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on Cognitive and Behavioural Economics |
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Issue of 2019‒09‒30
six papers chosen by Marco Novarese Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Jeongbin Kim; Louis Putterman; Xinyi Zhang |
| Abstract: | We use a two-phase experimental design to study how systematically manipulated beliefs about trust and trustworthiness can promote or deter cooperation. We use decisions in an initially played trust game to create five environments that differ in the information subjects have about the relative trust/trustworthiness of fellow group members when they make a voluntary contribution decision in our experiment’s second phase. We find that perceived high trusting environments are treated equivalently to ones of perceived high trustworthiness, with both positively affecting subjects’ first-order beliefs about the cooperativeness of group-mates, and in consequence, leading to higher contributions. Our results indicate that people cooperate more and hence produce more together in an environment of high trust/trustworthiness, indicating one channel through which trust helps to grow the economic pie. |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bro:econwp:2019-10&r=all |
| By: | Nikolov, Plamen (State University of New York) |
| Abstract: | Attitudes toward risk underlie virtually every important economic decision an individual makes. In this experimental study, I examine how introducing a time delay into the execution of an investment plan influences individuals' risk preferences. The field experiment proceeded in three stages: a decision stage, an execution stage and a payout stage. At the outset, in the Decision Stage (Stage 1), each subject was asked to make an investment plan by splitting a monetary investment amount between a risky asset and a safe asset. Subjects were informed that the investment plans they made in the Decision Stage are binding and will be executed during the Execution Stage (Stage 2). The Payout Stage (Stage 3) was the payout date. The timing of the Decision Stage and Payout Stage was the same for each subject, but the timing of the Execution Stage varied experimentally. I find that individuals who were assigned to execute their investment plans later (i.e., for whom there was a greater delay prior to the Execution Stage) invested a greater amount in the risky asset during the Decision Stage. |
| Keywords: | risk and time, risk preferences, reference-dependent utility preferences, temporal construal, time inconsistency, endowment effect, field experiment |
| JEL: | D03 D81 D91 O12 O16 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12626&r=all |
| By: | Nobuyuki Hanaki (Université Côte d'Azur; CNRS, GREDEG; IUF) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the relationships between the \measured" cognitive ability of participants and their behavior as observed during laboratory experiments. Based on such relationships, macroeconomic implications of micro-level "boundedly rational" individual behavior will be discussed. The paper also addresses potential problems that arise when insucient attention is paid to large di erences in the measured cognitive ability of participants across several experimental laboratories, in uencing the replicability of existing experimental results but also the interpretation of results from cross-country experimental analyses, and proposes to complement participants' database with individual characteristics. |
| Keywords: | Cognitive Ability, Laboratory Experiments, Strategic Environment Effect |
| JEL: | C90 D84 |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2019-22&r=all |
| By: | Giuseppe Attanasi (Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, France); Ylenia Curci (RECITS - FEMTO, UTBM, Belfort, France); Patrick Llerena (BETA, University of Strasbourg, France); Adriana Carolina Pinate (Department of Neuroscience Imaging, CeSI-MeT, University of G. d'Annunzio, Chieti-Pescara, Italy); Maria del Pino Ramos-Sosa (Departamento de Economía, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Campus Palmas Altas, Seville, Spain); Giulia Urso (Social Sciences, Gran Sasso Science Institute, L'Aquila, Italy) |
| Abstract: | This article presents a mixed-methods research in the eld of creativity. By making use of experiments and a questionnaire, it analyses how creativity is aected by three factors: i) motivation, ii) individuals' attitudes towards risk and ambiguity and iii) social context. Each one of these factors has been extensively investigated in the theoretical and empirical literature getting to results still open to discussion. In particular, this research focuses on two aspects. First, we try to shed some light on the controversial ndings linking risk taking and creativity that exist in the economic and psychology literature. To do so, we test the hypotheses that self perception of creative abilities may play a role in establishing a riskcreativity positive correlation. Second, being the three factors strongly inuenced by culture, the study investigates whether the impacts on creativity may dier in diverse geographical locations. Following Attanasi et al. (2019), we exploit data from experiments performed in main cities of one eastern and one western country: Ho Chi Minh city (Vietnam) and Strasbourg (France). The information to build the risk and ambiguity factor derive from risk and ambiguity elicitation via lotteries. To account for motivation, dierent organizational scenarios are set in experimental treatments (nancial incentives vs non nancial incentives to collaborate). Finally, information on social context and self perception of creative abilities are collected through a self administrated questionnaire. In our analysis, we nd that risk aversion, social habits and leisure activities have a positive eect on the creative performance of the French participants, while for Vietnamese the intrinsic motivation and the perception of their own creative capacities are positive correlated with creative scores. Our results suggest that in a country like France, social context has a strong inuence on individual creativity, while for Vietnam individual features play a role in creativity, suggesting that the socio-cultural context has dierent impacts on creativity. |
| Keywords: | experiments, risk, ambiguity, self-perceived creativity, motivation, geographical location, social context |
| JEL: | I23 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2019-21&r=all |
| By: | Zachary Breig (School of Economics, The University of Queensland); Matthew Gibson (Williams College); Jeffrey Shrader (School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | A large body of research has shown that procrastination can have significant adverse effects on individuals, including lower savings and poorer health. Such procrastination is typically modeled as the result of present bias. In this paper we study an alternative: excessively optimistic beliefs about future demands on an individual’s time. Our experimental results refute the hypothesis that present bias is the sole source of dynamic inconsistency, but they are consistent with optimism. These findings offer an explanation for low takeup of commitment and suggest that personalized information on past choices can mitigate procrastination. |
| JEL: | D90 D84 J22 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wil:wileco:2019-15&r=all |
| By: | Cailin O'Connor |
| Abstract: | Why are we good? Why are we bad? Questions regarding the evolution of morality have spurred an astoundingly large interdisciplinary literature. Some significant subset of this body of work addresses questions regarding our moral psychology: how did humans evolve the psychological properties which underpin our systems of ethics and morality? Here I do three things. First, I discuss some methodological issues, and defend particularly effective methods for addressing many research questions in this area. Second, I give an in-depth example, describing how an explanation can be given for the evolution of guilt---one of the core moral emotions---using the methods advocated here. Last, I lay out which sorts of strategic scenarios generally are the ones that our moral psychology evolved to `solve', and thus which models are the most useful in further exploring this evolution. |
| Date: | 2019–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1909.09198&r=all |