Harbaugh, Bill

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/1794/693

The collection highlights some of the research being undertaken by Bill Harbaugh, Associate Professor, UO Economics Department.

A.K.A.
W. T. Harbaugh

William T. Harbaugh

538 PLC
University of Oregon

Economics Department

Eugene, Oregon 97403-1285

email: bill@harbaugh.org

Phone: 541-346-1244
Fax: 541-346-1243

Vitae

For more information, visit his personal web site at: http://harbaugh.org

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Browsing Harbaugh, Bill by Subject "Children"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Bargaining by Children
    (University of Oregon, Dept. of Economics, 2002-07-20) Liday, Steven G.; Harbaugh, William; Krause, Kate
    We study the development of bargaining behavior in children age seven through 18, using ultimatum and dictator games. We find that bargaining behavior changes substantially with age and that most of this change appears to be related to changes in preferences for fairness, rather than bargaining ability. Younger children make and accept smaller ultimatum proposals than do older children, Even young children are quite strategic in their behavior, making much smaller dictator than ultimatum proposals. Boys claim to be more aggressive bargainers than girls do, but they are not. Older girls make larger dictator proposals than older boys, but among younger children the proposals differ much more by height than by sex. We argue that the existence of systematic differences in bargaining behavior across age and sex supports the argument that culture is a determinant of economic behavior, and suggests that people acquire this culture during childhood. We argue that the height differences indicate that forces other than culture, in the usual sense of the word, are also important. Publisher Info
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    Risk Attitudes of Children and Adults : Choices over Small and Large Probability Gains and Losses
    (2001-11-05) Harbaugh, William; Krause, Kate; Vesterlund, Lise
    In this paper we examine how risk attitudes change with age. We present participants from age 5 to 64 with choices between simple gambles and the expected value of the gambles. The gambles are over both gains and losses, and vary in the probability of the non-zero payoff. Surprisingly, we find that many participants are risk seeking when faced with high-probability prospects over gains and risk averse when faced with small-probability prospects. Over losses we find the exact opposite. Children’s choices are consistent with the underweighting of low-probability events and the overweighting of high-probability ones. This tendency diminishes with age, and on average adults appear to use the objective probability when evaluating risky prospects.
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    Trust in Children
    (University of Oregon, Dept. of Economics, 2002-03-22) Liday, Steven G.; Vesterlund, Lise; Harbaugh, William; Krause, Kate
    In this paper we study trust/reciprocity behavior in children ages eight to eighteen using an augmented version of Berg et al.â s (1995) trust game. This study is intended to inspect and reveal when certain aspects of trust behavior are formed in individuals. In addition, we examine the affect of certain characteristics in subjects that lead to higher levels of trusting behavior.
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    Valuing Children’s Health and Life: What Does Economic Theory Say About Including Parental and Societal Willingness To Pay?
    (University of Oregon, Dept. of Economics, 2001-06-01) Harbaugh, William
    Governments can and do adopt many policies that will improve the health and reduce the mortality risks of children. Given this, estimates of the value of improvements in children’s health and reductions in their mortality risk are needed so that governments can rationally choose which of the many possible policies to adopt. These estimates should be based on an appropriate measure of value that is based on economic theory. This paper examines what economic theory has to say about what sorts of elements should be counted in that value, and how that value should then be used in decision-making.