In Defense of Comparative Statics: Specifying Empirical Tests of Models of Strategic Interaction

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifford J. Carrubba ◽  
Amy Yuen ◽  
Christopher Zorn
Keyword(s):  
Discrete Choice ◽  
Strategic Behavior ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Comparative Statics ◽  
Formal Models ◽  
Likelihood Estimator ◽  
Alternative Methodology ◽  
Empirical Tests ◽  
Parametric Relationships ◽  
Traditional Approaches

Beginning in 1999, Curtis Signorino challenged the use of traditional logits and probits analysis for testing discrete-choice, strategic models. Signorino argues that the complex parametric relationships generated by even the simplest strategic models can lead to wildly inaccurate inferences if one applies these traditional approaches. In their stead, Signorino proposes generating stochastic formal models, from which one can directly derive a maximum likelihood estimator. We propose a simpler, alternative methodology for theoretically and empirically accounting for strategic behavior. In particular, we propose carefully and correctly deriving one's comparative statics from one's formal model, whether it is stochastic or deterministic does not particularly matter, and using standard logit or probit estimation techniques to test the predictions. We demonstrate that this approach performs almost identically to Signorino's more complex suggestion.

scholarly journals A Theory of Participation in Elections

2006 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 1271-1282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Feddersen ◽  
Alvaro Sandroni
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Behavior ◽  
Comparative Statics ◽  
High Turnout ◽  
Do So

We analyze a model of participation in elections in which voting is costly and no vote is pivotal. Ethical agents are motivated to participate when they determine that agents of their type are obligated to do so. Unlike previous duty-based models of participation, in our model an ethical agent's obligation to vote is determined endogenously as a function of the behavior of other agents. Our model predicts high turnout and comparative statics that are consistent with strategic behavior.

Towards a theory of sensory robotics

Robotica ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Pinkava
Keyword(s):  
Formal Model ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
The Other ◽  
Theoretical Ground ◽  
Formal Models ◽  
Homogeneous Body ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Scientific Approach

SUMMARYA partial review of some efforts in robotics research is presented. We identify two broad categories of work: one characterised by application-driven experimental engineering, the other by a more ‘scientific’ approach based on testing theoretical models through implementation. We argue that although the former represents some of the best practical results obtained to-date, this experiment-first-theory-later approach does not contribute to a homogeneous body of knowledge. If robotics is to make measured progress, sound theoretical ground is needed. We argue for a task-specific paradigm for future theoretical work founded on formal models. To this end, we present a general analysis of a sensory robotic system, and identify key elements that must be defined in any formal model before we can decide what sensory information is useful for a given task.

A Formal Model of Learning and Policy Diffusion

2008 ◽  
Vol 102 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
CRAIG VOLDEN ◽  
MICHAEL M. TING ◽  
DANIEL P. CARPENTER
Keyword(s):  
Formal Model ◽  
Policy Diffusion ◽  
The Other ◽  
Policy Choice ◽  
Game Theoretic ◽  
Empirical Tests ◽  
The Way

We present a model of learning and policy choice across governments. Governments choose policies with known ideological positions but initially unknown valence benefits, possibly learning about those benefits between the model's two periods. There are two variants of the model; in one, governments only learn from their own experiences, whereas in the other they learn from one another's experiments. Based on similarities between these two versions, we illustrate that much accepted scholarly evidence of policy diffusion could simply have arisen through independent actions by governments that only learn from their own experiences. However, differences between the game-theoretic and decision-theoretic models point the way to future empirical tests that discern learning-based policy diffusion from independent policy adoptions.

ON THE NECESSITY OF FORMAL MODELS FOR REAL-TIME PARALLEL COMPUTATIONS

2001 ◽  
Vol 11 (02n03) ◽  
pp. 353-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEFAN D. BRUDA ◽  
SELIM G. AKL
Keyword(s):  
Positive Integer ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Turing Machine ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Parallel Computations ◽  
General Nature ◽  
Turing Machines ◽  
Formal Models ◽  
Language L

We assume the multitape real-time Turing machine as a formal model for parallel real-time computation. Then, we show that, for any positive integer k, there is at least one language Lk which is accepted by a k-tape real-Turing machine, but cannot be accepted by a (k - 1)-tape real-time Turing machine. It follows therefore that the languages accepted by real-time Turing machines form an infinite hierarchy with respect to the number of tapes used. Although this result was previously obtained elsewhere, our proof is considerably shorter, and explicitly builds the languages Lk. The ability of the real-time Turing machine to model practical real-time and/or parallel computations is open to debate. Nevertheless, our result shows how a complexity theory based on a formal model can draw interesting results that are of more general nature than those derived from examples. Thus, we hope to offer a motivation for looking into realistic parallel real-time models of computation.

scholarly journals How to Translate a Verbal Theory Into a Formal Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 207-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul E. Smaldino
Keyword(s):  
Formal Model ◽  
Formal Models ◽  
Verbal Theory ◽  
Mature Science

Abstract. Turning verbal theories into formal models is an essential business of a mature science. Here I elaborate on taxonomies of models, provide ten lessons for translating a verbal theory into a formal model, and discuss the specific challenges involved in collaborations between modelers and non-modelers. It’s a start.

scholarly journals How to translate a verbal theory into a formal model

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Smaldino
Keyword(s):  
Formal Model ◽  
Formal Models ◽  
Verbal Theory ◽  
Mature Science

Turning verbal theories into formal models is an essential business of a mature science. Here I elaborate on taxonomies of models, provide ten lessons for translating a verbal theory into a formal model, and discuss the specific challenges involved in collaborations between modelers and non-modelers. It's a start.

Building an Encompassing Community of Fate and Winning Consent

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Ahlquist ◽  
Margaret Levi
Keyword(s):  
Information Acquisition ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Equilibrium Selection ◽  
Selection Problem ◽  
Organizational Leaders ◽  
Formal Models ◽  
Organizational Governance ◽  
Analytic Narrative ◽  
Governance Institutions ◽  
The One

This chapter looks at the development of a formal model that specifies the relationships between leaders and members. Organizational leaders can develop reputations for effectiveness; this reputation makes possible leadership rents, which expand cooperation and compensate the leader when information acquisition and communication are costly. Members agree to contribute to the leader's compensation up to a point. The form these rents take, whether monetary or political, affects the scope of union activities. Since these outcomes are only a few of many possible, the chapter introduces the concept of organizational governance institutions that embody the union's solution to the equilibrium selection problem. As in all formal models, particularly those intended as part of an analytic narrative, the study lays out the paths not taken as well as the one followed.

Cabinet Decision Rules and Political Uncertainty in Parliamentary Bargaining

2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Huber
Keyword(s):  
Bargaining Power ◽  
Decision Rules ◽  
Complete Information ◽  
The Political ◽  
Formal Models ◽  
Political Uncertainty ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Prime Ministers ◽  
Parliamentary Systems ◽  
Empirical Tests

We investigate how cabinet decision-making rules interact with political uncertainty to affect the outcomes of bargaining processes in parliamentary systems. Our formal models compare two types of decisions rules: (1) those that give prime ministers unilateral authority to demand a vote of confidence and (2) those that require prime ministers to obtain collective cabinet approval for confidence motions. We examine these models under assumptions of complete information and of political uncertainty, that is, party leaders lack information about the precise policies that others in the governing coalition will support. Our analysis suggests that the nature of the cabinet decision rules should influence the distribution of bargaining power, the ability to exploit political uncertainty, the likelihood of inefficient government terminations, the circumstances surrounding such failures, and, indirectly, the political considerations that parties face when choosing prime ministers during government formation. Simple empirical tests support some of these insights.

A Unified Theory of Party Competition: A Cross-National Analysis Integrating Spatial and Behavioral Factors

2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 1077-1079
Author(s):  
Csaba Nikolenyi
Keyword(s):  
Party Competition ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Unified Theory ◽  
Formal Models ◽  
Behavioral Factors ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Empirical Tests ◽  
National Analysis ◽  
Unites States ◽  
Cross National

A Unified Theory of Party Competition: A Cross-National Analysis Integrating Spatial and Behavioral Factors, J.F. Adams, S. Merill, III and B. Grofman, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 311.A Unified Theory of Party Competition continues the development of the important research agenda started by Merrill and Grofman's A Unified Theory of Voting: Directional and Spatial Proximity Models (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). This agenda focuses on integrating hitherto diverging streams of the literature in order to present sophisticated formal models that lead to empirically testable predictions with more realistic results than earlier models. As such, this book is at the cutting edge of developing the scientific study of politics. Although written with an explicit theoretical concern in mind, it presents a wealth of rigorous empirical tests, drawn from case studies of Britain, France, Norway and the Unites States, to demonstrate how well the theory travels across very different institutional and contextual settings.

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