Asha Sadanand | University of Guelph (original) (raw)
Papers by Asha Sadanand
Social Science Research Network, 2018
Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern yo... more Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern your use of this document. When citing, please reference the published version. Take down policy While the University of Birmingham exercises care and attention in making items available there are rare occasions when an item has been uploaded in error or has been deemed to be commercially or otherwise sensitive.
Financial support for the resear~h of this thesis was provided by an Earle C. Anthony Fellowship,... more Financial support for the resear~h of this thesis was provided by an Earle C. Anthony Fellowship, a John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research ~ouncil of Canada Doctoral Fellowships for four years, _ and Graduate Research. anc.t Teaching Assistantships awarded by the California Institute of Technology. My principal advisor, Louis L. Wilde, was a constant source of usetul suggestions, a~vice and guidance while I was writing my thesis. His insights in the theoretical issues and policy implications were extremely valuable. He is also the coauthor of the first essay~ I would also like to thank the other members of my committee, Kim Border, Jennifer Reinganum and Alan Schwartz for their helpful comments. I thank my entire committee for agreeing to read the final version of the thesis in just one week. Barbara Calli and Jean Que sne 1 did an admirable j oo typing and editing the thesis. Barba.ra Yandell a i nvaluable in tackling all the problem that we re encountered in producing the text. I also wish t o thanx ~e n McCue for belp1ng with the word processing. Finally, I would like to thank my parents and my husband, Venkat, who made it all worthwhile.
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2017
We investigate the effectiveness of online versus paper assignments using final examination score... more We investigate the effectiveness of online versus paper assignments using final examination scores in three cohorts of Theory of Finance. In particular, two cohorts were exposed to online assignments while another cohort was exposed to traditional assignments. Our central result is that exposure to online assignments robustly leads to higher final exam scores, all else being equal. We also find a lower level of engagement as shown by low assignment completion rates for students exposed to online assignments.
In a seminal paper, Selten (Selten, 1975) developed the game Selten's Horse to illustrate some as... more In a seminal paper, Selten (Selten, 1975) developed the game Selten's Horse to illustrate some aspects of rationality. In our experimental study of Selten's Horse we find that behaviour is not according to conventional sequential rationality based refinements. Some behaviour is better explained by Ideal Reactive Equilibrium (Sadanand, 2019), an extension of Manipulated Nash Equilibrium (Amershi, Sadanand, and Sadanand, 1985a,b,c). We provide a simple model of Level-k thinking incorporating the idea of virtual observability, where the players behave as if their subsequent opponents could in effect observe their actions. We find that participants' behaviour is somewhat explained by virtual observability, but this is limited to immediate successors and is more prevalent in the more complex version of the game. Moreover, at times we see first movers naïvely move towards their most-preferred equilibrium and follower players anticipate and exploit it by systematically reaching off-equilibrium outcomes that are favourable to them.
This paper is concerned with the eects of regulations that prohibit the use of information to ris... more This paper is concerned with the eects of regulations that prohibit the use of information to risk-rate premiums in a life insurance market. In particular, new information derived from genetic tests is likely to become increasingly relevant in the near to medium term future. Many governments have prohibited the use of this information in ratemaking, thereby generating “regulatory adverse selection”. In our model, individuals early in their lives know neither their desired level of life insurance later in life nor their mortality risk, but learn both over time. We obtain both positive and normative results which dier qualitatively from those obtained in standard, static models. In particular, we show that legislation prohibiting the use of results from genetic screening tests for ratemaking purposes in the life insurance market may increase welfare.
Genetic tests can be expected to produce a large amount of economically important information in ... more Genetic tests can be expected to produce a large amount of economically important information in the future. What are the eects on a life insurance market if more information becomes available over time, for individuals and possibly also for insurers? Should people buy insurance before or after becoming informed? How do earlier trades inuence the market equilibrium in later periods? We also analyze the scope for a Pareto improving regulation of the insurance market. Keywords: insurance, information, adverse selection. JEL code: D8. Corresponding author: Mattias Polborn, Department of Economics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 5C2, Canada; email: mpolborn@julian.uwo.ca 1 Introduction The information possessed by the insurer and by the insured has important implications on the resulting insurance market equilibrium. It is well known that under symmetric information, the risk allocation in the market equilibrium is optimal, while under asymmetric informa...
Multi-agent systems for healthcare simulation …, 2010
In this chapter the authors examine the compatibility of the objectives of universality and publi... more In this chapter the authors examine the compatibility of the objectives of universality and public funding which are two important pillars of the Canadian healthcare system, with the objectives of cost effectiveness and more generally economic efficiency. ...
International Economic Review, 1991
This paper demonstrates the existence of a shareholders' equilibrium for a two period stock ... more This paper demonstrates the existence of a shareholders' equilibrium for a two period stock market economy in which there may be fewer securities than states of the world. There are two allocation mechanisms in the economy: Firms' owners may vote (direction restricted ...
We analyse the effects of regulations prohibiting the use of information to risk-rate premiums in... more We analyse the effects of regulations prohibiting the use of information to risk-rate premiums in a life insurance market. New information derived from genetic tests is likely to become increasingly relevant in the future. Many governments prohibit the use of this information, thereby generating Ôregulatory adverse selectionÕ. In our model, individuals early in their lives know neither their desired level of life insurance later in life nor their mortality risk, but learn both over time. We obtain both positive and normative results that differ qualitatively from those in standard, static models. Legislation prohibiting the use of genetic tests for ratemaking may increase welfare. * We thank two anonymous referees and David DeMeza (the editor) for very helpful comments, as well as seminar participants at the
Journal of Economic Theory, 1996
This paper presents a model of stochastic oligopoly with demand uncertainty where firms endogenou... more This paper presents a model of stochastic oligopoly with demand uncertainty where firms endogenously choose entry timing. We examine two extreme types of market structure and show that the equilibrium correspondence that connects them is continous. With two identically sized firms, there are symmetric, Cournot type equilibria where the probability of early entry declines with greater uncertainty, and for low
The paper arose out of the authors' belief that economic principles should, and probably will... more The paper arose out of the authors' belief that economic principles should, and probably will, play a larger role in the decisions of the new Competition Tribunal. The objective of the paper is to clarify some of the underlying assumptions and choices implicit in the regulation of competitive behaviour by examining the literature on economic analysis of market behaviour written by both economists and lawyers. The authors are especially concerned with the recent emphasis on strategic behaviour and its contrast to the Chicago school approach which recommends less interference with market behaviour. They examine the differences between the assumptions of both models and then consider the implications for the regulation of exclusive dealing. In particular, the authors examine the requirement that competition must be substantially lessened, by developing two different approaches to a rule-of-reason test.
Genetic tests can be expected to produce a large amount of economically important information in ... more Genetic tests can be expected to produce a large amount of economically important information in the future. What are the effects on a life insurance market if more information becomes available over time, for individuals and possibly also for insurers? Should people buy insurance before or after becoming informed? How do earlier trades influence the market equilibrium in later periods? We also analyze the scope for a Pareto improving regulation of the insurance market.
In this paper we analyze the connection between Nash bargaining and non-cooperative bargaining, t... more In this paper we analyze the connection between Nash bargaining and non-cooperative bargaining, the so-called Nash program, to solve the question of whether outside options should be considered as a the disagreement point.
Guaranteed renewability is a prominent feature in many health and life insurance markets. It is w... more Guaranteed renewability is a prominent feature in many health and life insurance markets. It is well established in the literature that, when there is (only) risk type uncertainty, the optimal GR contract with renewal price set at the actuarially fair price for low risk types provides full insurance against reclassification risk. We develop a model that includes unpredictable (and unobservable) fluctuations in demand for life insurance as well as changes in risk type (observable) over individuals' lifetimes. The presence of demand type heterogeneity leads to the possibility that optimal GR contracts may have a renewal price that is either above or below the actuarially fair price of the lowest risk type in the population. Individuals whose type turns out to be high risk but low demand renew more of their GR insurance than is efficient due to the attractive renewal price. This results in incomplete insurance against re-classification risk. Although a first best efficient contract...
This paper experimentally examines the behaviour of mobile software agents (MAs) as they use vari... more This paper experimentally examines the behaviour of mobile software agents (MAs) as they use various contribution strategies towards the provision of a threshold public good. By combining the e-commerce and economics elements of the contribution game together with MA technology we present an effective tool for analysis of these elements. Through use of this tool we have produced a large set of threshold contribution game experimental results. From analysis of the results observations are made that highlight the effectiveness of using MAs to represent players in an economic game. These observations consist of player strategy analysis, player strategy evaluation, and system equilibrium analysis.
The modeling of healthcare components and systems in order to develop a complete understanding of... more The modeling of healthcare components and systems in order to develop a complete understanding of component interactions is one of the more challenging simulation and modeling problems for software agent systems. Multi-Agent Systems for Healthcare Simulation and Modeling: Applications for System Improvement provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings used by medical professionals in the implementation of multi-agent systems. This Premier Reference Source disseminates understanding on the strategic role of systems modeling in healthcare, a valuable resource to academicians, researchers, and field practitioners.
Social Science Research Network, 2018
Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern yo... more Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern your use of this document. When citing, please reference the published version. Take down policy While the University of Birmingham exercises care and attention in making items available there are rare occasions when an item has been uploaded in error or has been deemed to be commercially or otherwise sensitive.
Financial support for the resear~h of this thesis was provided by an Earle C. Anthony Fellowship,... more Financial support for the resear~h of this thesis was provided by an Earle C. Anthony Fellowship, a John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research ~ouncil of Canada Doctoral Fellowships for four years, _ and Graduate Research. anc.t Teaching Assistantships awarded by the California Institute of Technology. My principal advisor, Louis L. Wilde, was a constant source of usetul suggestions, a~vice and guidance while I was writing my thesis. His insights in the theoretical issues and policy implications were extremely valuable. He is also the coauthor of the first essay~ I would also like to thank the other members of my committee, Kim Border, Jennifer Reinganum and Alan Schwartz for their helpful comments. I thank my entire committee for agreeing to read the final version of the thesis in just one week. Barbara Calli and Jean Que sne 1 did an admirable j oo typing and editing the thesis. Barba.ra Yandell a i nvaluable in tackling all the problem that we re encountered in producing the text. I also wish t o thanx ~e n McCue for belp1ng with the word processing. Finally, I would like to thank my parents and my husband, Venkat, who made it all worthwhile.
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2017
We investigate the effectiveness of online versus paper assignments using final examination score... more We investigate the effectiveness of online versus paper assignments using final examination scores in three cohorts of Theory of Finance. In particular, two cohorts were exposed to online assignments while another cohort was exposed to traditional assignments. Our central result is that exposure to online assignments robustly leads to higher final exam scores, all else being equal. We also find a lower level of engagement as shown by low assignment completion rates for students exposed to online assignments.
In a seminal paper, Selten (Selten, 1975) developed the game Selten's Horse to illustrate some as... more In a seminal paper, Selten (Selten, 1975) developed the game Selten's Horse to illustrate some aspects of rationality. In our experimental study of Selten's Horse we find that behaviour is not according to conventional sequential rationality based refinements. Some behaviour is better explained by Ideal Reactive Equilibrium (Sadanand, 2019), an extension of Manipulated Nash Equilibrium (Amershi, Sadanand, and Sadanand, 1985a,b,c). We provide a simple model of Level-k thinking incorporating the idea of virtual observability, where the players behave as if their subsequent opponents could in effect observe their actions. We find that participants' behaviour is somewhat explained by virtual observability, but this is limited to immediate successors and is more prevalent in the more complex version of the game. Moreover, at times we see first movers naïvely move towards their most-preferred equilibrium and follower players anticipate and exploit it by systematically reaching off-equilibrium outcomes that are favourable to them.
This paper is concerned with the eects of regulations that prohibit the use of information to ris... more This paper is concerned with the eects of regulations that prohibit the use of information to risk-rate premiums in a life insurance market. In particular, new information derived from genetic tests is likely to become increasingly relevant in the near to medium term future. Many governments have prohibited the use of this information in ratemaking, thereby generating “regulatory adverse selection”. In our model, individuals early in their lives know neither their desired level of life insurance later in life nor their mortality risk, but learn both over time. We obtain both positive and normative results which dier qualitatively from those obtained in standard, static models. In particular, we show that legislation prohibiting the use of results from genetic screening tests for ratemaking purposes in the life insurance market may increase welfare.
Genetic tests can be expected to produce a large amount of economically important information in ... more Genetic tests can be expected to produce a large amount of economically important information in the future. What are the eects on a life insurance market if more information becomes available over time, for individuals and possibly also for insurers? Should people buy insurance before or after becoming informed? How do earlier trades inuence the market equilibrium in later periods? We also analyze the scope for a Pareto improving regulation of the insurance market. Keywords: insurance, information, adverse selection. JEL code: D8. Corresponding author: Mattias Polborn, Department of Economics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 5C2, Canada; email: mpolborn@julian.uwo.ca 1 Introduction The information possessed by the insurer and by the insured has important implications on the resulting insurance market equilibrium. It is well known that under symmetric information, the risk allocation in the market equilibrium is optimal, while under asymmetric informa...
Multi-agent systems for healthcare simulation …, 2010
In this chapter the authors examine the compatibility of the objectives of universality and publi... more In this chapter the authors examine the compatibility of the objectives of universality and public funding which are two important pillars of the Canadian healthcare system, with the objectives of cost effectiveness and more generally economic efficiency. ...
International Economic Review, 1991
This paper demonstrates the existence of a shareholders' equilibrium for a two period stock ... more This paper demonstrates the existence of a shareholders' equilibrium for a two period stock market economy in which there may be fewer securities than states of the world. There are two allocation mechanisms in the economy: Firms' owners may vote (direction restricted ...
We analyse the effects of regulations prohibiting the use of information to risk-rate premiums in... more We analyse the effects of regulations prohibiting the use of information to risk-rate premiums in a life insurance market. New information derived from genetic tests is likely to become increasingly relevant in the future. Many governments prohibit the use of this information, thereby generating Ôregulatory adverse selectionÕ. In our model, individuals early in their lives know neither their desired level of life insurance later in life nor their mortality risk, but learn both over time. We obtain both positive and normative results that differ qualitatively from those in standard, static models. Legislation prohibiting the use of genetic tests for ratemaking may increase welfare. * We thank two anonymous referees and David DeMeza (the editor) for very helpful comments, as well as seminar participants at the
Journal of Economic Theory, 1996
This paper presents a model of stochastic oligopoly with demand uncertainty where firms endogenou... more This paper presents a model of stochastic oligopoly with demand uncertainty where firms endogenously choose entry timing. We examine two extreme types of market structure and show that the equilibrium correspondence that connects them is continous. With two identically sized firms, there are symmetric, Cournot type equilibria where the probability of early entry declines with greater uncertainty, and for low
The paper arose out of the authors' belief that economic principles should, and probably will... more The paper arose out of the authors' belief that economic principles should, and probably will, play a larger role in the decisions of the new Competition Tribunal. The objective of the paper is to clarify some of the underlying assumptions and choices implicit in the regulation of competitive behaviour by examining the literature on economic analysis of market behaviour written by both economists and lawyers. The authors are especially concerned with the recent emphasis on strategic behaviour and its contrast to the Chicago school approach which recommends less interference with market behaviour. They examine the differences between the assumptions of both models and then consider the implications for the regulation of exclusive dealing. In particular, the authors examine the requirement that competition must be substantially lessened, by developing two different approaches to a rule-of-reason test.
Genetic tests can be expected to produce a large amount of economically important information in ... more Genetic tests can be expected to produce a large amount of economically important information in the future. What are the effects on a life insurance market if more information becomes available over time, for individuals and possibly also for insurers? Should people buy insurance before or after becoming informed? How do earlier trades influence the market equilibrium in later periods? We also analyze the scope for a Pareto improving regulation of the insurance market.
In this paper we analyze the connection between Nash bargaining and non-cooperative bargaining, t... more In this paper we analyze the connection between Nash bargaining and non-cooperative bargaining, the so-called Nash program, to solve the question of whether outside options should be considered as a the disagreement point.
Guaranteed renewability is a prominent feature in many health and life insurance markets. It is w... more Guaranteed renewability is a prominent feature in many health and life insurance markets. It is well established in the literature that, when there is (only) risk type uncertainty, the optimal GR contract with renewal price set at the actuarially fair price for low risk types provides full insurance against reclassification risk. We develop a model that includes unpredictable (and unobservable) fluctuations in demand for life insurance as well as changes in risk type (observable) over individuals' lifetimes. The presence of demand type heterogeneity leads to the possibility that optimal GR contracts may have a renewal price that is either above or below the actuarially fair price of the lowest risk type in the population. Individuals whose type turns out to be high risk but low demand renew more of their GR insurance than is efficient due to the attractive renewal price. This results in incomplete insurance against re-classification risk. Although a first best efficient contract...
This paper experimentally examines the behaviour of mobile software agents (MAs) as they use vari... more This paper experimentally examines the behaviour of mobile software agents (MAs) as they use various contribution strategies towards the provision of a threshold public good. By combining the e-commerce and economics elements of the contribution game together with MA technology we present an effective tool for analysis of these elements. Through use of this tool we have produced a large set of threshold contribution game experimental results. From analysis of the results observations are made that highlight the effectiveness of using MAs to represent players in an economic game. These observations consist of player strategy analysis, player strategy evaluation, and system equilibrium analysis.
The modeling of healthcare components and systems in order to develop a complete understanding of... more The modeling of healthcare components and systems in order to develop a complete understanding of component interactions is one of the more challenging simulation and modeling problems for software agent systems. Multi-Agent Systems for Healthcare Simulation and Modeling: Applications for System Improvement provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings used by medical professionals in the implementation of multi-agent systems. This Premier Reference Source disseminates understanding on the strategic role of systems modeling in healthcare, a valuable resource to academicians, researchers, and field practitioners.