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on Cognitive and Behavioural Economics |
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Issue of 2022‒02‒21
four papers chosen by Marco Novarese Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale |
| By: | Giuseppe Attanasi (Université Côte d'Azur, France; GREDEG CNRS); Massimo Egidi (LUISS University, Rome); Elena Manzoni (University of Bergamo) |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates the determinants of routinization and creativity by means of a lab-in-the-field experiment run at the 20th edition of a mass gathering festival in Italy ("La Notte della Taranta"). In the experiment, subjects play repeatedly the puzzle version of Target-The-Two game (32 hands). We find that when we focus on expert subjects there is no difference in behavior between creative and routinized individuals. When we consider inexpert subjects, instead, routinized individuals perform better, due to the fact that they are faster. However, routinization, although increasing the likelihood to complete all the 32 hands of the game, it increases the number of moves needed to complete them, which ultimately decreases the likelihood to win the game. |
| Keywords: | creativity, routinization, Target-The-Two game, lab-in-the-field experiment |
| JEL: | C93 D91 O31 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2021-43&r= |
| By: | Matteo M. Marini (Department of Public Economics, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic) |
| Abstract: | This paper is a meta-analysis of experimental studies dealing with the impact of incidental emotions on risky choices, so as to explain traditional heterogeneity of outcomes in the literature. After devising a standard search strategy and filtering out studies that do not comply with a list of eligibility criteria, we include 24 articles from which 109 observations are drawn at the treatment level. At this point, we code a set of moderator variables representing experimental protocols and adopt Hedges’s g as comparable metric of effect size. Subgroup analysis and meta-regressions find causal impact of both sadness and fear on risk aversion, albeit to a small extent, as well as highly contrasting patterns depending on the nature of incentives offered in the experiments. The use of monetary incentives turns out to reduce data variability and affects information processing by making subjects more susceptible to emotions. When studies provide real stakes, our results also show that individualism moderates the relationship between emotions and risk attitude by increasing risk propensity. We discuss possible interpretations of our findings. |
| Keywords: | meta-analysis, experimental design, emotions, risky decision making, monetary incentives, individualism |
| JEL: | C90 C91 D81 D91 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2022/03&r= |
| By: | Holden, Stein T. (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Tilahun, Mesfin (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences) |
| Abstract: | The incentivized risky investment game has become a popular tool in lab-in-the-field experiments for its simplicity and ease of comprehension compared to some of the more complex Multiple Choice List approaches that have been more commonly used in laboratory experiments. We use a field experiment to test whether the game can predict real-world investments by the same subjects based on the assumption that the game can provide a reliable measure of risk tolerance and that risk tolerance is an important predictor of investment behavior. The results show that the game cannot predict investment behavior in our sample. There are two reasons for this. First, we find substantial measurement error and low correlation when the game is repeated one year later for the same subjects. Measurement error is so large in our sample that the “obviously related instrumental variable” (ORIV) approach of Gillen, Snowberg and Yariv (2019) could not remedy the problem. Second, the game appears to suffer from low asset integration due to narrow bracketing, explaining its limited predictive power and the failure to detect attenuation bias due to measurement error. Subjects’ cognitive memory of the game played one year earlier is strongly positively related to investment intensity in the game and this result is much enhanced when correcting for the endogeneity of cognitive memory. |
| Keywords: | risky investment game; field experiment; prediction measurement error; cognitive memory; Ethiopia |
| JEL: | C93 D90 |
| Date: | 2022–02–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsclt:2022_005&r= |
| By: | Robert Dur (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Carlos Gomez-Gonzalez (University of Zurich); Cornel Nesseler (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | A rich literature shows that ethnic discrimination is an omnipresent and highly persistent phenomenon. Little is known, however, about how to reduce discrimination. This study reports the results of a large-scale field experiment we ran together with the Norwegian Football Federation. The federation sent an email to a random selection of about 500 amateur soccer coaches, pointing towards the important role that soccer can play in promoting inclusivity and reducing racism in society and calling on the coaches to be open to all interested applicants. Two weeks later, we sent fictitious applications to join an amateur club, using either a nativesounding or a foreign-sounding name, to the same coaches and to a random selection of about 500 coaches who form the control group. In line with earlier research, we find that applications from people with a native-sounding name receive significantly more positive responses than applications from people with a foreign-sounding name. Surprisingly and unintentionally, the email from the federation substantially increased rather than decreased this gap. Our study underlines the importance of running field experiments to check whether well-intended initiatives are effective in reducing discrimination. |
| Keywords: | ethnic discrimination; intervention; field experiment; correspondence test; amateur soccer. |
| JEL: | C93 J15 Z2 |
| Date: | 2022–01–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20220050&r= |