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on Experimental Economics |
| By: | Ronald G. Cummings; Jorge Martinez-Vazquez; Michael McKee; Benno Torgler |
| Abstract: | There is considerable evidence that enforcement efforts can increase tax compliance. However, there must be other forces at work because observed compliance levels cannot be fully explained by the level of enforcement actions typical of most tax authorities. Further, there are observed differences, not related to enforcement effort, in the levels of compliance across countries and cultures. To fully understand differences in compliance behavior across cultures one needs to understand differences in tax administration and citizen attitudes toward governments. The working hypothesis is that cross-cultural differences in behavior have foundations in these institutions. Tax compliance is a complex behavioral issue and its investigation requires the use of a variety of methods and data sources. Results from laboratory experiments conducted in different countries demonstrate that observed differences in tax compliance levels can be explained by differences in the fairness of tax administration, in the perceived fiscal exchange, and in the overall attitude towards the respective governments. These experimental results are shown to be robust by replicating them for the same countries using survey response measures of tax compliance. |
| JEL: | H20 C90 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2005-29&r=exp |
| By: | Eric Bettinger; Robert Slonim |
| Abstract: | Economic research examining how educational intervention programs affect primary and secondary schooling focuses largely on test scores although the interventions can affect many other outcomes. This paper examines how an educational intervention, a voucher program, affected students' altruism. The voucher program used a lottery to allocate scholarships among low-income applicant families with children in K-8th grade. By exploiting the lottery to identify the voucher effects, and using experimental economic methods, we measure the effects of the intervention on children's altruism. We also measure the voucher program's effects on parents' altruism and several academic outcomes including test scores. We find that the educational intervention positively affects students' altruism towards charitable organizations but not towards their peers. We fail to find statistically significant effects of the vouchers on parents' altruism or test scores. |
| JEL: | I2 C9 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11725&r=exp |
| By: | Yan Chen; Peter Katuscak; Emre Ozdenoren |
| Abstract: | We find robust gender differences in bidding behavior in sealed bid auctions with independent and private valuations in a laboratory setting. In particular, we find that women bid significantly higher and earn significantly less than men do in the first-price auction, while we find no evidence of a gender difference in the likelihood of dominant strategy play in the second-price auction. At a biological level, in the first-price auction, women during menstruation, when the estrogen level is lowest, do not bid differently from men. The gender difference in the first-price auction is driven by women during other phases of the menstrual cycle when they have higher estrogen levels. |
| Keywords: | Gender, menstrual cycle, auction. |
| JEL: | C91 D44 D83 |
| Date: | 2005–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cer:papers:wp275&r=exp |
| By: | Ekin Birol (Homerton College and Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK); Katia Karousakis (Department of Economics, University College London, London, UK); Phoebe Koundouri (Department of Economics, Reading University, Reading, UK) |
| Abstract: | Despite wetlands being amongst the Earth's most productive ecosystems, they have been degraded and lost at an unprecedented rate globally, especially throughout the last century. In recognition of the importance of the crucial ecological functions and economic benefits they provide, international efforts, such as the Ramsar Convention, and European Union level efforts, such as the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), are now in place to ensure conservation, sustainable management and improvement of the remaining wetlands. This paper aims to assist policy makers in formulating efficient, effective and sustainable wetland conservation and management policies by providing them with the results of a valuation study using the Cheimaditida wetland in Greece as a case study. A choice experiment is employed to estimate the benefits of the non-use values of the Cheimaditida wetland that accrue to the Greek public. Results from this choice experiment reveal that there are positive and significant non-use values of this wetland for whose conservation the public is willing to pay. These results can be combined with private use values of wetlands, and weighed against the costs of alternative wetland management scenarios in order to carry out a comprehensive cost benefit analysis. Thus they can aid in the design of socially optimal policies for conservation and sustainable management of the Cheimaditida wetland, with implications for other wetlands in Greece and the rest of Europe. |
| Keywords: | Choice experiment, non-use values, wetlands, conditional logit model, random parameter logit mode |
| Date: | 2005–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lnd:wpaper:200508&r=exp |
| By: | Ekin Birol (Homerton College, University of Cambridge, UK); Andreas Kontoleon (Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, UK); Melinda Smale (International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC, USA and International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome, Italy) |
| Abstract: | Hungarian home gardens are small farms that are repositories of agrobiodiversity and provide food security during economic transition. We use a choice experiment to test the hypothesis that farmer demand for home gardens will decrease as markets develop with European Union accession. Data represent 22 communities with varying levels of market and social infrastructure. We find that farmers located in more economically developed communities choose to be less dependent on small farms for food and prefer lower levels of agrobiodiversity. Findings indicate that the survival of small farms is jeopardized by economic change, but point to some conservation policy options. |
| Keywords: | food security, agrobiodiversity, home gardens, choice experiment, multi-functional agriculture |
| Date: | 2005–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lnd:wpaper:200512&r=exp |