Attitudes and motivations of Economics students: Some recent evidence

There is disagreement amongst economists regarding whether economics students are more self-interested than other students in economic and non-economic contexts. Econometric analysis of the choice to share in a Prisoner´s Dilemma game suggests that it may not be economics students per se that have a lower probability of choosing share rather than compete, but instead that individuals with attitudes, motivations and values similar to those assumed by standard economic theory have a lower probability of choosing share. The experimental evidence here of 1,701 students suggests that it is the motivations and attitudes of subjects that are important for determining economic choices rather than simply whether the individual studies economics. The results confirm that a higher proportion of economics students have motivations in a game theory context that are similar to those assumed by standard economic theory, yet that their related general attitudes and values are not significantly different. Overall the results suggest that the assumptions of standard economic theory are appropriate for a subset of individuals, and for many individuals who do not study economics

Are people ethical? An experimental approach

Do ethical motivations and attitudes affect behaviour? We examine this issue in six Prisoner´s Dilemma and Prisoner´s Dilemma related games using an online experiment where individuals were asked to make choices and subsequently to express the motivations for their choices and their general attitudes. The experimental evidence of 1,701 students suggests that the motivations and attitudes of respondents regarding altruism, inequality aversion, reciprocity and aversion to lying are important for determining economic choices as well as self-interest. Econometric analysis of the choice to share indicates that ethical and self-interested motives are more important for determining choices than personal characteristics

Walking in the SU(N)

We study the phase diagram as function of the number of colours and flavours of asymptotically free non-supersymmetric theories with matter in higher dimensional representations of arbitrary SU(N) gauge groups. Since matter in higher dimensional representations screens more than in the fundamental a general feature is that a lower number of flavours is needed to achieve a near-conformal theory. We study the spectrum of the theories near the fixed point and consider possible applications of our analysis to the dynamical breaking of the electroweak symmetry.Comment: 12 page

Parton Production Via Vacuum Polarization

We discuss the production mechanism of partons via vacuum polarization during the very early, gluon dominated phase of an ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collision in the framework of the background field method of quantum chromodynamics.Comment: 3 pages, Latex, 3 figures (eps), to be published in JPhysG, SQM2001 proceeding

Non-abelian vector backgrounds with restored Lorentz invariance

The influence of vector backgrounds with restored Lorentz invariance on non-abelian gauge field theories is studied. Lorentz invariance is ensured by taking the average over a Lorentz invariant ensemble of background vectors. Like in the abelian case [hep-ph/0506210], the propagation of fermions is suppressed over long distances. Contrary to the fermionic sector, pure gauge configurations of the background suppress the long-distance propagation of the bosons only partially, i.e. not beyond the leading contribution for a large number of colours.Comment: 6 pages, no figure

Gluon propagation in space-time dependent fields

The propagator for gluons in a space-time dependent field is derived. This is accomplished by solving the equation of motion for the gluonic Green's functions. Subsequently a relationship between the quark and the gluon propagator is presented. With its help characteristics of the bosonic propagator can be obtained from those of the fermionic and vice versa. Finally, this relation is discussed for the special case of ultrarelativistic collisions in the semiclassical limit.Comment: 14 pages, no figures, typos correcte

Fermion production in classical fields

The creation of quark-antiquark pairs by vacuum polarisation in the presence of classical fields is studied based on their propagators in the background. Especially the issue of gauge invariance and particularities of particle production in ultrarelativistic collider experiments are discussed.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the 6th Conference on Strong and Electroweak Matter 2004 (SEWM04), Helsinki, Finland, 16-19 Jun 2004. 5 pages, no figure