Combinatorial problems such as scheduling, resource allocation, and configuration have many attributes that can be subject of user preferences. Traditional optimization approaches compile those preferences into a single utility function and use it as the optimization objective when solving the problem, but neither explain why the resulting solution satisfies the original preferences, nor indica...

This paper examines the effect of offshoring in a model of North-South trade when households have non-homothetic preferences of the Matsuyama (2000) type. We presents a platform from which to examine issues of trade and development in the presence of offshoring. The assumption of homotheticity is prevalent throughout the offshoring literature. We find that in equilibrium the South will consume ...

This work incorporates Selectional Preferences (SP) into a Semantic Role (SR) Classification system. We learn separate selectional preferences for noun phrases and prepositional phrases and we integrate them in a state-of-the-art SR classification system both in the form of features and individual class predictors. We show that the inclusion of the refined SPs yields statistically significant i...

Each month many women experience an ovulatory cycle that regulates fertility. Whereas research finds that this cycle influences women’s mating preferences, we propose that it might also change women’s political and religious views. Building on theory suggesting that political and religious orientation are linked to reproductive goals, we tested how fertility influenced women’s politics, religio...

Many preference aggregation problems are not, by nature, one-shot. In these settings, voter preferences need to be repeatedly aggregated as a function of the underlying pool of options that are being voted over. For example, imagine that a firm votes an offer to a candidate. If the offer is declined, then the pool of options shrinks, votes are aggregated once more, and a subsequent offer is mad...

The endowment effect is a well-known behavioral regularity in which a person is less likely to trade a good when he is endowed with it. In their generalization of prospect theory to consumption bundles with multiple attributes, Tversky and Kahneman [1991] imply the endowment effect as a consequence of loss aversion and diminishing sensitivity in gains. It has since frequently been presumed that...

Efficient design and evolution of complex software intensive systems rely on the ability to make informed decisions as early as possible in the life cycle. Such informed decisions should take both the intended functional and nonfunctional properties into account. Especially regarding the latter, it is both necessary to be able to predict properties and to prioritize them according to well-defin...

When researchers complete a manuscript, they need to choose a journal to which they will submit the study. This decision requires to navigate trade-offs between multiple objectives. One objective is to share the new knowledge as widely as possible. Citation counts can serve as a proxy to quantify this objective. A second objective is to minimize the time commitment put into sharing the research...

This paper aims at investigating whether and how the intensity of trade between a pair countries changes when they experience improvements in their infrastructural systems. We carry out our analysis considering participating Belt Road Initiative (BRI), project specifically designed to promote connectivity therefore boost among involved. Our empirical strategy relies on particular specification ...

Scholars have long argued that Presidents are less protectionist than Congress while Senators are less so than Representatives due to their larger constituencies. Yet until now this theory has escaped scrutiny. I argue that it is based on a misguided view of trade policy as distributive politics. I show via a series of tests that the theory is untenable. Unlike their differences in constituency...