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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Dear all,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">You are cordially invited
to attend the VCEE seminar on <b>Friday, Jan 24 <sup> </sup>from
10:00-12:00</b> (SR 1, Ground floor). We have two speakers:
Dotan Persitz (U Tel Aviv) and <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Gönül Dogan (U Köln)</span><span
lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p><br>
</o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US">10:00-11:00 Dotan
Persitz </span></b><span lang="EN-US">(U Tel Aviv)<br>
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0D0D0D" lang="EN-US">Titel:
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"><b>Design
Invariance in the Classic Consumer Choice Problem</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
<span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<b><span lang="EN-US"></span></b><br>
<b><span lang="EN-US"></span></b>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US">11:00-12:00 Gönül Dogan
</span></b><span lang="EN-US">(U Köln)<br>
<span style="color:#0D0D0D">Titel: </span></span><b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US">Pyramid Schemes</span></b><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif" lang="EN-US"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US">with Kenan
Kalaycı and Priscilla Man<br>
Abstract.<br>
Ponzi and pyramid schemes promise a large return for investors
with limited risk. In reality, most investors lose money when
such schemes collapse due to a lack of new entrants. In an
online experiment without deception, we invite participants to
invest their endowment in a pyramid-like investment scheme
with a negative expected return. We find that more than half
of the subjects are willing to invest in the scheme regardless
of their age, gender, years of schooling, trust levels, and
income. Complexity of the decision-making in the pyramid
scheme plays an important role in investment; the size of the
group, difficulty of calculating average payoff outcomes as
well as the percentage of losers contribute to complexity.
Risk tolerance and preference for positively skewed outcomes
partially explain investment decisions. Our findings suggest
that pyramid schemes can be attractive even in the absence of
deceptive recruitment efforts by scheme founders.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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