Risk taking and the menstrual cycle

We tend take preferences as given and constant, but there is mounting evidence that preferences change over the life cycle and over external circumstances, as I reported before. There may now even evidence that preferences that preferences follow a predictable cycle, at least for women.Matthew Pearson and Burkhard Schipper asked an unusual question to the female participants in an otherwise

Using oaths to elicit true preferences

Economists always find data elicited from surveys very suspect. Unless money or actual decisions are on the line, people may say anything. For non-monetary matters, this is particularly important problem, as there is no market observation that can provide more reliable data.Nicolas Jacquemet, Robert-Vincent Joule, Stéphane Luchini and Jason Shogren look whether a simple trick can provide a more

The industrial organization of extortion

Extortion is illegal, but still tolerated in some parts of the world. Understanding it well is key to eradicate it. Benjamin Olken and Patrick Barron have recently published a fascinating article that describes extortion at weigh stations and roadside check points in Aceh, Indonesia. They managed to record about 6000 transactions at these location by having observers ride along on trucks on the

When to bribe with sex

There are these times where you need to bribe and you do not know what kind of bribe to use: cash or sex? Luckily, José Rodrigues-Neto has just produces a handy and rigorous guide for your decision making. Clearly, sex as a bribe is less efficient than money, for reasons related to the deadweight loss of Christmas. However, sex may be less detectable. Also, and the author does not take this into