POWRE: An Experimental Study of Cost Sharing and Rationing Mechanisms

POWRE：成本分摊和配给机制的实验研究

• 批准号: 9973731
• 负责人: Laura Razzolini
• 金额: $ 7.14万
• 依托单位: University of Mississippi
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-08-01 至 2001-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9973731&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: POWRE; Experimental; Study; Cost; Sharing

The goal of this research is to test experimentally mechanisms designed to share common resources and costs. This project is a natural extension of theoretical research by the PI on pricing mechanisms. In this previous work supported by NSF, a framework for a particular mechanism, the "Serial Cost Sharing Rule," was developed to be implemented as an auction. Because of its powerful incentive properties, the serial cost-sharing rule can be used to price and allocate scarce resources in a way that accurately reflects the underlying needs. When resources are limited and there is contention among agents, however, rationing needs to be employed in conjunction with cost sharing. Theoretically developed cost sharing and rationing mechanisms are not typically tested experimentally. Contributions to the theory will be to generalize probabilistic rationing mechanisms. The PI will bring subjects into the laboratory to observe and study their responses to realistic incentives and institutions when sharing and paying for a common resource. The subjects will decide about the quantities when confronted with a specific cost sharing or rationing rule. The subjects' choices and decisions will be compared with predictions from the theoretical models. Large and complex organizations face a continual challenge of allocating common shared resources efficiently and effectively. The allocation problem is complicated for the planners when these shared resources are scarce. This can be further aggravated if demanders overstate their case for desired resources in order to ensure access. As a result, the decision-makers charged with the task of allocating the resources may not have an accurate representation of actual needs. A great deal of attention has been devoted to developing mechanisms for cost sharing and rationing. However, this body of work has virtually ignored the crucial question of to what extent can these mathematical mechanisms be implemented and tested in an actual decision environment. Thus, this research has potential to make a significant contribution in the interface between theory and experimental research.The PI is an assistant professor who is working on combining theoretical and experimental research in mechanism design. To accomplish this, she will use the newly created facilities at the Mississippi Experimental Research Laboratory (MERL). Access to this facility will allow the PI to conduct research that will complement and advance her previous theoretical work. With this POWRE award the PI will acquire new skills in experimental economics.

这项研究的目标是通过实验测试旨在共享公共资源和成本的机制。该项目是PI关于定价机制理论研究的自然延伸。 在 NSF 支持的这项先前工作中，开发了一个特定机制的框架，即“串行成本分摊规则”，以拍卖的形式实施。 由于其强大的激励特性，串行成本分摊规则可用于以准确反映潜在需求的方式对稀缺资源进行定价和分配。 然而，当资源有限且代理商之间存在争用时，需要将配给与成本分摊结合起来。 理论上开发的成本分摊和配给机制通常不会经过实验测试。对理论的贡献将是概括概率配给机制。 PI 将把受试者带入实验室，观察和研究他们在共享和支付公共资源时对现实激励措施和制度的反应。当面临特定的成本分摊或配给规则时，受试者将决定数量。受试者的选择和决定将与理论模型的预测进行比较。大型且复杂的组织面临着高效且有效地分配共同共享资源的持续挑战。 当这些共享资源稀缺时，分配问题对于规划者来说就很复杂。 如果需求者为了确保访问而夸大他们对所需资源的需求，这种情况可能会进一步恶化。 因此，负责分配资源的决策者可能无法准确反映实际需求。 人们非常重视建立成本分摊和配给机制。 然而，这项工作实际上忽略了一个关键问题：这些数学机制可以在多大程度上在实际决策环境中实施和测试。 因此，这项研究有可能在理论和实验研究的结合方面做出重大贡献。PI是一名助理教授，致力于将理论和实验研究结合起来进行机构设计。为了实现这一目标，她将使用密西西比实验研究实验室 (MERL) 新建的设施。使用该设施将使 PI 能够开展研究，以补充和推进她之前的理论工作。 凭借这个 POWRE 奖项，PI 将获得实验经济学的新技能。