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Behavioral economics poses a challenge for the welfare evaluation of choices, particularly those that involve risk. It demands that we recognize that the descriptive account of behavior toward those choices might not be the ones we were all taught, and still teach, and that subjective risk perceptions might not accord with expert assessments of probabilities. In addition to these challenges, we are faced with the need to jettison naive notions of revealed preferences, according to which every choice by a subject expresses her objective function, as behavioral evidence forces us to confront pervasive inconsistencies and noise in a typical individual’s choice data. A principled account of errant choice must be built into models used for identification and estimation. These challenges demand close attention to the methodological claims often used to justify policy interventions. They also require, we argue, closer attention by economists to relevant contributions from cognitive science. We propose that a quantitative application of the “intentional stance” of Dennett provides a coherent, attractive and general approach to behavioral welfare economics.

Using an ecological model of child participation and drawing on newsletter data from schools across the United States of America (USA), this chapter statistically explores five state factors linked with school protests against gun violence: (1) children’s neighbourhood opportunity; (2) race/ethnicity; (3) voter preference for either a Republican or a Democratic president; (4) child participation policies; and (5) gun laws/violence/ownership. The chapter explores factors linked to both student participation in protests and student nonparticipation in protests that take place at their schools. Three factors were found to be associated with participation and nonparticipation: children’s neighbourhood opportunity, voters’ preference, and participation policies. Findings suggest that Democratic-voting states, mediated by education opportunity, predict the frequency of student protests against gun violence. In Republican-voting states, where education opportunity does not mediate the frequency of school protests, students still organised and participated in protests but to a lesser extent. In addition, states with high overall children’s neighbourhood opportunity and voting student education board members are highly likely to have non-protesting students in schools with protests. The chapter presents five conclusions from these results for the positive and negative exercise of child participation rights and considers what further multilevel explorations can be done to further test the framework employed for this analysis.

This study was carried out to analyze the importance of consumer preference data in forecasting demand in apparel retailing.

To collect preference data, 729 hypothetical stock keeping units (SKU) were derived using a full factorial design, from a combination of six attributes and three levels each. From the hypothetical SKU's, 63 practical SKU's were selected for further analysis. Two hundred two responses were collected from a store intercept survey. Respondents' utility scores for all 63 SKUs were calculated using conjoint analysis. In estimating aggregate demand, to allow for consumer substitution and to make the SKU available when a consumer wishes to buy more than one item in the same SKU, top three highly preferred SKU's utility scores of each individual were selected and classified using a decision tree and was aggregated. A choice rule was modeled to include substitution; by applying this choice rule, aggregate demand was estimated.

The respondents' utility scores were calculated. The value of Kendall's tau is 0.88, the value of Pearson's R is 0.98 and internal predictive validity using Kendall's tau is 1.00, and this shows the high quality of data obtained. The proposed model was used to estimate the demand for 63 SKUs. The demand was estimated at 6.04 per cent for the SKU cotton, regular style, half sleeve, medium priced, private label. The proposed model for estimating demand using consumer preference data gave better estimates close to actual sales than expert opinion data. The Spearman's rank correlation between actual sales and consumer preference data is 0.338 and is significant at 5 per cent level. The Spearman's rank correlation between actual sales and expert opinion is −0.059, and there is no significant relation between expert opinion data and actual sales. Thus, consumer preference model proves to be better in estimating demand than expert opinion data.

There has been a considerable amount of work done in choice-based models. There is a lot of scope in working in deterministic models.

The proposed consumer preference-based demand estimation model can be beneficial to the apparel retailers in increasing their profit by reducing stock-out and overstocking situations. Though conjoint analysis is used in demand estimation in other industries, it is not used in apparel for demand estimations and can be greater use in its simplest form.

This research is the first one to model consumer preferences-based data to estimate demand in apparel. This research was practically tested in an apparel retail store. It is original.

The authors investigate the effects of Chinese acquirer’s chief executive officer (CEO) risk preference on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) payment method and the moderating roles played by acquirer’s ownership, industry relatedness and whether the M&A is cross-border.

Using 4,624 worldwide M&A deals conducted by Chinese firms from 2009 to 2021, the authors conduct multiple linear regression and ordered probit regression. And comprehensive indexes constructed based on the observed features of acquirer’s CEOs are used to be the proxy for CEO risk preference.

The results show that the higher-level Chinese acquirer’s CEO risk preference is overall positively associated with using more stock in payment. Moreover, the above relationship is strengthened if the ownership of the acquirer is state-owned.

The authors highlight the importance of the non-economic factors and demonstrate a relationship between the Chinese acquirer’s CEO risk preference and the M&A payment method, providing support for and enriching the upper echelons theory (UET). Moreover, the unique risk priorities of Chinese acquirers’ CEOs are revealed.

Food service establishments and online food delivery companies use a revenue share model based on a commission rate. Because of the asymmetry of bargaining power, many food service establishments are vulnerable to a high commission rate. What is missing in the ongoing discussion about the revenue share model is the perspective of food consumers, who are the third party in the multi-sided market.

Within a willingness-to-pay (WTP) framework, we study if food consumers have preferences for the commission rate charged by food delivery companies to food service establishments. With 456 random consumers in the United States, we conduct a controlled experiment in which information is used as treatment in two groups. In the first group, the provided information only relates to the revenue share model (i.e. economic). In the second group, participants also received information about price control initiatives (i.e. economic and political).

Based on WTP-space mixed logit model results, there is a significant effect of information on preferences for the commission rate. While participants in the control group exhibited no aversion to the commission rate, participants who received treatment had a significant and negative WTP. The magnitude of the effect is estimated at -$1.08 for participants in the first treatment and -$2.28 for participants in the second treatment.

To date there is no applied research on the preferences of consumers in the online food order and delivery industry with respect to upstream conditions (i.e. commission rates).

This study analyses the future job characteristics that are preferred by economics and business administration students in three specific regions of Spain, Colombia and Ecuador, and estimates their willingness to accept each.

A discrete choice experiment (DCE) is carried out in these three regions. The econometric approach is based on the Random Parameter Logit model, which accounts for both the observed and unobserved heterogeneity by the use of socio-demographic variables and correlated random parameters.

The main conclusions indicate that the most important job characteristic for students in all three countries is the long-term career prospects at the company, while a permanent contract is one of the least important job attributes. Regarding the more specific conclusions related to each country, the Ecuadorian students seem to have a higher preference for training opportunities, given the strong relationship between the level of education and the job category. The Spanish students seem to value their commuting time more highly than the South American students.

To authors’ best knowledge, this is the first DCE-based study of economics and business administration students’ preferences for future jobs that has been conducted simultaneously in three countries on two different continents. Furthermore, this study presents fresh cross-country data that allow authors to compare student choices between South American and European countries. As a result, by focusing on the DCE approach, this study estimated the monetary amount that students from each country are willing to accept for each of the analysed job characteristics. Thus, this research fills a vacuum in the literature on student job preferences between three Latin speaking countries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of agency on basis of a pragmatist philosophy framework of analysis. Agency is a key analytical concept in management studies, debated in terms of its theoretical elements and its degree of empirical substantiation. Agency is commonly either assumed to be the case, understood as some generic human capacity to act with integrity, or, alternatively, agency is considered to be derived from social structures, say professional norms or occupational identities acquired through socialization. In contrast, in an attempt to escape the agency/structure model, agency may be considered as what is generated in and through meso-level interactions, constituted as recurrent practices wherein accomplishments in the past serve as the template for new activities that further reinforce agential capacities.

Drawing on the work of pragmatist philosopher Donald Davidson and what he calls the principle of charity, this paper presents an analytical model wherein agency is generated on basis of a shared everyday language wherein beliefs and preferences are constituted and thereafter serve as the basis of agential action.

Davidson’s externalist theory of action is supportive of the theory and study of meso-level interactions and helps to overcome the question whether agency is exogenously given or the effect of social structure.

This paper reviews recent social science literature on agency and introduces pragmatist philosophy concepts to better examine under what conditions social actors can reasonably have faith in an interaction being premised on beliefs that are held on basis of rational and reasonable grounds. This adds to an integrated theory of agency, being of importance for social theory and organizational analysis more specifically.

The purpose of the present research is to examine the comparative values that urban Vietnamese consumers place on attributes of rice that is produced using environmentally friendly methods. The authors consider the impacts that this may have on the livelihoods of rural Vietnamese small farmers. Rice is an “impure public good” that includes both “private” and “public” attributes that consumers consider in their purchase decisions. Consumers make tradeoffs between environmentally and socially beneficial practices (public goods) and perceptions of product quality (private goods). The authors used latent class modeling to investigate the values associated with attributes of rice that is produced using sustainable farming practices.

The authors used a discrete choice experimental design in which consumers stated their choices among combinations of rice attributes. The survey provided responses from 360 urban Vietnamese consumers and allowed to estimate the preferences and nonpecuniary values for rice grown using different levels of environmentally beneficial production methods.

The results identify two segments of rice consumers: one group of consumers who are sensitive to price and the other group who are sensitive to environmental issues. The individual characteristics are reflected in the choices of production methods and in the willingness to pay for environmentally beneficial outcomes of those methods.

Given the number of independent variables measured, the sample was relatively small, such that confirmatory statistical methods were inconclusive. However, the authors used multiple analytical tools that provide corroboration of the significant determinants of the utility functions for the two segments.

The results provide directions for production of rice at a national level, as well as practical implications for consumer-oriented communications.

Results suggest that the emerging middle class of Vietnamese consumers are willing to pay more for rice that is produced using methods that are beneficial to the environment. Results also indicate challenges to provide sustainably-produced rice to poorer groups of consumers.

The study provides important context for consumer preferences within emerging economies. This also adds to a growing literature that uses the choice experiment method to estimate consumer valuation of the outcomes of various agricultural practices.

The purpose of this study was to fill the gap in understanding the impact of Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) evidence and testimony in driving under the influence (DUI) trials. This was accomplished by documenting and analyzing the perceptions of DREs and the DRE program across different stakeholders to understand how and when this type of evidence is used in DUI trials.

The methodology is a qualitative case study of the DRE program in one police agency in Washington. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with criminal justice actors and state-level experts on their perceptions of the DRE program for the agency. Themes were developed from these interviews to analyze their perceptions of the efficacy and utility of DREs in trials.

While the courts in Washington accept DRE evidence in criminal trials, DRE evidence is largely absent in the adjudication process. Participants noted multiple reasons for this, including the lack of trials, the primacy of blood evidence and the expansion of the Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) program.

Although the DRE program has been around for decades, there is a lack of peer-reviewed studies regarding DRE evidence, and no studies regarding how court actors perceive and use DRE evidence. Understanding when and how DRE evidence is utilized in DUI trials can increase its value and utility by prosecutors and the national DRE program.

Using a generic cheese as an anchor product, in this study consumers' preferences for different EU quality schemes have been investigated. Specifically, the study aims to understand whether “Protected Designation of Origin” (PDO), “Organic” and “Mountain Product” labels are independent or if there are some synergies existing between them, questioning – at the same time – whether this alleged exchange of value plays a positive or negative role in terms of consumers' willingness to pay.

A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted on 600 Italian consumers performing a random parameter logit model. The respondents were representative of the Italian population in terms of age, gender and geographical distribution. Consumers' preferences for the presence of “Organic” and “Mountain product” labels were assessed in the DCE, together with the effect of price, for both PDO and generic cheeses.

Consumers are willing to pay a premium in price for “Organic” and “Mountain Product” per se, for cheese with and without the PDO denomination. Considering the interaction effects, results showed that the combined use of “Organic” and “Mountain Product” labels do not decrease consumers' intention to buy. However, when applied on a PDO product, these attributes generate a lower consumers' willingness to pay in comparison with the generic ones, highlighting a possible overlapping between them.

Despite the abundant literature on EU quality schemes in many food categories, this study represents one of the first attempts to measure the interaction effect between different EU quality schemes.