THE BEHA VIORAL ECONOMICS OF PRODUCTION

In two experiments, thirsty rats licked an empty spout instrumentally for water delivered at a neigh- boring spout. Each such pair of spouts constituted a work station, and one, two, or three stations were available in the test enclosure. In 1-hr sessions, the rats worked alone or in the company of 1 or 2 other rats, and performed either five, 10, or 40 licks at the empty spout for each water delivery. The total number of empty-spout licks, summed across rats and stations, increased with the empty-lick requirement and, with some exceptions, the number of rats in the enclosure and the number of work stations available. A Cobb-Douglas production function, with instrumental responding as an output and the three independent variables as inputs, accounted for a significant percentage of the variance. Contrary to that function, output failed to increase with additional rats (or work stations) when the number of work stations (or rats) was relatively small.

[1]  Martin Kolmar,et al.  Behavioral Economics , 2021, Encyclopedia of Wireless Networks.

[2]  W. Lemon,et al.  The effects of feeding rate on reproductive success in the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata , 1992, Animal Behaviour.

[3]  R. Bauman,et al.  An experimental analysis of the cost of food in a closed economy. , 1991, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[4]  J. Allison,et al.  Interest and deferred consumption in the rat , 1991 .

[5]  James Allison,et al.  An automatic micropipette fluid dispenser , 1990 .

[6]  S. Hursh,et al.  Quinine pellets as an inferior good and a Giffen good in rats. , 1990, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[7]  J. Allison,et al.  Wage rate, nonlabor income, and labor supply in rats , 1982 .

[8]  S R Hursh,et al.  Economic concepts for the analysis of behavior. , 1980, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[9]  Stephen E. G. Lea,et al.  The psychology and economics of demand. , 1978 .

[10]  G. Judge,et al.  Agricultural Production Functions. , 1961 .

[11]  Robert Grott.  OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR GROUP BEHAVIOR OF RATS UNDER SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT ' , 2005 .

[12]  J. Kagel,et al.  Consumption-leisure tradeoffs in pigeons: Effects of changing marginal wage rates by varying amount of reinforcement. , 1987, Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior.

[13]  J. Allison,et al.  Bliss points, stop lines, and performance under schedule constraint. , 1987 .

[14]  J. Allison.  Demand economics and experimental psychology , 1979 .

[15]  E. Mansfield,et al.  Microeconomics: Theory and Applications , 1976 .

[16]  Vernon L. Smith,et al.  Investment and production , 1961 .