that attain these results, as well as the reasons driving the results in the discussion. While contributing to Cunningham’s study, this study also contributes new research to a topic (the opioid epidemic) frequently mentioned in recent news. This study also considers the impact of this epidemic on individuals it might impact most, and addresses the gap in literature that exists regarding US Foster Care.

Using two experiments, where children either rolled dice or solved a matrix task, we examined whether scouts are more honest than non-scouts. In the first experiment, participants completed a matrix task. The papers were then shredded, and participants self-reported the number they had correctly solved. After analysing the results, we found that 10.81 % of scouts and 13.04 % of non-scouts lied. This difference, between the honesty of scouts and non-scouts, was not statistically significant. There was no perceived effect from being scout on the individual's honesty, as well as from taking the scout promise, or years of experience in a scout organization on the scout's honesty. In the second experiment, participants rolled the dice privately. According to value rolled, participants could either take (1, 2, 3), or leave (4, 5, 6), a Kinder chocolate reward. Statistically, participants would be expected to take the reward 50 % of the time. This was the case for the scouts group, the results did not differ statistically from 50:50, but not for the non-scouts. However, the difference between scouts and non-scouts was not statistically significant, indicating that there is no significant difference in honesty between scouts and non-scouts. Thus, our hypothesis that scouts are more honest than non-scouts was not supported.

Le constat d'un volume de déchets en augmentation constante en France et dans le monde appelle des études permettant de comprendre les comportements de tri des ménages. Cette thèse s'inscrit dans cette perspective et a pour ambition de comprendre comment modifier le comportement des consommateurs afin que ces derniers réduisent leurs déchets. Nous présentons d'abord une revue de la littérature analysant les différentes politiques publiques en matière de gestion des déchets. L'approche traditionelle consistant à dire que les individus répondent avant tout à un comportement rationnel, la recherche de gain, a ses limites. Nous soutenons l'idée que des politiques spécifiques prenant en compte les facteurs comportementaux sont nécessaires dans l'élaboration des politiques publiques en faveur du recyclage. Dans un second temps, nous nous intéressons aux déterminants du tri sélectif à partir de données issues d'une enquête originale auprès de 694 habitants de la région PACA. Nous estimons avec un modèle Probit la probabilité d'adopter un comportement de tri sélectif. Ce modèle teste les hypothèses étudiées jusqu'ici principalement par les sociologues et psychologues. Notre analyse empirique démontre que l'influence sociale impacte négativement le recyclage. Enfin, nous complétons cette étude avec un modèle mutli-agent qui cherche à expliquer le tri des déchets et l'impact des politiques publiques. Notre modèle considère des ménages hétérogènes choisissant de recycler selon quatre caractéristiques: leurs préférences environnementales, le coût d'opportunité de la taxe, le coût du tri et leur image de soi. Trois politiques sont testées : l'information, la taxe, et les "nudges". / The observation of a positive trend in the amount of waste in France and in the world has called for studies explaining household sorting behavior. This thesis lies in this perspective and aims at determining how to lead consumers to reduce their waste. We first present a review of the literature analyzing the portfolio of waste management public policies. We discuss the limits of the traditional approach stating that individuals adopt a rational behavior, seeking utility gains. Instead we support the idea that addressing behavioral factors is required for public policies supporting recycling behavior to succeed. In a second step, we investigate the the determinants of sorting behavior by building an original survey on 694 individuals in the PACA region. Our study combines and tests hypotheses first developed by sociologists and psychologists with concepts from behavioral economics. We use a probit model to estimate the probability to adopt a selective sorting behavior. Our empirical analysis shows that social influence negatively impacts recycling. Finally, we complete this study with an agent-based model which seeks to explain the sorting of waste as well as how such behavior is impacted by public policies. Our model considers heterogeneous households whose recycling decision is affected by four elements: individual environmental preferences and self-image, the opportunity cost of a tax on sorting, and the cost of sorting. Three public policies are tested: information, tax and "nudges".

This diploma thesis researches model of economic man, its historical background, and also modern critics of this concept and alternative approach to economic man, especially in behavioral economics. Human (im)perfection leads to the discussion about a range of liberty man should get eventually to which extent should a man be led by paternalism. Therefore this thesis introduces and tests concept of libertarian paternalism which is applied to drug issues. The thesis demonstrates that model of economic man is in many ways too simplified and insufficient. Thus, extention of this model with findings of psychology, biology and other sciences seems beneficial. Libertarian paternalism, despite few shortcomings, shows potential to be realisable and viable in certain situations.