0000000001011582
AUTHOR
Francois Cochard
On the Acceptability of the Ambient Tax Mechanism: An Experimental Investigation
There is a common belief among nonpoint source pollution managers that ambient taxes are likely to raise acceptability problems. In this paper, we empirically assess the acceptability of ambient taxes. Concretely, we ask participants in an experiment to play the role of polluters who choose between (A) an ambient tax scheme and (B) an individual tax system (polluters are heterogeneous, with small, medium and large capacity polluters). In case (A), polluters' payoff depends on total emissions and on natural variability whereas in case (B) polluters earn a sure payoff. The sure payoff level reflects polluters' maximal profit under the individual tax system and ranges from 40% to 95% of pollut…
Secret versus public reserve price in an “outcry” English procurement auction: Experimental results
Abstract In a set of human experiments, we analyze the impact of the buyer׳s reserve price policy in an online open outcry reverse auction. We measure the impact of revealing or not the reserve price on the buyer׳s expected cost when suppliers may be risk-averse. Results confirm that the optimal public reserve price policy dominates for the buyer when the lowest cost supplier is weakly risk-averse but in contrast with theory, the secret reserve price policy does not dominate when he becomes very risk-averse. Analysis of strategic suppliers׳ bidding behavior shows, in conformity with theory, that they react to the secret reserve price and are more aggressive when they are more risk-averse. T…