Cette thèse est composée de trois essais liés à la conception de mécanisme et aux enchères. Dans le premier essai j'étudie la conception de mécanismes bayésiens efficaces dans des environnements où les fonctions d'utilité des agents dépendent de l'alternative choisie même lorsque ceux-ci ne participent pas au mécanisme. En plus d'une règle d'attribution et d'une règle de paiement le planificateur peut proférer des menaces afin d'inciter les agents à participer au mécanisme et de maximiser son propre surplus; Le planificateur peut présumer du type d'un agent qui ne participe pas. Je prouve que la solution du problème de conception peut être trouvée par un choix max-min des types présumés et des menaces. J'applique ceci à la conception d'une enchère multiple efficace lorsque la possession du bien par un acheteur a des externalités négatives sur les autres acheteurs. Le deuxième essai considère la règle du juste retour employée par l'agence spatiale européenne (ESA). Elle assure à chaque état membre un retour proportionnel à sa contribution, sous forme de contrats attribués à des sociétés venant de cet état. La règle du juste retour est en conflit avec le principe de la libre concurrence puisque des contrats ne sont pas nécessairement attribués aux sociétés qui font les offres les plus basses. Ceci a soulevé des discussions sur l'utilisation de cette règle: les grands états ayant des programmes spatiaux nationaux forts, voient sa stricte utilisation comme un obstacle à la compétitivité et à la rentabilité. Apriori cette règle semble plus coûteuse à l'agence que les enchères traditionnelles. Nous prouvons au contraire qu'une implémentation appropriée de la règle du juste retour peut la rendre moins coûteuse que des enchères traditionnelles de libre concurrence. Nous considérons le cas de l'information complète où les niveaux de technologie des firmes sont de notoriété publique, et le cas de l'information incomplète où les sociétés observent en privée leurs coûts de production. Enfin, dans le troisième essai je dérive un mécanisme optimal d'appel d'offre dans un environnement où un acheteur d'articles hétérogènes fait face a de potentiels fournisseurs de différents groupes, et est contraint de choisir une liste de gagnants qui est compatible avec des quotas assignés aux différents groupes. La règle optimale d'attribution consiste à assigner des niveaux de priorité aux fournisseurs sur la base des coûts individuels qu'ils rapportent au décideur. La manière dont ces niveaux de priorité sont déterminés est subjective mais connue de tous avant le déroulement de l'appel d'offre. Les différents coûts rapportés induisent des scores pour chaque liste potentielle de gagnant. Les articles sont alors achetés à la liste ayant les meilleurs scores, s'il n'est pas plus grand que la valeur de l'acheteur. Je montre également qu'en général il n'est pas optimal d'acheter les articles par des enchères séparées. / This thesis is made of three essays related to mechanism design and auctions. In first essay I study Bayesian efficient mechanism design in environments where agents' utility functions depend on the chosen alternative even if they do not participate to the mechanism. In addition to an allocation rule and a payment rule the designer may choose appropriate threats in order to give agents the incentive to participate and maximize his own expected surplus; The planner may presume the type of an agent who does not participate. I show that the solution of the design problem can be found by a max - min choice of the presumed types and threats. I apply this to the design of an efficient multi-unit auction when a buyer in possession of the good causes negative externalities on other buyers.\\ The second essay considers the fair return rule used by the European Space Agency (ESA). It ensures each member state of ESA a return proportional to its contribution, in the form of contracts awarded to firms coming from that state. The fair return rule is in conflict with the principle of free competition since contracts are not necessarily awarded to firms with the lowest bids. This has raised debates on the use of this rule: it is well accepted by small states, but larger states with strong national space programs, see its strict use as an obstacle to competitiveness and cost effectiveness. It is easy to believe that this rule is more costly to the agency than traditional auctions. We show on the contrary that an adequate implementation of the fair return rule may cause it to be less expensive to the agency than the traditional auctions of free competition. We consider the case of complete information where firms' technology levels are common knowledge, and the case of incomplete information where firms observe privately their production costs. In both cases we show that adequate implementation of the fair return rule may help take advantage of asymmetries between countries in order to expect a lower cost than with traditional auctions.\\ Finally, in the third essay I derive an optimal procurement mechanism in an environment where a buyer of heterogeneous items faces potential suppliers from different groups, and is constrained to choose a winning list that is consistent with some exogenous quotas assigned to the different groups. The optimal allocation rule consists of assigning priority levels to suppliers on the basis of their cost reports. The way these priority levels are determined is subjective but known to all before the auction. The individual reports induce scores for each potential winning list. The items are then purchased from one of the lists with the best score, provided it is not greater than the buyer's valuation for the items. I also find that it is not optimal to purchase the items through separate auctions, unless the buyer's valuation is sufficiently high or low.

Esta tesis se compone de dos partes separadas y sin relación entre ellas. El primer capítulo, coautorado con el Profesor Greg Barron, es un experimento en toma de decisiones individuales. Este capítulo se construye a partir de una literatura creciente, que enfatiza el siguiente punto: cuando aprendemos las probabilidades y los resultados de una lotería a través de la experiencia en vez de la descripción visual del problema -un prospecto- entonces tomamos decisiones como si estuviéramos devaluando eventos poco probables. Esto contrasta con el fenómeno bien conocido de que las probabilidades pequeñas suelen sobrevaluarse cuando se toman decisiones a partir de prospectos. Nuestro trabajo contribuye a la literatura dando fuerza al punto mencionado frente a algunas críticas. En particular, nosotros encontramos que la devaluación sobrevive la eliminación de un problema de muestreo que afectaba trabajos anteriores y está correcto en el nuestro. Encontramos tambi´en que hay devaluación de probabilidades pequeñas vii en toma de decisiones al mismo tiempo que sobrevaluación en juicio sobre las mismas probabilidades. Este útimo resultado no puede ser explicado. El segundo capítulo introduce una nueva teoría de integración vertical a partir del hecho de que aumentar el poder contractual de una empresa es citado muy a menudo como una razón para integrarse verticalmente con los proveedores. En mi modelo las empresas se integran para ganar poder contractual hacia proveedores no integrados en la cadena productiva. El coste de la integración es una pérdida de flexibilidad a la hora de escoger los proveedores más apropiados para un particular producto final. Muestro como las empresas que tienen inversiones más específicas en el proceso productivo tienen un ayor incentivo a integrarse. La teoría presentada permite explicar numerosos hechos estilizados como el efecto del desarrollo financiero sobre la estructura vertical de las empresas, la evolución que se observa de inversión extranjera directa a outsourcing en el comercio internacional, la conexi´on entre ciclo de vida del producto y la estructura vertical, etc. / This thesis is composed of two separate, unrelated chapters. Chapter I, coauthored with Greg Barron, is an experiment in individual decision making. It builds on a small and growing literature which makes the following point: whenever we learn the odds and outcomes of a binary choice problem through experience rather than from a visual description -a prospect- then we take decisions as if we were underweighting rare events. This is in contrast to the well known phenomenon of overweighting rare events in prospect based decisions. Our work contributes to the literature by strengthening this finding in the face of earlier criticism. In particular we find that the underweighting is robust to the elimination of sampling bias which affected previous studies and is absent from ours. We also find that underweighting in choice happens at the same time as overweighting in probability judgment. This remains unexplained. Chapter II introduces a new theory of vertical integration building on the fact that improving a company's bargaining position is often cited as a chief motivation to vertically integrate with suppliers. In my model firms integrate to gain bargaining power against other suppliers in the production process. The cost of integration is a loss of flexibility in choosing the most suitable suppliers for a particular final product. I show that the firms who make the most specific investments in the production process have the greatest incentive to integrate. The theory provides novel insights to the understanding of numerous stylized facts such as the effect of financial development on the vertical structure of firms, the observed pattern from FDI to outsourcing in international trade, the connection between product cycle and vertical structure, etc.

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Geoffrey Sanzenbacher / Labor unions are generally considered to be beneficial for workers wages and benefits, but have been on the decline for decades. This analysis questions why workers appear more hesitant to vote for labor unions now than in the past by investigating what factors influence individual labor union votes. Specifically, this analysis aims to pinpoint the effect that outside minimum wages have on union election outcomes. Using data from the United States National Labor Relations Board, Michigan State, IPUMS USA and the US Census Bureau, I generated two models – a logistic regression, and an ordinary least squares regression – that each predict the likelihood of union support based upon outside minimum wages, after controlling for a variety of factors including but not limited to the county unemployment rate, the existence of the Right to Work law, and county-level demographics. I find that the difference between state-level or city-level minimum wages and the federal minimum wage has a positive relationship with the likelihood of union certification. Specifically, I find that union support is most likely in areas where the local-level minimum wage is $4.18 higher than the federal minimum wage in the logistic model, and $5.13 higher than the federal minimum in the ordinary least squares model, ceteris paribus. Put differently, with a federal minimum wage of $7.25, areas with minimum wages around $12 are most likely to see union elections pass. Overall, these results suggest that workers are more likely to vote for a union when local exogenous economic environments are strong. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Economics.

No description available.