Matthew Shum
Biographic Data
| ID | 5826178 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matthew Shum |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matthew |
| FAMILY NAME | Shum |
| SIGNATURE | SHUM M |
| AFFILIATIONS | California Institute of Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6262-915X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Covid-19 containment policies, digitalization and sustainable development goals
The impact of digital platforms on the implementation of the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially the business sustainability of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), under different containment policies during and after the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet been studied in detail. Using detailed administrative data from Alibaba Group’s online on-demand food delivery platform, we found that the digital pl…
Time-Varying Risk Aversion? Evidence from Near-Miss Accidents
We present evidence consistent with time-varying risk preferences among automobile drivers. Exploiting a unique data set of agents' high-frequency driving behavior collected by a mobile phone application, we show that drivers drive more conservatively following near-miss accidents. In a preferred specification, a near-miss triggers a reduction in driving distance of 12.98 kilometers, in-car cell phone use by more than 100%, and highway use by 43.…
Improvisations of Empire
A Pari-Mutuel-Like Mechanism for Information Aggregation
A new information aggregation mechanism (IAM), developed via laboratory experimental methods, is implemented inside Intel Corporation in a long-running field test. The IAM, incorporating features of pari-mutuel betting, is uniquely designed to collect and quantize as probability distributions dispersed, subjectively held information. IAM participants’ incentives support timely information revelation and the emergence of consensus beliefs over fut…
Can Words Get in the Way? The Effect of Deliberation in Collective Decision Making
We quantify the effect of deliberation on the decisions of US appellate courts. We estimate a model in which strategic judges communicate before casting their votes and then compare the probability of mistakes in the court with deliberation with a counterfactual of no communication. The model has multiple equilibria, and preferences and information parameters are only partially identified. We find that there is a range of parameters in the identi…
[T]he origin of Charles
This article examines Robert Semple's Walks and Sketches at the Cape of Good Hope (1803), a largely forgotten early colonial text which intriguingly blends the genres of travel writing and the sentimental novel. My analysis seeks to place the text within the longer genealogies of South African literature in English by arguing that it anticipates a number of the central concerns this literature, among them sympathy for the suffering of others, the…
The Cambridge History of South African Literature
South Africa's unique history has produced literatures in many languages, in both oral and written forms, reflecting the diversity in the cultural histories and experiences of its people. The Cambridge History offers a comprehensive, multi-authored history of South African literature in all eleven official languages (and more minor ones) of the country, produced by a team of over forty international experts, including contributors from all of the…
The Money Pump as a Measure of Revealed Preference Violations
We introduce a measure of the severity of violations of the revealed preference axioms, the money pump index (MPI). The MPI is the amount of money one can extract from a consumer who violates the axioms. It is also a statistical test for the hypothesis that a consumer is rational when behavior is observed with error. We present an application using a panel data set of food expenditures. The data exhibit many violations of the axioms. Mostly, the …
Inventing Xhosa Voice
This article examines the informing conditions and conventions of Thomas Pringle's poem “Makanna's Gathering”. I argue that despite its ostensible endorsement of Xhosa retaliation against colonial rule, the poem exhibits an obvious unease about Xhosa alterity that it attempts to contain by casting this threat within the conventions, borrowed from Walter Scott's novelistic treatment of gypsies, of the “wild” picturesque. Contrary to a received con…
Culture and the institution
“Reading and interpretation”
This article examines a new first year course, “Reading and Interpretation” devised by the Department of English at the University of Natal, Durban. The course represents an attempt to assimilate the influence of theory on English studies into teaching methodology and course design. Particular attention is paid to the expansion of analysis beyond the traditional generic boundaries, as well as the changing composition of the student body
Can Words Get in the Way? The Effect of Deliberation in Collective Decision Making
We quantify the effect of deliberation on the decisions of US appellate courts. We estimate a model in which strategic judges communicate before casting their votes and then compare the probability of mistakes in the court with deliberation with a counterfactual of no communication. The model has multiple equilibria, and preferences and information parameters are only partially identified. We find that there is a range of parameters in the identi…
The Money Pump as a Measure of Revealed Preference Violations
We introduce a measure of the severity of violations of the revealed preference axioms, the money pump index (MPI). The MPI is the amount of money one can extract from a consumer who violates the axioms. It is also a statistical test for the hypothesis that a consumer is rational when behavior is observed with error. We present an application using a panel data set of food expenditures. The data exhibit many violations of the axioms. Mostly, the …
Culture and the institution
“Reading and interpretation”
This article examines a new first year course, “Reading and Interpretation” devised by the Department of English at the University of Natal, Durban. The course represents an attempt to assimilate the influence of theory on English studies into teaching methodology and course design. Particular attention is paid to the expansion of analysis beyond the traditional generic boundaries, as well as the changing composition of the student body
Culture and the institution
Inventing Xhosa Voice
This article examines the informing conditions and conventions of Thomas Pringle's poem “Makanna's Gathering”. I argue that despite its ostensible endorsement of Xhosa retaliation against colonial rule, the poem exhibits an obvious unease about Xhosa alterity that it attempts to contain by casting this threat within the conventions, borrowed from Walter Scott's novelistic treatment of gypsies, of the “wild” picturesque. Contrary to a received con…
The Money Pump as a Measure of Revealed Preference Violations
We introduce a measure of the severity of violations of the revealed preference axioms, the money pump index (MPI). The MPI is the amount of money one can extract from a consumer who violates the axioms. It is also a statistical test for the hypothesis that a consumer is rational when behavior is observed with error. We present an application using a panel data set of food expenditures. The data exhibit many violations of the axioms. Mostly, the …
The Cambridge History of South African Literature
South Africa's unique history has produced literatures in many languages, in both oral and written forms, reflecting the diversity in the cultural histories and experiences of its people. The Cambridge History offers a comprehensive, multi-authored history of South African literature in all eleven official languages (and more minor ones) of the country, produced by a team of over forty international experts, including contributors from all of the…
[T]he origin of Charles
This article examines Robert Semple's Walks and Sketches at the Cape of Good Hope (1803), a largely forgotten early colonial text which intriguingly blends the genres of travel writing and the sentimental novel. My analysis seeks to place the text within the longer genealogies of South African literature in English by arguing that it anticipates a number of the central concerns this literature, among them sympathy for the suffering of others, the…
A Pari-Mutuel-Like Mechanism for Information Aggregation
A new information aggregation mechanism (IAM), developed via laboratory experimental methods, is implemented inside Intel Corporation in a long-running field test. The IAM, incorporating features of pari-mutuel betting, is uniquely designed to collect and quantize as probability distributions dispersed, subjectively held information. IAM participants’ incentives support timely information revelation and the emergence of consensus beliefs over fut…
Can Words Get in the Way? The Effect of Deliberation in Collective Decision Making
We quantify the effect of deliberation on the decisions of US appellate courts. We estimate a model in which strategic judges communicate before casting their votes and then compare the probability of mistakes in the court with deliberation with a counterfactual of no communication. The model has multiple equilibria, and preferences and information parameters are only partially identified. We find that there is a range of parameters in the identi…
Improvisations of Empire
Time-Varying Risk Aversion? Evidence from Near-Miss Accidents
We present evidence consistent with time-varying risk preferences among automobile drivers. Exploiting a unique data set of agents' high-frequency driving behavior collected by a mobile phone application, we show that drivers drive more conservatively following near-miss accidents. In a preferred specification, a near-miss triggers a reduction in driving distance of 12.98 kilometers, in-car cell phone use by more than 100%, and highway use by 43.…
Covid-19 containment policies, digitalization and sustainable development goals
The impact of digital platforms on the implementation of the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially the business sustainability of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), under different containment policies during and after the COVID-19 pandemic has not yet been studied in detail. Using detailed administrative data from Alibaba Group’s online on-demand food delivery platform, we found that the digital pl…
Computer Science (5 works) · Economics (4 works) · History (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Law (3 works) · Mathematics (3 works) · Microeconomics (3 works) · Psychology (3 works) · South African History and Culture (3 works)