infonet-economy

Using a simple but general two-­‐‑stage framework, this paper identifies the circumstances under
which increasing competition leads to more cost-­‐‑reducing investments. The framework can, for
instance, capture increasing substitutability for different types of oligopoly models or changes from Cournot to Bertrand competition. The paper identifies four transmission...

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) consist in the application of electrical current of small intensity through the scalp, able to modulate perceptual and motor learning, probably by changing brain excitability. We investigated the effects of these transcranial electrical stimulation techniques in the early and later stages...

A core task in the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data is to detect groups of voxels that exhibit synchronous activity while the subject is performing a certain task. Synchronous activity is typically interpreted as functional connectivity between brain regions. We compare classical approaches like statistical parametric mapping (SPM) and some new approaches...

Intertemporal choices - involving decisions which trade off instant and delayed outcomes - are often made under stress. It remains unknown, however, whether and how stress affects intertemporal choice. We subjected 142 healthy male subjects to a laboratory stress or control protocol, and asked them to make a series of intertemporal choices either directly after stress, or 20 minutes...

This Research Topic covers issues in psychology, behavioral economics, and cognitive neuroscience investigating the neural structures and mechanisms underlying approach, and avoidance behavior in the face of rewards and punishments. The objective is to understand the nature of critical differences and asymmetries between the ways that appetitive and aversive outcomes are processed by...

Individual political preferences as expressed, for instance, in votes or donations are fundamental to democratic societies. However, the relevance of deliberative processing for political preferences has been highly debated, putting automatic processes in the focus of attention. Based on this notion, the present study tested whether brain responses reflect participants'...

Two pension reforms in Austria increased the early retirement age (ERA) from 60 to 62 for men and from 55 to 58.25 for women. We find that raising the ERA increased employment by 9.75 percentage points among affected men and by 11 percentage points among affected women. The reforms had large spillover effects on the unemployment insurance program but negligible effects on disability...

We offer a unified analysis of the growth of low-skill service occupations between 1980 and 2005 and the concurrent polarization of US employment and wages. We hypothesize that polarization stems from the interaction between consumer preferences, which favor variety over specialization, and the falling cost of automating routine, codifiable job tasks. Applying a spatial equilibrium...