A large body of literature studies the issues of the option price and other ex-ante welfare measures under the microeconomic theory to valuate reductions of risks inherent in environment and human health. However, it does not offer a careful discussion of how to estimate risk reduction values using data, especially the modeling and estimating individual perceptions of risks present in the econometric models. The central theme of my dissertation is the approaches taken for the empirical estimation of probabilistic risks under alternative assumptions about individual perceptions of risk involved: the objective probability, the Savage subjective probability, and the subjective distributions of probability. Each of these three types of risk specifications is covered in one of the three essays. The first essay addresses the problem of empirical estimation of individual willingness to pay for recreation access to public land under uncertainty. In this essay I developed an econometric model and applied it to the case of lottery-rationed hunting permits. The empirical result finds that the model correctly predicts the responses of 84% of the respondents in the Maine moose hunting survey. The second essay addresses the estimation of a logit model for individual binary choices that involve heterogeneity in subjective probabilities. For this problem, I introduce the use of the hierarchical Bayes to estimate, among others, the parameters of distribution of subjective probabilities. The Monte Carlo study finds the estimator asymptotically unbiased and efficient. The third essay addresses the problem of modeling perceived mortality risks from arsenic concentrations in drinking water. I estimated a formal model that allows for ambiguity about risk. The empirical findings revealed that perceived risk was positively associated with exposure levels and also related individuating factors, in particular smoking habits and one’s current health status. Further evidence was found that the variance of the perceived risk distribution is non-zero. In all, the three essays contribute methodological approaches and provide empirical examples for developing empirical models and estimating value of risk reductions in environment and human health, given the assumption about the individual’s perceptions of risk, and accordingly, the reasonable specifications of risks involved in the models.

[pt] A avaliação de recursos petrolíferos não descobertos, isto é feita a partir de informações obtidas de testes indiretos como a sismografia, é a base para as decisões sobre a perfuração de poços de exploração. As informações disponíveis nessa fase que antecede a perfuração de poços são vagas e plenas de incertezas. Por outro lado, a avaliação econômica cuidadosa dos prospectos nessa fase é fundamental para as decisões relativas às fases seguintes, principalmente, devido ao elevado custo da perfuração de poços que nelas ocorrem. Por isso, a aplicação de métodos estatísticos que reduzam as incertezas na avaliação de recursos não descobertos é de grande importância para a rentabilidade das empresas de petróleo. O cálculo do volume recuperável de hidrocarbonetos (base para a avaliação econômica) depende avaliações feitas por especialistas e para considerar as incertezas inerentes aos dados as avaliações devem ser representadas probabilisticamente. O objetivo desta dissertação é rever as metodologias e técnicas formais para avaliação probabilística de recursos não descobertos encontradas na literatura, tendo sempre em mente os aspectos práticos de implementação. A descrição destas metodologias inclui a estrutura e a organização necessárias para gerenciar o trabalho dos especialistas, a eliciação de distribuições de probabilidades subjetivas e a combinação destas distribuições, além de técnicas para verificação de consistência das avaliações e redução de vieses. São feitas considerações sobre as principais distribuições de probabilidade usadas para representar incertezas inerentes à avaliação de fatores geológicos. Cada uma das metodologias e técnicas é exemplificada e discutida. Uma planilha eletrônica foi constituída com objeto de ilustrar os métodos apresentados e servir como protótipo de instrumento de apoio a avaliação probabilística de fatores geológicos. / [en] The evaluation of not discovered oil and gas resources, that uses solely information obtained from indirect tests such as seismography, is the base for the decisions on the drilling exploration wells. The information available in this phase that precedes the drilling of wells is vague and very uncertain. On the other hand, the careful economic evaluation of the prospects in this phase is very important for the decisions concerning the following phases, mainly on because of the high cost of the drilling of wells that occur. Therefore, the application of statistical methods for reducing the uncertainties and biases in the evaluation of undiscovered resources is quite important for the oil companies. The calculation of the recoverable volume of hydro-carbons (the basis for economic evaluation) depends on assessments made by experts, and for representing the uncertainties; the data must be probabilistically distributed. The objective of this thesis is to review the formal methodologies and techniques for probabilistic evaluation of undiscovered resources founded in literature, having always in mind the practical aspects of implementation. The description of these methodologies range from the definition of the structure and organization necessary to manage the work of the experts, the elicitation of distributions of subjective probabilities and the combination of these distributions, until techniques for verification of evaluations consistency and reduction of biases. Some considerations are made about the main distributions of probability used for representing the uncertainties in evaluations of geologic factors. Each methodology and technique is illustrated and discussed. An electronic spread sheet was developed to illustrate the presented methods and as a prototype of computer aid for the probabilistic evaluation of geologic factors.

We present some initial results on ontology-based query answering with description logic ontologies that may employ temporal and probabilistic operators on concepts and axioms. Speci_cally, we consider description logics extended with operators from linear temporal logic (LTL), as well as subjective probability operators, and an extended query language in which conjunctive queries can be combined using these operators. We first show some complexity results for the setting in which either only temporal operators or only probabilistic operators may be used, both in the ontology and in the query, and then show a 2ExpSpace lower bound for the setting in which both types of operators can be used together. / This is an extended version of an article accepted at Description Logics 2019.

The experiments presented and analyzed in this dissertation concern two well-established phenomena in behavioral economics: that human decision makers hold biased beliefs about probability and that free-form communication between economic agents promotes cooperation far in excess of what standard theory predicts. First, Chapter 2 studies subjective probability, focusing on the well-established existence of both the Hot Hand and Gambler's Fallacies — the false expectation of positive and negative autocorrelation, respectively. Both biases are prevalent throughout a wide variety of real-world contexts; what causes a person to favor one over the other? We conduct an experiment in which we observe fully informed subjects switching between the Hot Hand and Gambler's Fallacies when predicting future outcomes of mathematically identical sequences. Subjects exhibit the Gambler's Fallacy when predicting single outcomes but favor the Hot Hand when asked explicitly to estimate probabilities. Connecting our results to existing theory suggests that very subtle changes in framing lead decision makers to employ substantially different approaches to form predictions. The remainder of this dissertation studies cheap talk communication between human subjects playing incentivised trust games. In Chapter 3, we study free-form communication using a dataset of over 1000 messages sent between participants in a laboratory Trust game. We employ Natural Language Processing to systematically generate meaningful partitions of the messages space which we can then examine with established regression approaches. Our investigation reveals features correlated with trust that have not previously been considered. Most notably, highly detailed, specific promises establish trust more effectively than other messages which signal the same intended action. Additionally, we observe that the most and least trusted messages in our dataset differ starkly in their quality. Highly trusted messages are longer, more detailed, and contain fewer grammatical errors whereas the least trusted messages tend to be brief and prone to errors. In Chapter 4, we examine whether the difference is message quality affects trust by acting as a signal of effort. We report the results of an experiment designed to test whether promises which require higher levels of effort result in greater trust from their recipients. We find that more costly promises lead recipients to trust more frequently. However, there is no corresponding, significant difference in the trustworthiness of their senders. Further, when asked their beliefs explicitly, recipients do not believe that higher cost promises are more likely to be trustworthy. This presents a potential challenge to our understanding of trust between economic decision makers. If effort increases trust without altering receivers' beliefs, receivers must be concerned with factors other than their own payoff maximization. We conclude by presenting a follow-up experiment where varying effort cost cannot convey the sender's intentions, however, the results are inconclusive. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation presents three projects in which we examine how human decision makers' choices differ from those predicted by standard economic theory. The experiments we conduct cover two broad topics: the way humans estimate the probability of random events and how communication leads to greater cooperation between agents with potentially conflicting monetary interests. It is well established that humans often hold distorted beliefs about probability. Depending on the direction of their bias, these beliefs are consistent with either the Hot Hand or Gambler's Fallacy. In Chapter 2, we examine the factors which may cause people to change the direction of their bias. Subjects exhibit the Gambler's Fallacy when predicting single outcomes, but favor the Hot Hand when asked explicitly to estimate probabilities. Chapters 3 and 4 study cheap talk communication between decision makers — messages which carry with them no commitment mechanism. It is no surprise to the average person that communication may enhance cooperation and trust between people. Experimental economists have verified this intuition in laboratory experiments and found that free-form communication is particularly effective. However, the precise mechanism through which free-form communication enhances cooperation is unclear. In Chapter 3, we collect a large dataset of free-form messages transmitted between players of an investment game. We then employ Natural Language Processing tools, novel to the Economics laboratory, to parse the unstructured data and identify message features associated with changes in trust and trustworthiness. Chapter 4 continues to examine communication, investigating whether the effort required to a promise affects its perceived or actual trustworthiness. We find that higher effort promises lead to greater trust, but find no corresponding increase in trustworthiness.

The purpose with this study is to show how the subjective uncertainty analysis can be applied to the cost estimates and examine how the attitudes towards risk budgeting of construction projects works. Biogas Mellannorrland is based on a case study and focuses on four location options for the biogas plant. For each option, a cost estimate in form of a fixed cost and variable cost elements, where the latter are uncertain. Pearson-Tukey method have been applied as a method to estimating subjective probabilities. An assumption is made so that the uncertain costs are normally distributed, where the parameters’ mean and standard deviation collected from respondents indicating percentiles at 5% and 95% for doubtful cost elements. In order to identify the project managers risk attitude, the risk premium method will be used to calculate where the expected value is produced by Pearson-Tukey method. The expected value is subtracted with certainty equivalent, which consist of the budgeted amount. The study was conducted through interviews in order to obtain the costs and the subjective probabilities. The study results show that it is difficult to determine which option is the best, or the worst, by just looking at the expected value. The risk premium shows that each option is a risk averse choice for the project managers, since the risk premium was greater than zero. / Denna studie syftar till att visa hur subjektiv osäkerhetsanalys kan tillämpas vid kostnadskalkyler samt undersöka riskattityder vid budgetering av byggprojekt. Undersökningen är en fallstudie vid Biogas Mellannorrland och fokuserar på fyra lokaliseringsalternativ för biogasanläggning. För varje alternativ görs en kostnadskalkyl i form av ett antal fasta och rörliga delkostnader, där de senare är osäkra. Som metod för att skatta subjektiva sannolikheter har Pearson-Tukey-metoden tillämpats. Ett antagande görs att osäkra kostnader är normalfördelade, där parametrarna väntevärde och standardavvikelse hämtas från respondenter som anger percentilerna vid 5 % och 95 % för osäkra delkostnader. För att identifiera projektledarnas riskattityd, kommer riskpremium att beräknas, där det förväntade värdet tas fram med Pearson-Tukey- metoden. Det förväntade värdet subtraheras med säkerhetsekvivalensen, vilket utgörs av det budgeterade beloppet. Studien har genomförts med hjälp av intervjuer för att få fram kostnader och subjektiva sannolikheter. Studiens resultat visar att det är svårt att avgöra vilka alternativ som är bäst eller sämst genom att bara titta på väntevärdet. Med riskpremium visar alla alternativ att projektledarna gör ett riskaversivt val, eftersom riskpremium blev större än noll.

Une part importante de l’activité de communication humaine est dédiée au récit d’événements (fictifs ou non). Ces récits doivent être cohérents et intéressants pour être pertinents. Dans le domaine de la génération automatique de récits, la question de l’intérêt a souvent été négligée, ou traitée via l’utilisation de méthodes ad hoc, au profit de la cohérence des structures narratives produites. Nous proposons d’aborder le processus de création des récits sous l’angle de la modélisation quantitative de critères de pertinence narrative via l’application d’un modèle cognitif de l’intérêt événementiel. Nous montrerons que cet effort de modélisation peut servir de guide pour concevoir un modèle cognitivement plausible de génération de narrations. / Humans devote a considerable amount of time to producing narratives. Whatever a story is used for (whether to entertain or to teach), it must be relevant. Relevant stories must be believable and interesting. The field of computational generation of narratives has explored many ways of generating narratives, especially well-formed and understandable ones. The question of what makes a story interesting has however been largely ignored or barely addressed. Only some specific aspects of narrative interest have been considered. No general theoretical framework that would serve as guidance for the generation of interesting and believable narratives has been provided. The aim of this thesis is to introduce a cognitive model of situational interest and use it to offer formal criteria to decide to what extent a story is relevant. Such criteria could guide the development of a cognitively plausible model of story generation.