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Does the Endowment Effect Justify Legal Intervention? The Debiasing Effect of Institutions
July 6, 2015
We claim that the endowment effect rarely justifies legal intervention in private ordering. We present the first theory, to our knowledge, to explain how institutions inhibit the endowment effect without altering people’s rights to their entitlements. The endowment effect is substantially caused by anticipated regret. We show that people experience regret only when they feel responsible for the decision and can mute regret by trading through institutions that let them share responsibility with...
July 6, 2015
We claim that the endowment effect rarely justifies legal intervention in private ordering. We present the first theory, to our knowledge, to explain how institutions inhibit the endowment effect without altering people’s rights to their entitlements. The endowment effect is substantially caused by anticipated regret. We show that people experience regret only when they feel responsible for the decision and can mute regret by trading through institutions that let them share responsibility with...
Patent Litigation Update
July 6, 2015
Last month, Pricewaterhouse Cooper released its annual patent litigation study. The report, entitled “A change in patentee...
July 6, 2015
Last month, Pricewaterhouse Cooper released its annual patent litigation study. The report, entitled “A change in patentee...
The Leadership Skills of Late Night
July 5, 2015
How Letterman, Leno, and Stewart’s Leadership Qualities Are Saving Late Night TV Selecting the right person for a challenging...
July 5, 2015
How Letterman, Leno, and Stewart’s Leadership Qualities Are Saving Late Night TV Selecting the right person for a challenging...
Getting To Google Now
July 5, 2015
Google Now project manager Aparna Chennapragada presented a vision for Now in which it not only provides all the information you could possibly need, but also knows when you need it and in what form. That’s always been the logical path forward for Android’s digital assistant. But Now was limited by its ability to draw info primarily from Google services like Gmail and Maps. No longer. Last month, the company announced new integrations with 70 services; at I/O, Chennapragada confirmed the number...
July 5, 2015
Google Now project manager Aparna Chennapragada presented a vision for Now in which it not only provides all the information you could possibly need, but also knows when you need it and in what form. That’s always been the logical path forward for Android’s digital assistant. But Now was limited by its ability to draw info primarily from Google services like Gmail and Maps. No longer. Last month, the company announced new integrations with 70 services; at I/O, Chennapragada confirmed the number...
Virtual Eyes Train Deep Learning Algorithm to Recognize Gaze Direction
July 5, 2015
Gaze estimation is a classic problem of machine vision, which can now be solved by one computer training another. Eye contact is one of the most powerful forms of nonverbal communication. If avatars and robots are ever to exploit it, computer scientists will need to better monitor, understand, and reproduce this behavior. But eye tracking is easier said than done. Perhaps the most promising approach is to train a machine-learning algorithm to recognize gaze direction by studying a large database...
July 5, 2015
Gaze estimation is a classic problem of machine vision, which can now be solved by one computer training another. Eye contact is one of the most powerful forms of nonverbal communication. If avatars and robots are ever to exploit it, computer scientists will need to better monitor, understand, and reproduce this behavior. But eye tracking is easier said than done. Perhaps the most promising approach is to train a machine-learning algorithm to recognize gaze direction by studying a large database...
Real-Time Texting App Lets You Interrupt Without Saying a Word
July 4, 2015
Beam Messenger shows friends what you type as you’re texting, even if you decide to delete it. Normally when you text someone on your smartphone, the recipient can’t tell if the words glowing on their screen were composed off-the-cuff or were carefully planned and edited—depending on the app, the most they’re likely to know is whether you’re typing or not. An app called Beam Messenger changes that by showing users what their conversation partner is writing as they write it, blurring...
July 4, 2015
Beam Messenger shows friends what you type as you’re texting, even if you decide to delete it. Normally when you text someone on your smartphone, the recipient can’t tell if the words glowing on their screen were composed off-the-cuff or were carefully planned and edited—depending on the app, the most they’re likely to know is whether you’re typing or not. An app called Beam Messenger changes that by showing users what their conversation partner is writing as they write it, blurring...
If You Want People to Listen, Stop Talking
July 4, 2015
George*, a managing director at a large financial services firm, had an uncanny ability to move a roomful of people to his perspective. What George said was not always popular, but he was a master persuader. It wasn’t his title — he often swayed colleagues at the same hierarchical level. And it wasn’t their weakness — he worked with a highly competitive bunch. It wasn’t even his elegant and distinguished British accent — his British colleagues were persuaded right along with everyone...
July 4, 2015
George*, a managing director at a large financial services firm, had an uncanny ability to move a roomful of people to his perspective. What George said was not always popular, but he was a master persuader. It wasn’t his title — he often swayed colleagues at the same hierarchical level. And it wasn’t their weakness — he worked with a highly competitive bunch. It wasn’t even his elegant and distinguished British accent — his British colleagues were persuaded right along with everyone...
Google Rolls Out New Automated Helpers
July 4, 2015
Users of mobile devices powered by Android are set to get a lot more help from Google’s artificial-intelligence algorithms. Who needs a personality? Not Google’s artificial-intelligence technology. Apple and Microsoft offer virtual personal assistants that answer questions and control phone functions with a combination of smart algorithms and programmed sass. New artificial-intelligence products announced by Google today are faceless by comparison. But they suggest the search company has more...
July 4, 2015
Users of mobile devices powered by Android are set to get a lot more help from Google’s artificial-intelligence algorithms. Who needs a personality? Not Google’s artificial-intelligence technology. Apple and Microsoft offer virtual personal assistants that answer questions and control phone functions with a combination of smart algorithms and programmed sass. New artificial-intelligence products announced by Google today are faceless by comparison. But they suggest the search company has more...
The Persuasiveness of a Chart Depends on the Reader, Not Just the Chart
July 3, 2015
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” is a hackneyed idiom, but it sticks because it happens to be mostly true. It’s one of the reasons why data visualization is emerging as a powerful information force in the crowded, intensely contested world of social media. It’s why, during last year’s State of the Union, the president live-tweeted charts to illustrate the points he was making in his speech. It’s why Ezra Klein publishes stories that deign to suggest they can explain something as vast...
July 3, 2015
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” is a hackneyed idiom, but it sticks because it happens to be mostly true. It’s one of the reasons why data visualization is emerging as a powerful information force in the crowded, intensely contested world of social media. It’s why, during last year’s State of the Union, the president live-tweeted charts to illustrate the points he was making in his speech. It’s why Ezra Klein publishes stories that deign to suggest they can explain something as vast...
Grexit Would Be Even More Dangerous than Economists Realize
July 3, 2015
After months of acrimonious negotiations, and despite a significant rapprochement between their position and their creditors’, the Greek coalition government has unexpectedly stopped negotiation discussions in their tracks, announcing a snap referendum for Sunday, July 5th, over the proposed deal with the EU. It’s a puzzling move. The Greek government’s own proposal to creditors had included 8 Billion Euros in extra measures — eight times the amount agreed to by the previous government...
July 3, 2015
After months of acrimonious negotiations, and despite a significant rapprochement between their position and their creditors’, the Greek coalition government has unexpectedly stopped negotiation discussions in their tracks, announcing a snap referendum for Sunday, July 5th, over the proposed deal with the EU. It’s a puzzling move. The Greek government’s own proposal to creditors had included 8 Billion Euros in extra measures — eight times the amount agreed to by the previous government...
