Status Quo Bias-A Research on Its Applications and the Correlating Mechanism

After several former studies on the cognitive heuristics and correlating economical influences,the explanatory effectiveness of Status Quo Bias perspective is explained by multiple empirical scenarios.Hence,this essay will focus on three applications in which the Status Quo Bias perspective,correlating models,and research methods would provide insightful opinions.After reviewing the former attempts on the original model and early researchers’empirical examination on the Status Quo Bias,this essay will concentrate on Status Quo Bias and technology resistance among the public sector employees,Status Quo Bias and medical insurance outcomes,Status Quo Bias and shoppers’mobile website purchasing resistance respectively.For each application,research methodology will be explained and be integrated into the Status Quo Bias perspective through the research question.Through researching on these applications’methodology and main studies,discussing cognitive biases existing in the empirical scenarios,the present study could approach to the efficiency of the explanation from Status Quo Bias perspective.

Mental and Cardiovascular Health of Portuguese Subjects in a Situation of Economic Insufficiency

Economic insufficiency causes stress and negative affects. Poverty is self-perpetuated, also due to a particular pattern of economic behaviors induced by negative affects and stress. Often, loneliness occurs together with economic insufficiency. For this study, it has been selected a sample of convenience. A positive correlation between anxiety/depression and negative affects is presented. Dispositional optimism and social support, factors which contribute to health, serve as buffers, in negative correlation, of the negative impact of negative affects, due to financial restraint, on health. Financial management is negatively correlated with the lack of cardiovascular health, and cardiovascular dysfunction correlates positively with loneliness, in this study. Positive affects correlate positively with resilience skills, which correlate negatively with depression. Within this context, psychobiological therapeutic interventions and psychotherapy, which also target psychological dysfunction related to economic behavior of persons in a situation of poverty, would be beneficial.

Configuring topologically optimum vapor recompressed dividing-wall distillation columns to maximize operating efficiency

For dividing-wall distillation columns(DWDCs) separating a heavy-component dominated and wide boiling-point ternary(HCDWBT) mixture, a significant amount of excessive heat exists inevitably in stripping the heavy-component from the intermediate-component and it can be employed to initiate the development of vapor recompression heat pump(VRHP) assisted DWDC(VRHP-DWDC). Despite dividing wall may locate in the top, middle, and bottom, the optimum VRHP-DWDC is found to involve uniformlytwo VRHP circles. While the first one serves to compress and transform the excessive heat resulted from the separation of the heavy-component from the intermediate-component, the second one to compress and transform the overhead vapor stream of the light-component pre-heated sequentially with the condensate from the first one and the bottom product stream of the heavy-component, both releasing the temperature-elevated latent heat to the pre-fractionator's or common stripping section. The processing of two HCDWBT mixtures of benzene/toluene/o-xylene and n-pentane/n-hexane/n-heptane are selected to assess the derived optimum topological configurations of the VRHP-DWDC and their optimality is confirmed through detailed comparisons with the DWDC and two VRHP-DWDCs involving only one VRHP circle. The proposed strategy helps to tap the full potential of the VRHP-DWDC with considerably alleviated complication in process development.

The Impact of Behavioural Insights on Effective Prescription of Antibiotics by Doctors: A Case Study from Latifa Hospital for Women and Children, Dubai Health Authority

Introduction: Wise prescription of antibiotics is an ethical duty of physicians in view of rising antimicrobial resistance in the community, it should be balanced between the health requirements of the patients and resulting long-term antibiotics resistance. Overuse of antimicrobials is a major cause of emerging resistance to antimicrobials. There are multiple factors in the community that influence the physician’s antibiotic prescriptions. Methods: This is a systematic case-control study on antibiotics prescription for paediatric patients attending Latifa Hospital for Women and Children (LWCH), Dubai Health Authority, to know the effects of behavioral interventions on rates of inappropriate antimicrobials prescription by doctors in the Paediatric Emergency Department. Results: The results of our study showed the effectiveness of behavioral insights by peer comparison in antibiotic use among paediatricians in Latifa Hospital had a statistical significance (P = 0.0038). The rate of the prescription decreased from 41% to 21%, a difference of 20%. Conclusion: The study concluded behavioural intervention is an effective measure in reducing the improper prescription of antibiotics in the hospital setting.

Creativity and innovation:A contribution of behavioral economics

Innovation in products and services is seen by scholars,by specialized media in management,and by some managers as the main currency in modern economies.This is because it allows high average market profits,fame for innovators,or brand growth,for example.However,in practice,most managers still treat innovation as a secondary issue on their agendas.This problem results from the inability of market professionals to analyze people inside and outside their companies.It is not possible to develop innovative products in a systematic way without treating this point effectively.Moreover,in this process,creativity is a necessary,but not necessarily sufficient,condition to be fulfilled and requires behavioral transformation.In this context,it is believed that behavioral economics can make a sufficient contribution in the form of an analytical marketing tool by offering an analysis closer to human beings'reality,and,thus,allow a better understanding of people's behavior in the process of innovation in the market.

Optimal Contract for the Principal-Agent Under Knightian Uncertainty

Under the Knightian uncertainty,this paper constructs the optimal principal(he)-agent(she)contract model based on the principal’s expected profit and the agent’s expected utility function by using the sublinear expectation theory.The output process in the model is provided by the agent’s continuous efforts and the principal cannot directly observe the agent’s efforts.In the process of work,risk-averse agent will have the opportunity to make external choices.In order to promote the agent’s continuous efforts,the principal will continuously provide the agents with consumption according to the observable output process after the probation period.In this paper,the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation is deduced by using the optimality principle under sublinear expectation while the smoothness viscosity condition of the principal-agent optimal contract is given.Moreover,the continuation value of the agent is taken as the state variable to characterize the optimal expected profit of the principal,the agent’s effort and the consumption level under different degrees of Knightian uncertainty.Finally,the behavioral economics is used to analyze the simulation results.The research findings are that the increasing Knightian uncertainty incurs the decline of the principal’s maximum profit;within the probation period,the increasing Knightian uncertainty leads to the shortening of probation period and makes the agent give higher effort when she faces the outside option;what’s more,after the smooth completion of the probation period for the agent,the agent’s consumption level will rise and her effort level will drop as Knightian uncertainty increasing.

Past Experiences,Personality Traits,and Risk Aversion:Evidence from Individual Risk Attitudes during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Individuals’risk attitudes play an important role in economic decision making and policy evaluation,particularly in the midst of unprecedented uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.We adopt a multiple-price-list elicitation method with real money incentives to measure precisely individuals’risk attitudes at different stake levels and the extent to which they are affected by personal and social shocks following the COVID-19 outbreak in China.We find that subjects who had previously experienced negative personal shocks are more risk-averse at medium and large stakes but more risk loving at very small stakes.For our sample,COVID-19 has no significant impact on risk attitudes,as it is more likely to be regarded as a social shock.The result indicates that the impact of COVID-19 on individual risk attitudes is not as influential as expected,unless the individual’s personal life is affected directly.