Bonus or flat wage? An experiment into the principal-agent problem

We conduct a simple principal-agent experiment in order to find the effects of information asymmetry on compensation. Our aim is the analysis of the appropriate compensation and its impact on employee’s effort. Furthermore we want to compare the offered compensation and the supplied effort in the version without communication and we want to know whether the experimental observations are consistent with the theoretical considerations.The experimenters found out that compensations observed during the experiment were different from those suggested by the theory and although they were theoretically not enough to induce high effort, we could observe high performance supplied by the agents.     

A Quantum Version of Sanov's Theorem

We present a quantum version of Sanov's theorem focussing on a hypothesis testing aspect of the theorem: There exists a sequence of typical subspaces for a given set Ψ of stationary quantum product states asymptotically separating them from another fixed stationary product state. Analogously to the classical case, the separating rate on a logarithmic scale is equal to the infimum of the quantum relative entropy with respect to the quantum reference state over the set Ψ. While in the classical case the separating subsets can be chosen universally, in the sense that they depend only on the chosen set of i.i.d. processes, in the quantum case the choice of the separating subspaces depends additionally on the reference state.     

Reporting behavior: a literature review of experimental studies

Central European Journal of Operations Research - The literature review focuses on reporting behavior under information (a)symmetry both from the perspective of behavioral management accounting and...     

The influence of face-to-face communication: a principal-agent experiment

The principal-agent problem is an interesting problem involved in many everyday relationships, such as the one between company owners and their delegates. Our experiment simulates such a relationship, whereby the task of participating pairs is to negotiate labor contracts. Our aim is to find the effects of face-to-face communication and negotiation on contract framing. We argue that including pre-play communication into the principal-agent problem leads to a significant improvement of agent’s effort and results in changes of the compensation scheme. We show that incentives are not the only possibility to induce high effort. We use content analysis of the video-taped negotiations to find some characteristics of the communication process.     

Typical Support and Sanov Large Deviations of Correlated States

Discrete stationary classical processes as well as quantum lattice states are asymptotically confined to their respective typical support, the exponential growth rate of which is given by the (maximal ergodic) entropy. In the iid case the distinguishability of typical supports can be asymptotically specified by means of the relative entropy, according to Sanov’s theorem. We give an extension to the correlated case, referring to the newly introduced class of HP-states.     

Method validation for determination of amino acids in feed by UPLC

Accreditation and Quality Assurance - The paper presents results of validation of an analytical procedure based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography technique (UPLC) for determination of 17...     

Criteria for using proficiency test results for estimation of measurement uncertainty: feed analysis example

Accreditation and Quality Assurance - On the basis of long-standing proficiency testings (PTs) for the small number of PT participants p...     

Bioelectricity Production from Soil Using Microbial Fuel Cells

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a device using microorganisms as biocatalysts for transforming chemical energy into bioelectricity. As soil is an environment with the highest number of microorganisms and diversity, we hypothesized that it should have the potential for energy generation. The soil used for the study was Mollic Gleysol collected from the surface layer (0–20 cm). Four combinations of soil MFC differing from each other in humidity (full water holding capacity [WHC] and flooding) and the carbon source (glucose and straw) were constructed. Voltage (mV) and current intensity (μA) produced by the MFCs were recorded every day or at 2-day intervals. The fastest and the most effective MFCs in voltage generation (372.2?±?5 mV) were those constructed on the basis of glucose (MFC-G). The efficiency of straw MFCs (MFC-S) was noticeable after 2 weeks (319.3?±?4 mV). Maximal power density (P _max?=?32 mW m^?2) was achieved by the MFC-G at current density (CD) of 100 mA m^?2. Much lower values of P _max (10.6–10.8 mW m^?2) were noted in the MFC-S at CD of ca. 60–80 mA m^?2. Consequently, soil has potential for production of renewable energy.