The purpose of this research was to explore the effects of small monetary or economic gains and/or losses on choice behavior through the use of a computerized game and to determine gain/loss ratio differences using both behavioral and electrophysiological measures. Participants (N=53) played the game in several 36 minute sessions. These sessions operated with concurrent variable-interval schedules for both rewards and penalties. Previously, asymmetrical effects of gains and losses have been identified through cognitive studies, primarily due to the work of nobel laureates Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (1979). They found that the effect of a loss is twice (i.e., 2:1) that of a gain. Similar results have been observed in the behavioral laboratory as exemplified by the research of Rasmussen and Newland (2008), who found a 3:1 ratio for the effect of losses versus gains. The asymmetry of gains and losses was estimated behaviorally and through event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and the cognitive (Kahneman and Tversky) and behavioral (Rasmussen and Newland) discrepancy elucidated. In the game, the player moves an animated submarine around sea rocks to collect yellow coins and other treasures on the sea floor. Upon collecting a coin, one of three things can happen: The player triggers a penalty (loss), the player triggers a payoff (gain), or there is no change. The behavioral measures consisted in counting the number of clicks, reinforces, and punishers and then determining ratio differences between punished (loss) and no punished condition (gain) conditions. The obtained gain/loss ratio corresponded to an asymmetry of 2:1. Similarly ratio differences were found between male and female, virtual money and cash, risk averse versus risk seeking, and generosity versus profit behavior. Also, no ratio difference was found when players receive information about other player's performances in the game (players with information versus players without information). In electroencephalographic (EEG) studies, visual evoked potentials (VEPs) and ERPs components (e.g., P300) were examined. I found increased ERP amplitudes for the losses in relation to the gains that corresponded to the calculated behavioral asymmetry of 2:1. A correlational strategy was adopted that sought to identify neural correlates of choice consistent with cognitive and behavioral approaches. In addition, electro cortical ratio differences were observed between different sets of electrodes that corresponded to the front, middle, and back sections of the brain; differences between sessions, risk averse and risk seeking behavior and sessions with concurrent visual and auditory stimuli and only visual were also estimated.

<p>This thesis addresses the issue of weighted cost-benefit analysis (WCBA). WCBA is a welfare evaluation model where income distribution effects are valued by distributional weighting. The method was developed already in the 1970s. The interest in and applications of this method have increased in the past decade, e.g. when evaluating of global environmental problems. There are, however, still unsolved problems regarding the application of this method. One such issue is the choice of the approach to the means of estimating of the distributional weights. The literature on WCBA suggests a couple of approaches, but gives no clues as to which one is the most appropriate one to use, either from a theoretical or from an empirical point of view. Accordingly, the choice of distributional weights may be an arbitrary one. In the first paper in this thesis, the consequences of the choice of distributional weights on project decisions have been studied. Different sets of distributional weights have been compared across a variety of strategically chosen income distribution effects. The distributional weights examined are those that correspond to the WCBA approaches commonly suggested in literature on the topic. The results indicate that the choice of distributional weights is of importance for the rank of projects only when the income distribution effects concern target populations with low incomes. The results also show that not only the mean income but also the span of incomes, of the target population of the income distribution effect, affects the result of the distributional weighting when applying very progressive non-linear distributional weights. This may cause the distributional weighting to indicate an income distribution effect even though the project effect is evenly distributed across the population.</p><p>One rational for distributional weighting, commonly referred to when applying WCBA, is that marginal utility of income is decreasing with income. In the second paper, this hypothesis is tested. My study contributes to this literature by employing stated preference data on compensated variation (CV) in a model flexible as to the functional form of the marginal utility. The results indicate that the marginal utility of income decreases linearly with income.</p><p>Under certain conditions, a decreasing marginal utility of income corresponds to risk aversion. Thus the hypothesis that marginal utility of income is decreasing with income can be tested by analyses of individuals’ behaviour in gambling situations. The third paper examines of the role of risk aversion, defined by the von Neumann-Morgenstern expected utility function, for people’s concern about the problem of ‘sick’ buildings. The analysis is based on data on the willingness to pay (WTP) for having the indoor air quality (IAQ) at home examined and diagnosed by experts and the WTP for acquiring an IAQ at home that is guaranteed to be good. The results indicate that some of the households are willing to pay for an elimination of the uncertainty of the IAQ at home, even though they are not willing to pay for an elimination of the risks for building related ill health. The probability to pay, for an elimination of the uncertainty of the indoor air quality at home, only because of risk aversion is estimated to 0.3-0.4. Risk aversion seems to be a more common motive, for the decision to pay for a diagnosis of the IAQ at home, among young people.</p><p>Another rationale for distributional weighting, commonly referred to, is the existence of unselfish motives for economic behaviour, such as social inequality aversion or altruism. In the fourth paper the hypothesis that people have altruistic preferences, i.e. that they care about other people’s well being, is tested. The WTP for a public project, that ensures good indoor air quality in all buildings, have been measured in three different ways for three randomly drawn sub-samples, capturing different motives for economic behaviour (pure altruism, paternalism and selfishness). The significance of different questions, and different motives, is analysed using an independent samples test of the mean WTPs of the sub-samples, a chi-square test of the association between the WTP and the sample group membership and an econometric analysis of the decision to pay to the public project. No evidence for altruism, either pure altruism or paternalism, is found in this study.</p>

Il a été démontré en laboratoire que l’équilibre de Nash n’était pas toujours un bon indicateur du comportement humain. Différentes théories alternatives (aversion à l’inégalité, réciprocité et norme sociale) ont vu le jour pour combler les lacunes de la théorie classique, mais aucune d’elles ne permet d’expliquer la totalité des phénomènes observés en laboratoire. Après avoir identifié les lacunes de ces modèles, ce mémoire développe un modèle qui synthétise dans un tout cohérent les avancées de ceux-ci à l’aide de préférences hétérogènes. Afin d’augmenter la portée du modèle, une nouvelle notion d’équilibre, dite comportementale, est ajoutée au modèle. En appliquant le nouveau modèle à des jeux simples, nous pouvons voir comment il élargit le nombre de comportements pouvant être modélisé par la théorie des jeux. / It has been shown in laboratory experiments that the Nash equilibrium was not always a good indicator of human behavior. Various alternative theories (inequity aversion, reciprocity and social norms) have emerged to fill gaps in the classical theory, but none of them can explain all the phenomena observed in the laboratory. After identifying the shortcomings of these models, this thesis develops a model that summarizes advances made by those models into a coherent whole by using heterogeneous preferences. To increase the scope of the model, a new notion of equilibrium, a behavioral equilibrium, is added to the model. By applying the new model to simple games, we can see how it expands the number of behaviors that can be modeled by game theory.

Nombreux sont ceux à considérer que depuis le développement de la médecine curative, la prévention a occupé une place secondaire dans le système de santé français. La préoccupation majeure aurait été jusque-là d'assurer un accès aux soins plutôt que de favoriser une culture de la prévention. Depuis quelques années, les différents drames sanitaires (transfusion sanguine, amiante, canicule, hormone de croissance, épidémies de grippe, cancers,...) ont sensibilisé l'opinion à la notion de "sécurité sanitaire" et fait émerger une prise de conscience nouvelle autour des problématiques de la prévention. Le recours à la prévention permet aux individus et aux pouvoirs publics d'exercer un contrôle sur les risques de santé auxquels ils sont exposés et de mener des actions conséquentes dans le but d'améliorer l'état de santé en évitant l'apparition, le développement ou l'aggravation des maladies ou des accidents tout en favorisant des comportements individuels et collectifs pouvant contribuer à réduire les risques sanitaires. Une des réponses face aux risques de santé est d'inciter les individus à plus de prévention car ils ne sont plus seulement consommateurs de soins mais aussi producteurs de leur état de santé. Quel est donc le rôle des individus et quelle est la part de responsabilité dévolue à chacun dans la prévention des risques sanitaires ? De plus, la prévention des risques sanitaires s'inscrit dans un environnement d'ambiguïté et d'incertitudes car les risques auxquels sont exposés les individus sont diversement nombreux et pas toujours bien connus. Il n'est donc pas aisé de relier avec certitude un facteur de risque et un effet sanitaire pour ainsi adopter un comportement de prévention adéquat. Dans ce contexte d'incertitude, de nombreux modèles d'aide à la décision, ou de représentations des préférences ont été proposés ces dernières années (Klibanoff et al.(2005), Bleichrodt et Eeckhoudt(2006) Machina(2009), Etner et al.(2011)). Cette thèse analyse les comportements de prévention des individus face à des risques de santé tout en mettant l'accent sur les politiques publiques de prévention proposées. Elle consiste d'une part à des études théoriques des comportements de prévention et de gestion des risques sanitaires en utilisant des modèles récents de préférences. Ce travail analyse le comportement des individus qui doivent prendre des mesures de prévention pour protéger leur propre santé dans un contexte d'incertitude. D'autre part, elle se consacre à une étude empirique pour cerner les perceptions et informations qu'ont les individus en termes de risque de santé. En outre, tout au long de ce travail, nous avons cherché à étudier la pertinence du modèle théorique élaboré au regard des politiques pratiquées. Le premier chapitre présente les principes de modélisation des décisions économiques en présence d'un risque de santé plus ou moins bien connu. Après avoir détaillé lesdifférentes approches dans les modèles de décisions dans le risque et dans l'incertain, nous avons mis en relief l'importance de l'introduction de variables bidimensionnelles (ou multidimensionnelles) dans le modèle de choix pour permettre de rendre de l'environnement multidimensionnel des risques de santé. Le deuxième chapitre est une étude originale proposée sur l'analyse de la prévention en santé lorsque les individus présentent de l'aversion à l'ambiguïté. Dans ce chapitre, nous avons étudié les comportements individuels de prévention face à une incertitude sur l'état de santé et avons montré que l'aversion à l'ambiguïté incite les individus à faire plus de prévention primaire et secondaire sous l'hypothèse d'une utilité marginale de la richesse croissante avec l'état de santé. (...)

This thesis addresses the issue of weighted cost-benefit analysis (WCBA). WCBA is a welfare evaluation model where income distribution effects are valued by distributional weighting. The method was developed already in the 1970s. The interest in and applications of this method have increased in the past decade, e.g. when evaluating of global environmental problems. There are, however, still unsolved problems regarding the application of this method. One such issue is the choice of the approach to the means of estimating of the distributional weights. The literature on WCBA suggests a couple of approaches, but gives no clues as to which one is the most appropriate one to use, either from a theoretical or from an empirical point of view. Accordingly, the choice of distributional weights may be an arbitrary one. In the first paper in this thesis, the consequences of the choice of distributional weights on project decisions have been studied. Different sets of distributional weights have been compared across a variety of strategically chosen income distribution effects. The distributional weights examined are those that correspond to the WCBA approaches commonly suggested in literature on the topic. The results indicate that the choice of distributional weights is of importance for the rank of projects only when the income distribution effects concern target populations with low incomes. The results also show that not only the mean income but also the span of incomes, of the target population of the income distribution effect, affects the result of the distributional weighting when applying very progressive non-linear distributional weights. This may cause the distributional weighting to indicate an income distribution effect even though the project effect is evenly distributed across the population. One rational for distributional weighting, commonly referred to when applying WCBA, is that marginal utility of income is decreasing with income. In the second paper, this hypothesis is tested. My study contributes to this literature by employing stated preference data on compensated variation (CV) in a model flexible as to the functional form of the marginal utility. The results indicate that the marginal utility of income decreases linearly with income. Under certain conditions, a decreasing marginal utility of income corresponds to risk aversion. Thus the hypothesis that marginal utility of income is decreasing with income can be tested by analyses of individuals’ behaviour in gambling situations. The third paper examines of the role of risk aversion, defined by the von Neumann-Morgenstern expected utility function, for people’s concern about the problem of ‘sick’ buildings. The analysis is based on data on the willingness to pay (WTP) for having the indoor air quality (IAQ) at home examined and diagnosed by experts and the WTP for acquiring an IAQ at home that is guaranteed to be good. The results indicate that some of the households are willing to pay for an elimination of the uncertainty of the IAQ at home, even though they are not willing to pay for an elimination of the risks for building related ill health. The probability to pay, for an elimination of the uncertainty of the indoor air quality at home, only because of risk aversion is estimated to 0.3-0.4. Risk aversion seems to be a more common motive, for the decision to pay for a diagnosis of the IAQ at home, among young people. Another rationale for distributional weighting, commonly referred to, is the existence of unselfish motives for economic behaviour, such as social inequality aversion or altruism. In the fourth paper the hypothesis that people have altruistic preferences, i.e. that they care about other people’s well being, is tested. The WTP for a public project, that ensures good indoor air quality in all buildings, have been measured in three different ways for three randomly drawn sub-samples, capturing different motives for economic behaviour (pure altruism, paternalism and selfishness). The significance of different questions, and different motives, is analysed using an independent samples test of the mean WTPs of the sub-samples, a chi-square test of the association between the WTP and the sample group membership and an econometric analysis of the decision to pay to the public project. No evidence for altruism, either pure altruism or paternalism, is found in this study.

Cette thèse s’attèle à déterminer les conséquences théoriques et empiriques de la considération d’indicateurs socialement responsables dans la sélection de portefeuille traditionnelle. Le premier chapitre étudie la significativité de la perte d’efficience moyenne-variance d’un portefeuille d’obligations souveraines lorsque l’on introduit une contrainte sur la notation socialement responsable moyenne des Etats. En utilisant un échantillon d’obligations d’Etats développés sur la période 1995-2008, nous montrons qu’il est possible d’augmenter sensiblement la notation socialement responsable moyenne sans perdre significativement en termes de diversification. Le second chapitre propose une analyse théorique de l’effet sur la frontière efficiente d’une contrainte sur la notation socialement responsable du portefeuille. Nous mettons en évidence les différents cas de figure pouvant se produire en fonction de la corrélation entre les rendements attendus et les notations socialement responsables et de l’aversion au risque de l’investisseur. Enfin, puisque la question de l’efficience des portefeuilles investis en fonction de critères socialement responsables fait débat dans la littérature financière, un dernier chapitre propose un nouveau test d’efficience moyenne-variance dans le cas réaliste où aucun actif sans risque n’est disponible. / This thesis aims at determining the theoretical and empirical consequences of the consideration of socially responsible indicators in the traditional portfolio selection. The first chapter studies the significance of the mean-variance efficiency loss of a sovereign bond portfolio when introducing a constraint on the average socially responsible ratings of the governments. By using a sample of developed sovereign bonds on the period 1995-2008, we show that it is possible to increase sensibly the average socially responsible rating without significantly losing in terms of diversification. The second chapter proposes a theoretical analysis of the impact on the efficient frontier of a constraint on the socially responsible ratings of the portfolio. We highlight that different cases may arise depending on the correlation between the expected returns and the socially responsible ratings and on the investor’s risk aversion. Lastly, as the issue of the efficiency of socially responsible portfolios is a central point in the financial literature, the last chapter proposes a new mean-variance efficiency test in the realistic case where there is no available risk-free asset.

Cette thèse a pour objet de fournir une méthode d'évaluation simple de l'inégalité et de la mobilité des revenus. Nous utilisons une méthode de décomposition récemment introduite dans la littérature et aujourd'hui connue sous le nom de emph{décomposition faible}, pour analyser la répartition des écarts de revenus entre les individus appartenant à un même sous-groupe et ceux situés dans des sous-groupes distincts. Nous nous intéressons en particulier aux contextes dans lesquels il peut être pertinent de faire appel à un tel outil de décomposition. Nous approfondissons nos recherches en précisant les propriétés normatives des indicateurs compatibles avec le schéma de décomposition faible en sous-groupes. Nous énonçons notamment des principes de transferts intra- et intergroupes afin de fournir des moyens d'actions représentatifs des préférences d'un décideur politique. Les fondements axiomatiques de cette propriété de décomposition en sous-groupes sont également abordés. Des fonctions de pondération plus générale mais néanmoins conformes aux schémas de décomposition en sous-groupes usuels sont introduites. Cette généralisation nous permet de caractériser axiomatiquement des mesures d'inégalité à 2 paramètres que nous qualifions de (alpha,delta)-Gini. Ces 2 paramètres alpha et delta permettent de capter l'ensemble des points de vue politique des décideurs publics (d'extrême gauche à extrême droite). Nous montrons de plus que l'application de la décomposition faible en sous-groupes se généralise aisément à l'étude de la mobilité des revenus. Nous proposons ainsi une adaptation de la propriété de décomposition en sous-groupes dans un cadre bidimensionnel et caractérisons 2 classes de mesures d'inégalité de croissance ajustée et de mouvements de revenus cohérentes avec cette condition. Diverses études empiriques sont également menées afin d'illustrer les différentes notions développées dans cette thèse. / This Ph.D. Dissertation aims at providing accurate and simple tool to evaluate income inequality and mobility. Our work relies on a subgroup decomposition property recently introduced in the literature as the $``$emph{weak decomposition}$"$ to break down total disparities into within-group and between-group disparities. A particular interest is given to the context in which subgroup decomposition can be applied. We introduce within-group and between-group transfer principles that can be modulated according to a decision maker's preferences. The axiomatic basis of the subgroup decomposition property are also dealt with. Some general weighing functions are introduced to caracterize a two-parameters class of inequality measures denoted denoted (alpha,delta)-Gini. The parameters alpha and delta allow capturing the set of decision's maker point of view (from extrem leftist to extreme rightist). Furthermore, we demonstrate the the application of the weak decomposition can easily be extended to income mobility. We propose an adaptation of the subgroup decomposition property to a bimensional framework and we characterize 2 classes of inequality adjusted growth and income movements measures consistent with such a property. Various empirical studies are also carried out to illustrate the various developed concepts.

Les disparités socio-spatiales sont à la fois une cause et une conséquence des inégalités sociales. Cette thèse interroge le rôle des inégalités sociales dans la formation et la correction des disparités socio-spatiales. Elle est composée de trois essais, qui éclairent différentes facettes de ce questionnement, faisant intervenir les migrations résidentielles et les politiques publiques. Le premier essai analyse la pertinence des orientations stratégiques nationales de la politique de développement rural à l'aune du débat philosophique sur la justice sociale. Il met en évidence le rôle que joue et que devrait jouer l'objectif de réduction des inégalités sociales dans la définition d'une politique agissant sur les disparités socio-spatiales. Les deux essais suivants montrent comment les inégalités sociales génèrent des disparités socio-spatiales par le biais des mobilités résidentielles de longues et de courtes distances. Le second essai étudie les effets du sentiment d'aversion à l'inégalité locale et de la politique de redistribution du revenu sur les mobilités et les disparités interrégionales, dans le cadre théorique de la Nouvelle Economie Géographique. Le dernier essai examine comment les inégalités sociales conditionnent les choix résidentiels et induisent une ségrégation socio-spatiale au sein des aires urbaines françaises, à l'aide de modèles économétriques de choix discrets / Socio-spatial disparities are both a cause and a consequence of social inequalities. This thesis questions the role of social inequalities in the formation and correction of socio-spatial disparities. It is composed of three essays shedding light on different sides of this issue, involving residential migrations and public policies. The first essay analyses the relevance of the national strategic orientations of the rural development policy by the yardstick of the philosophical debate on social justice. It puts in evidence the role that play and should play the objective of reducing social inequalities in the definition of a policy acting on socio-spatial disparities. The two following essays show how social inequalities generate socio-spatial disparities through long and short distance residential moves. The second essay studies the effect of the feeling of aversion toward local inequality and of the income redistribution policy on interregional migrations and disparities, in the theoretical framework of the New Economic Geography. The last essay examines how social inequalities determine residential choices and produce socio-spatial segregation in the French urban areas, using econometric discrete choice models

Par sa nature prototypique, chaque bien musical, et par extension chaque bien culturel, est un bien nouveau. Cette thèse a pour objectif d’étudier la consommation et le financement de la nouveauté musicale en adoptant deux approches de l’économie expérimentale : les expériences en laboratoire (première partie) et l’interprétation des données de terrain à partir de mesures expérimentales (seconde partie). La première partie explore les déterminants et les caractéristiques de la demande de nouveauté musicale. Dans un premier chapitre, nous étudions l’effet de l’information et du prix sur la concentration de la demande lorsque les consommateurs peuvent choisir entre des artistes établis sur le marché et des nouveaux entrants. Le second chapitre propose une estimation de systèmes complets de demande pour quatre genres musicaux. La seconde partie de cette thèse s’intéresse aux comportements de contributeurs sur une plateforme de financement participatif avec récompenses. Dans le troisième chapitre, nous proposons un modèle rendant compte de la décision de contribuer à un projet musical à partir du constat que les contributeurs font face à deux types de risque : le risque d’échec de la coordination et le risque de non livraison du produit. Dans ce contexte, l’illusion de contrôle permet d’expliquer la dynamique de contribution. L’étude du rôle des préférences face au risque montre que lorsque le risque d’échec de la coordination disparaît, l’aversion au risque est corrélée négativement au niveau des contributions. Cependant, en début de campagne, cette corrélation est positive. Le dernier chapitre se concentre sur la nature hybride du financement participatif. Les résultats suggèrent que la décision de contribution relève d’une logique de don tandis que le niveau de ces contributions relève d’une logique de consommation. / By its prototypical nature, each musical good, and by extension each cultural good, is new. The aim of this thesis is two study the consumption and the funding of musical novelty, using two experimental approaches : the use of in-lab experiments to study demand (part I) and the use of experimental measures to understand field behaviors (part II). The first part explores the determinants and characteristics of demand for novelty. In the first chapter, we study the demand concentration when consumers can choose between established artists and new entrants. The second chapter presents estimations of an almost ideal demand system for four musical genres. The second part of this thesis focuses on contributors’ behaviors of a reward-based crowdfunding platform. In a third chapter, we propose a model of decision to contribute to a musical project, based on the observation that contributors are exposed to two types of risk : a risk of coordination failure and a risk of non delivery. With this in mind, illusion of control allows to understand the timing of decision. A closer look at the role of risk preferences shows that risk aversion is negatively correlated with contributions when coordination is ensured. On the contrary, the correlation becomes positive at the beginning of a campaign. In the last chapter, we investigate the mixed nature of crowdfunding. Results suggest that the decision to contribute falls within a donation logic while the decision on how much to contribute falls within a consumption logic.

In my dissertation, I investigate the relationship between household consumption expenditures and transitory income shocks. In the first two essays, I pay particular attention to household expenditures in the aftermath of natural disasters, which are becoming more frequent and costly in the U.S. since 1980. Additionally, I study specialty farm producers' risk attitudes after an income shock due to natural disasters. Although the permanent income hypothesis predicts that households smooth consumption over their lifetimes, credit-constrained households may find consumption smoothing impractical. This dissertation brings forth evidence regarding heterogeneity in the effect of income shocks on household expenditures. First, I find that floods and hurricanes affect food-at-home (FAH) spending in different ways. The average 15-day decrease in FAH spending is about $2 in the 90 days after a flood and about $7 in the 30 days after a hurricane. In other words, floods have a prolonged effect and hurricanes have an immediate effect. I find that floods and hurricanes remain a threat to the FAH expenditures of vulnerable households, for instance, low-income households and households in coastal states. Second, Indiana specialty farm households reduce their monthly expenses of food and miscellaneous categories by about $119 and $280, respectively, after an income loss of 20%-32%. I also find that Indiana specialty producers are less willing to take financial risk after an income loss experience, i.e., they have a decreasing absolute risk aversion. Finally, in the third essay, I show that Australian households exhibit loss aversion in consumption expenditures which also means that they behave asymmetrically in their consumption response to income shocks. However, it is only working-age younger households that show asymmetric consumption behavior as opposed to the symmetric behavior of retirement-age households. The main message of these various findings is clear: after an income shock, the magnitude of change in consumption expenditures and the saliency of certain expenditure categories for adjustment are context- and population-dependent. Hence, income support policies and post-disaster relief programs may benefit from a better understanding of the consumption behavior of beneficiary population, to achieve maximum impact through better targeting.