News

9 February: Federico Innocenti (QSMS Seminar)

(QSMS Seminar)

Presenting “Can Media Pluralism Be Harmful to News Quality?” at 16:00-17:30 online Click here to join the meeting

On 9 February 2022, we have Federico Innocenti of University of Mannheim visiting us. He is going to give a seminar on “Can Media Pluralism Be Harmful to News Quality?” at 16:00 online Click here to join the meeting. Please help the organisers by registering in advance at egervari.zsuzsanna@gtk.bme.hu Registration is free. Event can only be attended with vaccination card.

Abstract: I study a Bayesian persuasion model that connects two stylized facts characterizing the Internet: a great diversity of news sources and the proliferation of disinformation. I show that competition between news sources with opposite biases reduces information quality when news consumers have limited attention because of the endogenous formation of echo chambers. According to the standard narrative, echo chambers arise because news consumers exhibit confirmation bias. I show that even unbiased and rational news consumers devote their limited attention to like-minded news sources in equilibrium. Confirmation bias thus arises endogenously because news sources have no incentive to provide valuable information.

8 February: Giovanni Andreottola (QSMS Seminar)

Presenting “Polarization and Policy Design” at 16:00-17:30 in QA406.

On 8 February 2022, we have Giovanni Andreottola of University of Naples visiting us. He is going to give a seminar on “Polarization and Policy Design” at 16:00 in room A406 in Building Q, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, Magyar tudósok körútja 2, 1117 Budapest. Please help the organisers by registering in advance at egervari.zsuzsanna@gtk.bme.hu Registration is free. Event can only be attended with vaccination card.

Abstract: Voters in the U.S. and elsewhere have become highly polarized. How does this impact policymaking? We build a model to examine this question in the context of distributive politics and find that polarization can have a non-monotonic effect on equity. Political turnover and the inter-temporal resolution of policy uncertainty play key roles for this result. The implications of alternative electoral systems are also examined: contrary to conventional
wisdom, proportional systems may exacerbate partisan policymaking compared to majoritarian systems.

Postdoc openings at the QSMS (Q21)

The Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences (GTK) of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) invites applications for two full-time postdoctoral research positions at the Quantitative Social and Management Sciences Research Centre starting in the fall of 2022 at the latest.

Research Fields of interest: Game Theory, Evolutionary Game Theory, Signalling Theory, Reciprocity Theory, Economic Theory, Industrial Organization, Management, Platform Economics, Production Management, Operations Research, Social Choice Theory, Sustainable Development, Energy Economics, Apportionment, Network- and Experimental Economics and other quantitative fields and topics.

Applicants should have a PhD degree before taking up the position. The duration of the postdoctoral positions is three years and different schemes for tenure track can be offered. We offer favourable conditions regarding research facilities, data access, time devoted to research, travel support, etc. There will be an option to teach at the graduate level.

The Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences is the youngest faculty of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics comprising a great variety of departments and study programmes. BME is a widely-acclaimed institute of technology and the world’s oldest technical university celebrating its 240th academic year.

Application Procedure: Interviews will be conducted virtually, at the 4th EEA European Job Market for Economists, 15-18 December 2021. Applications consisting of a motivation letter, CV, 3 referee letters and the job market paper must be submitted online at https://econjobmarket.org/positions/7980.

Deadline: The search amongst applicants will start on 15 November 2021 and will continue until the positions are filled. For the job market, only applications received no later than 6 December 2021 will be considered.

Further information: Questions, but not applications, can be sent to egervari.zsuzsanna@gtk.bme.hu.

Koltai’s paper in the Int J Production Econ

Details | Universität Mannheim

The paper titled “An analysis of task assignment and cycle times when robots are added to human-operated assembly lines, using mathematical programming models” (joint with Dimény, I; Gallina, V; Gaal, A; and Sepe, C) has recently been published in the International Journal of Production Economics.

Assembly lines are flow-oriented production systems made up by a sequence of workstations arranged along a conveyor belt. In the “progressive assembly” manufacturing process, parts flow from station to station and components are gradually assembled together to obtain the final product. The assignment of tasks to the workstations is solved by assembly line balancing (ALB) problems. At each statin a worker is performing the assigned tasks. ALB problems can be formulated as by mixed integer linear mathematical programming models (MILP).

An extension to the classical ALP problems is when the different skills of workers are considered at task assignment. In this paper the possibility of the application of robots at the different stations is investigated. Robots are considered as workers with special skills, and the collaboration possibility of a robot and a worker at stations are also considered.

When workers and robots may collaborate at stations task assignment problem must be completed with the scheduling of task as well. This way the applied mathematical problem will be non-linear. The presented paper shows, how this type of models can be linearized or solved with constraint programming. The results may assist managers to find a proper assembly line configuration when workers as well as robots are used at the line.

Koltai, T; Dimény, I; Gallina, V; Gaal, A; Sepe, C: An analysis of task assignment and cycle times when robots are added to human-operated assembly lines, using mathematical programming models, International Journal of Production Economics, Volume 242, December 2021 (In-press). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2021.108292

Stody+games

Budapest, 6-7 October 2021

The aim of Stody+games, the Meeting on Games, Stochastics, and Dynamics is to bring together researchers who work on mathematical questions related to stochastic and dynamic features of games and to facilitate discussions and collaborations on this area. The meeting will include several talks and a poster session.

The workshop is co-hosted with Corvinus Center for Operations Research, Corvinus Institute for Advanced Studies, GAMENET, and Games Research Group Tel-Aviv University

Date: Wednesday+Thursday, 6+7 October 2021
Location: Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Building E, Room 2001