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Decision-making in Humanitarian Operations pp 127–146Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Behavioral Experiments in Single-Agent Operational Problems

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Abstract

This chapter begins with an introductory section that explains the need for experimental research in humanitarian operations. It then describes the methodology of behavioral experiments, emphasizing randomization and induced valuation. This is followed by a survey of single-agent behavioral experiments in operations management, focusing on newsvendor and forecasting studies. The chapter provides normative benchmarks for prototypical newsvendor and forecasting problems, shows how individuals’ behaviors deviate from such benchmarks and provides suggestions to extend the surveyed results to humanitarian operations. The chapter concludes with a summary of the work.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Some authors differentiate between control and randomization. For example, in Morton and Williams (2010), control refers to techniques other than randomization used to sidestep confounding problems. In this chapter, the term control is used in a broader sense and includes randomization.

  2. 2.

    Schweitzer and Cachon (2000) also showed that participants tended to minimize ex-post inventory errors by adjusting the current q toward the prior D, a pattern known as demand chasing. In this chapter, we focus on level bias since newsvendor experiments have focused more on studying this ordering pattern.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia

    Jaime Andrés Castañeda

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  1. Jaime Andrés Castañeda
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Correspondence to Jaime Andrés Castañeda .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia

    Sebastián Villa

  2. Kelley School of Business Indiana University, Bloomington, USA

    Gloria Urrea

  3. School of Management Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia

    Jaime Andrés Castañeda

  4. Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Erik R. Larsen

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Castañeda, J.A. (2019). Behavioral Experiments in Single-Agent Operational Problems. In: Villa, S., Urrea, G., Castañeda, J.A., Larsen, E.R. (eds) Decision-making in Humanitarian Operations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91509-8_6

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