Obesity is a substantial public health concern. One subgroup that has shown a large increase in prevalence of obesity is adolescents (12 - 19 years) (CDC, 2014; Altman & Wilfley, 2014; Odgen et al., 2010; Ogden, et al., 2012; Ogden, et al., 2014). This is concerning for two reasons: (a) the strong likelihood of obesity persisting into adulthood (CDC, 2014) leading to co-occurring medical and psychosocial problems (Altman & Wilfley, 2014; Kelsey et al., 2014), and (b) there are few studies demonstrating successful reductions in obesity in children and even fewer successful demonstrations in adolescents (Altman & Wilfley, 2014; Tsiros et al., 2008). One way to evaluate the behaviors related to obesity is through an individual’s choice-making behavior between foods and exercises. Behavior Economic Theory (BET) is an operant methodology used to assess choice making and to describe relationships between choices. The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between diet and exercise, through the BET framework, in adolescent females who are obese within a single case design. Participants’ recorded daily perceived calories consumed and expended with a concurrent schedules design using an electronic self-monitoring program for baseline (Phase 1). After Phase 1, the researcher presented a choice between diet and exercise and developed a behavioral contract with goals addressing that choice for Phase 2. A subsequent behavioral contract was developed to target the changes in diet or exercise in Phase 3. The participants continued to record daily consumption and expenditure during Phases 2 and 3. IOA was collected by two researchers who independently reviewed the recorded consumed and expended calories on at least 30% of days that the participant self-monitored. For all participants, IOA was calculated across 35.8% of days with an average 96.6% agreement. The results showed that 3 of 5 participants preferred to develop a behavioral contract which targeted exercise, but only one showed weight loss. Two of the 5 participants chose to target diet with the contracts. Similar to the exercise group, weight loss occurred for only one participant. Using the BET methodology to analyze the participant’s engagement in reducing calories, only participants that simultaneously worked on increasing exercise and reducing their calorie intake lost weight, showing a complementary relationship between diet and exercise. Regardless of intervention strategy, these results suggest that adolescent females may have to develop a complementary relationship between diet and exercise to achieve successful outcomes. These results suggest that further analysis of the relationship between diet and exercise are warranted.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-123).

There is limited research pertaining to assessing the happiness levels of various disciplines within the healthcare industry. Furthermore, happiness and physiotherapy studies are two research areas that are not necessarily associated with one another on a global perspective. Hence, the happiness levels have not been adequately established for private physiotherapists. This treatise is the first attempt to evaluate the happiness levels of private physiotherapists in South Africa. A thorough literature review was conducted to determine the current climate of happiness studies pertaining to the business industry, with focus on private physiotherapy businesses in the healthcare sector. The literature review enabled the development of a hypothesised model, which was tested with quantitative techniques consisting of a questionnaire, data collection and statistical analysis. The research confirmed that influence, social relations, life balance, optimism, work and leisure are all positively associated with the happiness levels of private physiotherapists in South Africa. These variables are recommended as key focus areas for physiotherapy business owners to address, in order to positively affect happiness levels in the workplace and thereby create favourable bottom line results. In accordance with the reviewed literature and the findings of this treatise, by adequately addressing these variables the business owners of physiotherapy practices will generate a workforce that are more productive, demonstrate greater collaboration with colleagues and customers, produce happier customers, are more positively energised and are less absent and more loyal to the business. It is recommended that the proposed model is tested to provide further benefit to the industry by constructing evidence-based retention and recruitment strategies for high performing private physiotherapy staff.

Behavioral economics concepts can advance understanding, predicting, and controlling complex human behavior. Although there have been numerous attempts to apply behavioral economics concepts to applied settings, there are a limited number of experiments conducted in educational settings. The purpose of the studies in this paper is a to apply well-grounded scientific findings in behavioral economics to education to advance our understanding of teaching and learning and to develop cost-effective interventions. Study 1 (Kim et al., 2021) was a systematic review and meta-analysis on 24 token economy studies conducted in general and special education classrooms from kindergarten to 5th grade between 2000 and 2019. Eight token economy components and effect sizes were identified for each study and compared across different classroom types. The results showed that the token economy intervention yielded large effect sizes for both general and special education classroom types. There were differences in the usage of token components including backup reinforcer types, token production rate, and exchange production rate based on classroom types. In Study 2, the researchers conducted two experiments to develop a rapid, user-friendly assessment of delay discounting for educators interested in quantifying sensitivity to reward delays for school-aged children. The first experiment reanalyzed data collected by Reed and Martens (2011) and found that 1-month delay choices predicted student classroom behavior. The second experiment investigated the utility of the 1-month delay indifference point in predicting saving and spending behavior of second-grade students using token economies with two different token production schedules. Collectively, results showed that the 1-month delay indifference point predicted classroom behavior and children who discounted less and had greater self-regulation, accrued and saved more tokens. In Study 3, the researchers investigated the effects of a classwide progressive delay training procedure on students’ advantageous choice-making behavior, which is the behavior of selecting a larger, delayed outcome over a smaller, immediately available reinforcer. The intervention used progressive delay, which refers to incrementally increasing the temporal delay for a more delayed, advantageous outcome, and choice-making opportunities to promote second grade students’ choice of a larger reinforcer associated with a delay. The results showed mixed results – the intervention was effective at increasing advantageous choice-making behavior for students performing on and below grade-level for math, but the effects were not shown in students performing above grade-level. Study 4 further examined the educational importance of delayed consequences by determining the relationship between verbal behavior repertoires, delay discounting, and academic achievement. Specifically, the researchers used the degree of Incidental-Bidirectional Naming (Inc-BiN) for verbal behavior, degree of tolerance to delayed consequences using hypothetical binary choices involving money for delay discounting, and standardized math and reading scores for academic achievement. The results showed that participants with greater degree of Inc-BiN had significantly greater tolerance for delayed consequences. However, there was no relation found between academic achievement and delay discounting or Inc-BiN. Together, the four studies in this paper successfully (1) translated basic behavioral economics research findings to educational settings and (2) investigated methods that maximize efficiency and effectiveness of practices and tools used in classrooms.

Cognitive and emotional factors have played a larger role in economists' understanding of the world in the last decades. While earlier work has focused on experimental and theoretical results, a larger number of recent contributions have tested ideas from the field of Psychology using econometric methods for causal identification on field data. This line of research seeks to analyze market situations in which specific psychological factors can be identified to cause observed economic behavior. My dissertation, at the intersection of Behavioral and Applied Microeconomics, offers examples of behavior in which cognitive aspects are shown to play a central role and is unified across the three chapters by a common methodological approach. The first chapter, based on joint work with Kareem Haggag, reports evidence from tipping behavior of New York city taxicab customers. For credit card payments, the payment screen in the car displays suggested tip amounts. In particular, for one of the main companies, the suggested amounts are $2, $3, $4 for fares below $15, and 20, 25 or 30 percent above $15. Using this variation, the chapter shows that suggestions play an important role in tipping behavior of customers: comparing rides below and above $15 using regression discontinuity methods, it is possible to show a large local causal effect of the suggestions on average tips. Moreover, a backlash effect is observed, as more customers decide not to tip on a credit card at all. These findings contribute to our understanding of default effects beyond the area of tipping, for instance in savings. An even broader lesson is that these findings isolate a case in which cognitive and emotional responses are likely to mediate the relationship between preferences and choice. The second chapter, based on a joint work with Kareem Haggag, presents field evidence on cheating behavior. During the two years 2008-2010, several taxi drivers cheated customers by charging a higher fare amount that is allowed only for rides outside the city even for rides in the city. The choice of whether to cheat a customer on a individual ride is shown to be affected by loss aversion. The estimates can be effectively reconciled by models of reference-dependent preferences that take drivers' expectation as reference points: drivers are more likely to cheat on those rides within a shift in which they are below expectations. The results highlight the role played by a classic decision-making bias in shaping unethical behavior in a market. These findings suggests that cognitive and emotional aspects of the valuation of benefits are relevant to our economic understanding of ethical problems. The third chapter presents regression-discontinuity evidence on an investment-incentive program. The methodology, which compares firms who received the award with those that marginally lost it, allows for a cleaner identification of the effect of the policy. In this last essay, the conceptual tools from Applied Microeconomics used in the first chapter are put to work in the context of firms' behavior. The tool allows one to show in a straightforward manner the main outcomes of the policy.

The diploma thesis analyses the influence of money on the economic instability by the view of Post Keynesian economic theory. The paper answers the question, what creates the economic instability and if it's possible to eliminate or least reduce the instability. The money is here always seen as credit, which is made by institutions on the financial market. We need trust to create money. However the confidence is based on long-term expectations, which are not rational. The result of the analysis is that the trust growth in economy leads to growth of creation of money, whereby more money based on irrational, by psychology influenced expectations, is made. The economy becomes less stable, because there is more money in it, than people will have in the future to pay for its extinction. As the irrational expectation is an exogenous variable, which basically cannot be influenced, the economic instability is ineliminable and therefore allied to economy. We can only reduce instability by focusing on limiting factors in the creation of money, or on areas, where the irrational action can vent itself. Into consideration comes regulation of the financial institutions size, or regulation of international capital flow.

Before making a choice, we often have the opportunity to learn more about the options that are available. For example, we can check the characteristics of a product before buying it, or read different newspapers before a political election. Understanding what shapes the demand for information, and its role in the decision process, is important to study economic choices. This dissertation contains three essays in behavioral and information economics that utilize experimental data and modeling to analyze how people choose and use information to make decisions. The first chapter, "Coarse and Precise Information in Food Labeling," uses experimental data to determine whether precise food labels can be more effective and informative than coarse ones. In a preregistered online study conducted on a representative US sample, I manipulate front-of-package labels about foods' calorie content. I find that coarse-categorical labels generate a larger reduction in calories per serving compared to detailed-numerical labels despite providing less information. Choices violate the predictions of Bayesian decision theory, suggesting that consumers are less responsive to detailed information. Results also show that participants prefer coarse labels, suggesting a general preference for simple, easy-to-interpret information. The second chapter, "The Status Quo and Belief Polarization of Inattentive Agents," studies how differences across agents can drive information acquisition and generate polarization. In a rational inattention model, optimal information acquisition and subsequent belief formation depend crucially on the agent-specific status quo valuation. Beliefs can systematically update away from the realized truth and even agents with the same initial beliefs might become polarized. A laboratory experiment confirms the model's predictions about the information acquisition and its effect on beliefs. Differently from the model's predictions, participants display preferences for simple messages that can provide certainty. The third chapter, "Dynamic Information Choice with Biased Information Sources," uses experimental data to study how people decide what kind of information to acquire when they have multiple opportunities to learn. Standard theory predicts that decision makers should collect the stream of information that leads to the maximization of the expected reward from the final choice. An online experiment on sequential information acquisition shows that people systematically deviate from the predictions of the standard normative model. Participants display a certainty-seeking information acquisition behavior and under-respond to the new evidence collected, reviewing rarely their own information acquisition strategy.

published_or_final_version / Criminology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Thesis (M.M.S.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references.

Mobile devices and online services allow capturing an unprecedented amount of information about human behavior. In this dissertation, I use these new types of data to understand how the built environment affects social life and businesses in cities. In Chapter 1, I provide the first causal evidence that the provision of urban parks promotes opportunities for racially and ethnically diverse encounters. Utilizing a novel dataset featuring individual GPS tracking data for more than 60 thousand Twitter users in the New York metro area, I introduce a measure of racial diversity that captures one's level of exposure to diverse others in places visited daily. My empirical strategy relies on using the variation in the timing of park construction works across the city (that temporarily limit the capacity of said parks) to identify the impact of the effectively accessible parkland area on the individual exposure to racial diversity. My results show that for White and Black/African American residents additional 10 acres of parks within a 5 km radius from home increase individual chances of encounters with the members of other groups by 1 p.p. The effect is sizable: for reference, transitioning from the current state to the random mixing scenario would require a 9 p.p increase in diversity for an average Black or African American individual and a 3.5 p.p increase for an average White person. I also provide evidence to suggest that park accessibility affects the diversity of White and Black residents differently: for parks located closer to home, the effect appears to be more pronounced for Whites than Blacks. Chapter 2, written jointly with Dmitry Sedov, investigates the role of sports facilities in generating consumption spillovers for the local businesses. The construction of sports facilities, which can cost hundreds of millions of dollars, is often subsidized by public sources. In many cases, subsidies are allocated on the premise that sports venues benefit the local economy by bringing new customers to nearby businesses. We pin down the size and the spatial distribution of such spillovers using daily foot traffic data from mobile phones covering major sports league facilities and the surrounding commercial establishments. By employing the fixed effects and the IV estimation strategies, we show that the spillover benefits are heterogeneous across sports and business sectors. We find that 100 baseball stadium visits generate roughly 29 visits to nearby food & accommodation businesses and about 6 visits to local retail establishments. While the estimates for football stadiums are comparable, basketball & hockey arenas do not appear to generate significant spillovers for the surrounding businesses. Using our spillover estimates, we also compute an upper bound on the additional local spending induced by each sample arena. The median value of the additional spending turns out to be substantially smaller than the corresponding median subsidy to sports facilities in our sample. In Chapter 3, I examine the contribution of parks to social ties between neighborhoods in New York City. Although the role of public spaces in facilitating social interactions in cities has been widely discussed by social scientists and urban design scholars, data sets from online social networks present unexplored opportunities to quantify this link on a larger scale. I use data on friendship links between Facebook users across New York City zip codes to show that two neighborhoods with a higher density of green spaces between them are more likely to have stronger social ties. In particular, when controlling for demographic differences and zip-code level fixed effects, I find that a 1 p.p. increase in the percentage of land allocated to parks between two given zip codes is associated with a 1.2% higher chance of online social connection between their residents. Comparing the effects of park density for different types of parks, I further document that the presence of community parks, flagship parks, and playgrounds are all significant predictors of higher social connectedness between zip codes. Notably, the largest estimated effect is for playgrounds, indicating a 33% higher probability of connection per 1 p.p. increase in density.