The tradeoff between pursuing a known reward (exploitation) and sampling unknown, potentially better opportunities (exploration) is a fundamental challenge faced by all adaptive organisms. Theories formalize the value of exploration (gathering information) as an information bonus. However, this may be difficult to compute; a simpler alternative is to increase decision noise, driving random expl...

This paper develops and estimates a model for the bonus-crediting mechanism in relation to with-profits policies issued by Danish life insurance and pension companies. The market for pension and life insurance savings contracts is generally highly opaque, but our proposed model explains a significant part of the variation in actual bonus distribution by Danish market participants. The main dete...

The issue of bonus in life insurance is considered in a model framework where the traditional set-up is extended by letting the experience basis (mortality, interest, etc.) be stochastic. A novel definition of the technical surplus on an insurance contract is proposed, and basic principles for its repayment as bonus are discussed. Making the experience basis an endogenous part of the model open...

This paper focuses on techniques for constructing Bonus-Malus systems in third party liability automobile insurance. Specifically, the article presents a practical method for constructing optimal Bonus-Malus scales with reasonable penalties that can be commercially implemented. For this purpose, the symmetry between the overcharges and the undercharges reflected in the usual quadratic loss func...

This paper examines the use of incentive pay schemes within the financial services sector in London. Various theories of wage determination are reviewed with particular attention placed on the principal-agent literature as a framework for analysing the use of incentive pay. This is combined with case study interviews and a number of hypotheses regarding the use of bonuses. Quantitative analysis...

The legitimacy of democratic systems requires the protection of minority preferences while ideally treating every voter equally. During the 2006 student elections at Columbia University, we asked voters to rank the importance of different contests and to choose where to cast a single extra “bonus vote,” had one been available — a simple version of Storable Votes. We then constructed distributio...

Using a sample of US bank mergers from 1995 to 2012, we observe that the pre-post merger changes in CEO bonus are significantly negatively related to the strength of corporate governance within the bidding bank. This suggests that bonus compensation is not consistent with the “optimal contracting hypothesis”. Salary changes, on the other hand, are not affected by corporate governance but are po...

This paper evaluates the effects of a property tax bonus to promote the installation of solar–thermal energy systems in buildings in Andalusia (southern Spain). The propensity score matching methodology is used. The treatment group consists of municipalities of Andalusia that established property tax bonuses in their municipalities in 2010. The control group consists of municipalities that did ...