Vassar College Digital Library

Vassar Scholarship

Vassar Scholarship, the institutional repository formerly known as Digital Window, reflects the research and scholarly output of the Vassar College community.  It provides access to a variety of collections, including senior theses and projects across a wide range of disciplines.

Energy Consumption and Habit Formation: Evidence from High Frequency Thermostat Data

Publication Date
2017-January-01
Document Type
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

Using minute-by-minute data from over 60,000 smart thermostats in households distributed across the United States, we analyze the persistence of energy consumption behaviors in response to external weather shocks. The analysis examines habitual behavior and provides insight into what affects...

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Limited arbitrage, segmentation, and investor heterogeneity: Why the law of one price so often fails

Publication Date
2003-August-28
Document Type
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

There are numerous examples of assets with identical payout streams being priced differently. These violations of the law of one price result from two factors. First, investors have heterogeneous asset valuations so that if two groups of investors trade in...

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Shifting music culture in the age of streaming

Publication Date
2017-January-01
Document Type
Department or Program
Document Type
Access Level
Abstract

This thesis investigates why music streaming services are so popular, beyond their affordability, and the ways in which streaming is shifting music culture. Certain aspects of listening culture which we tend to understand as originating from streaming services, specifically the...

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The portfolio allocation effects of investor sentiment about the ability of managers to beat the market

Publication Date
2003-February-03
Document Type
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

I present a model that can transform discounts on closed-end mutual funds into a measure of investor sentiment about the ability of fund managers to beat the market. This measure of sentiment varies positively with capital flows into actively managed...

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Trust and the Law

Publication Date
2017-January-01
Document Type
Department or Program
Document Type
Abstract

This chapter provides a selective review of the literature on trust and the law. We highlight the psychological and game theoretic mechanisms underpinning the role of trust in relationships with incomplete contracts. We also discuss evidence on whether behavioral trust...

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