Miki Malul

Short selling is a common practice in financial markets. Although there is extensive research concerning short selling and short sellers, in the behavioral and experimental economics literature, there are only a few studies that examine it. This paper investigates the pricing of two forms of short selling both theoretically and experimentally—selling a lottery short and paying to close the short position. The theoretical framework presents and analyzes the two positions and the influence of the anchoring and uncertainty effects on the pricing. To test the theoretical framework, we asked participants in an experiment about the price they were willing to accept for the obligation to pay the lottery's outcome and the price they were willing to pay to close the obligation to pay the lottery's outcome they held. Moreover, we used a simple lottery with different framings, each one with a different anchor. Our results suggest that in the short‐selling position, behavioral biases, such as anchoring and uncertainty, impact the decision‐makers' bid prices.

The current study tests experimentally whether decision makers' options pricing is biased by the magnitude of the option's underlying asset outcomes in what is called an anchor effect. We recruited 1,023 participants through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform (MTurk) and assigned them randomly to eight groups that differed by type of asset and pricing position (buy or sell). Participants were asked to price a lottery, meaning, the option, whose outcomes are derived from an underlying lottery with a high, low or non-numerical possible outcome. The results indicate that the underlying asset's magnitude (low or high) creates an anchor that affects the option’s pricing. However, the option's pricing is not affected by framing it as a derivative lottery. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that examines whether the underlying asset creates an anchor that affects an option’s pricing.

People’s perceptions about the gender gap might influence their attitudes about the need for policy interventions to reduce it. How accurate are these perceptions? Which gender has a better understanding about the actual gender gap? Using a survey-based experiment with a representative sample of 538 Israelis, we found a significant gap between perceptions and reality with regard to wages, attributes of employment, seniority within the company and education. The misperceptions were significantly higher among males. We also found that in general, both men and women underestimated the contribution of the latter to the workforce and their level of education. Similarly, they both overestimated the percentage of women in positions such as CEOs and company chairs. The results suggest the need to increase the awareness of the gender gap, particularly among men. Such awareness is the first step in narrowing the gender gap.

Studies investigating the spatial distribution of knowledge workers focus mainly on the factors that draw them to large primary cities. Second-ranked cities have trouble attracting and retaining these workers. We investigated whether there is a difference between the mobility preferences of knowledge workers residing in second-ranked cities and those of their peers in large primary cities. We used a field survey among workers in information and communications technology (ICT) residing in two cities in Israel: Tel Aviv, the leading metropolitan area in terms of innovative products, and Beersheba, the core of the southern periphery that has made great efforts to build a cyber hub. The results show that having a social network in the region in terms of close family, friends, and interactions with other people in the area has a stronger positive influence on the mobility preferences of knowledge workers residing in second-ranked cities, compared to their colleagues from large primary cities. The results acknowledge social networks as an important factor for place-based policies aimed at attracting knowledge workers to second-ranked cities.

Relieving poverty is one of the more important and complicated tasks in every society. Is the public aware of poverty‐related data? Do people know who is considered poor? Public awareness about the issue of poverty is crucial for pushing policymakers to act. Using a survey‐based experiment with a representative sample of 751 Israelis, we found significant gaps between perceptions and reality regarding several measures of poverty. In fact, in most of the poverty indicators, 80 percent of the public estimations were inaccurate. We found, however, that 60 percent of the people understand that the issue of poverty negatively affects the entire society. We showed that perceptions about poverty and the reasons for it affect people's views about the need for policy measures to reduce it.

In this research we show that workers aged 30–44 were significantly more likely than those aged 45–59 to find a job a year after being unemployed. The main contribution is demonstrating empirically that since older workers’ difficulties are related to their age, while for younger individuals the difficulties are more related to the business cycle, policy makers must devise different programs to address unemployment among young and older individuals. The solution to youth unemployment is the creation of more jobs, and combining differential minimum wage levels and earned income tax credits might improve the rate of employment for older individuals.