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Essays on Decision Making under Stress
Cingl, Lubomír ; Bauer, Michal (advisor) ; Skořepa, Michal (referee) ; Levínský, René (referee) ; Servátka, Maroš (referee)
Název / Title Eseje o rozhodování pod stresem / Essays on Decision Making under Stress Student PhDr. Lubomír Cingl Studijní program / Study program Ekonomické teorie Školitel / Advisor PhDr. Michal Bauer, Ph.D. Abstract This dissertation comprises three thematically connected experimental studies of human behavior under non- standard conditions: time-pressure and stress. In the Introduction section I present the argument for why it is important for economists to recognize stress research as a valid part of the research in economics and how it can contribute to the growing knowledge of human behavior in general, including several examples from the literature. The first paper presented in Chapter 2 examines the effect of time pressure on the individual propensity to herd, while the remaining two papers examine the effect of acute stress on risk-preferences and herding behavior, respectively. Herding behavior is a very important phenomenon in human decision making since social influence is very frequent in our lives and economic decisions: consider traders in financial markets, wait-and-see investors, but also purchase behavior due to fads, fashion and top-ten lists. Risk preferences are another essential factor which determines many important economic outcomes, and the assumption of their stability is a...
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On the Nature of Gender Differences in Attitudes to Risk
Sýkora, Zdeněk ; Cingl, Lubomír (advisor) ; Troch, Tomáš (referee)
Despite a number of studies demonstrating that women are more risk averse than men, this strong consensus has recently been questioned. In this thesis we discuss what may be the reason for such contradicting outcomes. Firstly, we describe the most common elicitation methods and compare them from the perspective of reporting gender differences in risk attitudes. We also summarize current literature in the topic. Then we describe a design and analyze original dataset from a survey experiment conducted with university students, mainly investigating responses to a general risk question. We examine the role of variables that are different between genders and can explain risk preferences to see whether the gender difference is robust. We further focus on different dimensions of risk: we ask about risk taking in driving, financial, sports, career, and health domains. Our findings show that the gender differences in risk preferences are significant, ubiquitous, and can be detected by a simple survey measure, even after controlling for additional characteristics that are known to play role in attitudes to risk and differ between men and women. This applies for all studied domains except for the health one.
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Field Experiments and Firms: Practical Applications of Behavioral Economics
Chadimová, Kateřina ; Cingl, Lubomír (advisor) ; Korbel, Václav (referee)
Recent development in experimental economics has brought a lot of new meth- ods that could be highly beneficial for both firms and scientists. Rather than carrying out experiments only in laboratories, experimental economists con- duct also field experiments, i.e. the experiments which examine intervention in the natural environment of participants, claiming that people tend to behave more naturally there and therefore the results are more realistic. Successful applications of these field experiments show that a proper usage of findings of behavioral economics can significantly improve a firm's market position, de- crease its costs and boost the overall efficiency. Moreover, economists are given a great opportunity to test various microeconomic theories about consumer's or firm's behaviour at the same time and to quantify their impact. The goal of this thesis is two-fold. First, I scrutinize different types of field experiments that were applied in firms, define their efficiency and summarize their outcomes. Second, I define the best practices for effective cooperation between experimen- tal economists and firms. Moreover, I design a hypothetical field experiment to reveal the effect of time-management training on a firm's productivity.
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Paradoxes of liberal liberty: revision of the classical assumptions of freedom
Kolínský, Ondřej ; Mlčoch, Lubomír (advisor) ; Skuhrovec, Jiří (referee)
Current criticism of liberalism is usually based on ad hoc economic and social arguments. In this bachelor thesis, on the contrary, we seek to verify to what extent the very core of the classical liberal doctrine is consistent with the findings of modern economics. In the first part, we examine the writings of the fathers of economic liberalism; Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill and Friedrich August von Hayek. On their grounds, we describe and specify the type of liberty this paper is concerned with. Also, we show what beliefs these philosophers held regarding the question of human rationality. In the second part, we provide some philosophical background to the question of freedom and explain how it is interconnected with rationality. Finally, in the third part, we draw some empirical findings from behavioral economics, which aims at explaining the disparity between preferences and actual decisions of people. By contrasting these discoveries with the original liberal ideas, we are able to identify specific points, where the classical theorists incline to misleading beliefs. The aim of this paper is to assess how grave the implications of these errors are and how they could be addressed within the framework of liberalism. We also estimate their impact on the market interaction and examine possible...
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Voluntary Restrictions and Self-commitment
Toman, Václav ; Bauer, Michal (advisor) ; Gutiérrez Chvalkovská, Jana (referee)
Voluntary restrictions and self-commitment Abstract in English In our work, we summarize the topic of dual self and propose various types of restrictions the long-run self might impose on the myopic self concerning procrastination, health and emotions. Then we design a questionnaire aimed to find to what extent do the real people behave in such way, and what are the determinants of such behavior. We find that the phenomenon of voluntary restriction of self is present in our contemporary society to large extent. Women have a tendency to restrict themselves significantly more than men, while higher Cognitive Response Test (CRT) score, higher education and lower conscientiousness cause lower interest in the self-regulatory facilities.
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Czech pension reform through the lens of behavioral economics
Kahounová, Jana ; Bauer, Michal (advisor) ; Cingl, Lubomír (referee)
Bibliographic citation Kahounová, Jana (2012). Czech Pension Reform through the Lens of Behavioral Economics. Prague, 2012. 79 p. Master Thesis (Mgr.) Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies. Master thesis supervisor PhDr. Michal Bauer, PhD. Abstract The field of behavioral economics can provide original insights into many areas of economic decision-making. In my thesis I use the point of view of behavioral economics to assess the current Czech pension reform plan. I study time discounting as the main determinant of saving behavior and deal with its relationship to the Czech pension reform architecture. The three fundamental features of the Czech pension reform plan that are examined are entry into the private funded scheme that is to be introduced by the Czech pension reform plan, the contribution rate into the private funded scheme and access to deposits in the private funded scheme. In order to obtain data for my research I conducted own survey. The results of statistical analysis confirmed the hypotheses of behavioral economics that people exhibit heterogeneous time discounting which influences their saving behavior and these characteristics can also determine their preference for the pension reform features. It implies a possibility for policy-makers to...
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Are scouts really more honest?
Sedlická, Monika ; Zajíček, Miroslav (advisor) ; Tříska, Dušan (referee)
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.
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Neuroeconomics: The analysis of consumer behavior and perception of TV spots
Červenka, Petr ; Chytilová, Helena (advisor) ; Máslo, Lukáš (referee)
The thesis deals with the detailed study of two television commercials of an unnamed energy company. The aim of this work is to determine whether people's subjective evaluation is similar or different to values that were detected during the measurement, after viewing each commercial and in subsequent in-depth interviews. A sample of 24 respondents, who participated in the research, represented the composition of the economically active population in the Czech Republic. These were people of various ages, a combination of educational attainment and an evenly balanced gender ratio. Neurological measurement was done through an eye camera, brain responses were measured using electroencephalography (EEG), and changes in heart rate, skin resistance and body temperature were measured by photoplethysmography. The resulting data ispresented in graphs indicating emotional polarity and activity. The results show that respondent's verbal evaluation of their perception of ads is not necessarily identical with the values that are measured by the devices. The thesis concludes by recommending how to successfully target the so-called end user who uses the services of the company.
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Eseje o ekonomii a managementu: Aplikace behaviorálních věd v organizacích
Houdek, Petr ; Smrčka, Luboš (advisor) ; Belás, Jaroslav (referee) ; Šťastný, Daniel (referee)
The thesis consists of four conceptual articles focused on application of theories and findings of behavioral economics and behavioral ethics in the sphere of managerial science (What Comes to a Manager's Mind: Theory of Local Thinking; A Perspective on Consumers 3.0: They Are Not Better Decision-Makers Than Previous Generations; Professional Identity and Dishonest Behavior; Puppet Master: Possible Influence of Parasite Toxoplasma gondii on Managers and Employees). The thesis contains introductory unifying commentary that deals with the replication crisis in management science and then speculates on the possibilities of behavioral organization economics. Introductory commentary contains also a summary of the main ideas presented in the conceptual articles and complementary empirical studies listed in the Appendix.
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