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on Experimental Economics |
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Issue of 2016‒01‒29
eleven papers chosen by |
| By: | David L. Dickinson; Todd McElroy |
| Abstract: | Key Words: Simple bargaining games are the foundation of more complex social interactions necessary for healthy relationships and well-functioning societies. Neuroscience research has shown that high-level deliberative thinking processes are necessary for social-decision making—it seems cognitively less demanding to be greedy or to mistrust. In this paper, our focus is on how commonly-experienced adverse sleep states, which are known to harm deliberative thinking, impact outcomes in the classic simple bargaining games (ultimatum, dictator, and trust games). Specifically, we experimentally manipulate sleep states of 184 young-adult subjects who took part in a 3 week experimental protocol. Subjects were administered each game twice: once after a full week of sleep restriction and once after a full week of well-rested sleep levels. Subjects were also randomly assigned to early morning (7:30 am) or later evening (10:00 pm) sessions to manipulate the optimality of the time-of-day of the decisions. We find a robust result of increased greed, reduced trust, and reduced trustworthiness following sleep restriction, after controlling for demographics and session indicators. We find no significant direct impact of circadian timing on decisions for these tasks. However, the mediating variable for these sleep manipulation effects is subjective sleepiness, and both sleep restriction and suboptimal circadian timing significantly increase self-reported sleepiness. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that increased sleepiness reduces the relative input of deliberate thinking in social interactions. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:16-03&r=exp |
| By: | Mamta Sharma; Akankasha Sharma |
| Abstract: | Sleep, a vital ingredient in life, is an active and complex rhythmic state that may get disturbed by a variety of reasons. Daytime sleepiness, sleep deprivation, and irregular sleep schedules are highly prevalent among college students, as 50% report daytime sleepiness and 70% attain insufficient sleep. The study aims to evaluate the efficacy of music therapy in improving disturbed sleep patterns and low self-worth of university students. It was hypothesized that Post-intervention sleep quality scores in experimental group would be significantly better than pre-intervention scores; and Music therapy would enhance self-worth of university students. Participants in the experimental group would show improved self-worth relative to the participants in the control group. A pre-post experimental-control assessment design was adopted. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Buysse DJ et al 1989) and Contingencies of Self Worth (Crocker & Luhtanen, 2002) were administered to identify university students having faulty sleep patterns and low self-worth. Music therapy was given for consecutive three weeks for half an hour daily. After intervention, sleep quality index and contingencies of self-worth were re-administered to see the efficacy of music therapy. Results revealed that music therapy made a significant improvement in students’ sleep patterns as significant difference was observed between both experimental and control groups on Subjective sleep quality (t=1.21*), Sleep latency (t=2.63*), Sleep duration (t=2.24*), Habitual sleep efficiency (t=4.64**), Sleep disturbances (t=10.46**), and Daytime dysfunction (t=3.97*). The effect of intervention was also found to be significant for self-worth domains for subjects of experimental group on physical appearance (t=2.42*), Outdoing others in competition (t=1.39*), Academic competence (t=2.16*), Being a virtuous or moral person (t=2.09*), and God’s love (t=1.64*) as the difference between experimental and control group came out to be statistically significant. Key words: sleep patterns, self worth, music, music therapy |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vor:issues:2015-12-09&r=exp |
| By: | Arianna Galliera (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari); Noemi Pace (Department of Economics, University Of Milan, Bicocca) |
| Abstract: | The incentive scheme selected in a laboratory experiment might trigger different type of behavior in participants. This paper is an attempt to screen the strategies adopted by agents in a bargaining game when buyer and seller have partly conflicting interests and are asymmetrically informed. We allow participants to choose the incentive scheme through which they will be paid at the end of the experiment controlling for past experience and individual characteristics. It is well known that payment method is highly correlated to the risk preferences shown by individuals, but little research is devoted to the analysis of the behavior induced by Random Lottery Incentive scheme (RLI for short) and Cumulative Scheme payment (CS for short) both on individual and social results. This paper aims to fill the gap. |
| Keywords: | bargaining, experiment, gender, payment scheme. |
| JEL: | C78 C91 D82 J16 J33 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2015:33&r=exp |
| By: | Adrian Bruhin (University of Lausanne); Ernst Fehr (University of Zurich); Daniel Schunk (Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz) |
| Abstract: | There is vast heterogeneity in the human willingness to weigh others’ interests in decision making. This heterogeneity concerns the motivational intricacies as well as the strength of other-regarding behaviors, and raises the question how one can parsimoniously model and characterize heterogeneity across several dimensions of social preferences while still being able to predict behavior over time and across situations. We tackle this task with an experiment and a structural model of preferences that allows us to simultaneously estimate outcome-based and reciprocity-based social preferences. We find that non-selfish preferences are the rule rather than the exception. Neither at the level of the representative agent nor when we allow for several preference types do purely selfish types emerge. Instead, three temporally stable and qualitatively different other-regarding types emerge endogenously, i.e., without pre-specifying assumptions about the characteristics of types. When ahead, all three types value others’ payoffs significantly more than when behind. The first type, which we denote as strongly altruistic type, is characterized by a relatively large weight on others’ payoffs – even when behind – and moderate levels of reciprocity. The second type, denoted as moderately altruistic type, also puts positive weight on others’ payoff, yet at a considerable lower level, and displays no positive reciprocity while the third type is behindness averse, i.e., puts a large negative weight on others’ payoffs when behind and behaves selfishly otherwise. We also find that there is an unambiguous and temporally stable assignment of individuals to types. Moreover, the three-type model substantially improves the (out-of-sample) predictions of individuals’ behavior across additional games while the information contained in subject-specific parameter estimates leads to no or only minor additional predictive power. This suggests that a parsimonious model with three types captures the bulk of the predictive power contained in the preference estimates. |
| Keywords: | Social Preferences, Heterogeneity, Stability, Finite Mixture Models |
| JEL: | C49 C91 D03 |
| Date: | 2016–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jgu:wpaper:1603&r=exp |
| By: | Chiu, Leslie J. Verteramo; Gomez, Miguel I.; Liaukonyte, Jura; Kaiser, Harry M. |
| Abstract: | The motivation to pay a premium for socially responsible products is partly an expression of consumer concern for the well-being of those involved in the production process. Thus, choosing to buy a product with a socially responsible label and choosing to donate to a charity are similarly motivated actions. While there is an extensive literature on the economics of charitable giving that examines motivations to donate as well as on the impacts of labeling on consumer demand, there is very little overlap between the two literatures. In this paper we attempt to bridge these two literatures by investigating whether consumers have heterogeneous motivations for paying a premium. We design a lab experiment that auctions coffee with hypothetical socially responsible labels that put different weights on in-kind vs. cash transfers. We find that those consumers who prefer to restrict most of the premium to be an in-kind transfer (and are classified as paternalistic altruists) are willing to pay a 52.5% price premium over standard coffee. Those who prefer that most of the premium is paid as cash to the recipient (strong altruists) are willing to pay a 42.5% premium. Finally, those who are indifferent to how the premium is spent by the recipient (warmglow givers) are willing to pay only a 19.2% premium. We discuss the implications of our results and future research directions |
| Keywords: | The motivation to pay a premium for socially responsible products is partly an expression of consumer concern for the well-being of those involved in the production process. Thus, choosing to buy a product with a socially responsible label and choosing to donate to a charity are similarly motivated actions. While there is an extensive literature on the economics of charitable giving that examines motivations to donate as well as on the impacts of labeling on consumer demand, there is very little overlap between the two literatures. In this paper we attempt to bridge these two literatures by investigating whether consumers have heterogeneous motivations for paying a premium. We design a lab experiment that auctions coffee with hypothetical socially responsible labels that put different weights on in-kind vs. cash transfers. We find that those consumers who prefer to restrict most of the premium to be an in-kind transfer (and are classified as paternalistic altruists) are willing to pay a 52.5% price premium over standard coffee. Those who prefer that most of the premium is paid as cash to the recipient (strong altruists) are willing to pay a 42.5% premium. Finally, those who are indifferent to how the premium is spent by the recipient (warmglow givers) are willing to pay only a 19.2% premium. We discuss the implications of our results and future research directions, Consumer/Household Economics, D12, M3, Q11, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:assa16:212829&r=exp |
| By: | Prokudina, Elena (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research); Renneboog, Luc (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research); Tobler, Philippe (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Predicting worker’s effort is important in many different areas, but is often difficult. Using a laboratory experiment, we test the hypothesis that confidence, i.e. the person-specific beliefs about her abilities, can be used as a generic proxy to predict future effort provision. We measure confidence in the domain of financial knowledge in three different ways (self-assessed knowledge, probability-based confidence, and incentive-compatible confidence) and find a positive relation with actual effort provision in an unrelated domain. Additional analysis shows that the findings are independent of a person’s traits such as gender, age, and nationality. |
| Keywords: | Real-effort task; financial literacy; overconfidence |
| JEL: | G11 J22 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiucen:2a1830fc-471f-45a3-b9b0-aa343dfc2fdc&r=exp |
| By: | Zahra Murad (School of Economics, University of Nottingham & Surrey Business School, University of Surrey); Chris Starmer (Department of Economics, University of Amsterdam); Martin Sefton (School of Economics, University of Nottingham) |
| Abstract: | We examine the relationship between confidence in own absolute performance and risk attitudes using two confidence elicitation procedures: self-reported (non-incentivised) confidence and an incentivised procedure that elicits the certainty equivalent of a bet based on performance. The former procedure reproduces the "hard-easy effect" (underconfidence in easy tasks and overconfidence in hard tasks) found in a large number of studies using non-incentivised self-reports. The latter procedure produces general underconfidence, which is significantly reduced, but not eliminated when we filter out the effects of risk attitudes. Finally, we find that self-reported confidence correlates significantly with features of individual risk attitudes including parameters of individual probability weighting. |
| Keywords: | Overconfidence, Underconfidence, Experiment, Risk Preferences |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notcdx:2015-26&r=exp |
| By: | José Antonio Robles-Zurita (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide); José Luis Pinto-Prades (Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health, Glasgow Caledonian University, and Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide) |
| Abstract: | Theoretical predictions entails that subjective beliefs of randomness affect the aggregation of medical outcomes of multiple-play medical treatments. Particularly, those who believe in more repetition of random events would tend to believe that multiple-play treatments are riskier medical interventions. As a consequence the level of repetition bias could reduce (increase) the willingness to accept or recommend multiple-play medical treatments if people are risk averse (risk prone). On the contrary, the repetition bias is expected to not affect single-play treatments. In an experiment we find evidence for these theoretical predictions by exploiting the between individual variation in the repetition bias for risk averse and risk prone subjects and by analysing hypothetical decisions of the Spanish general population for medical treatments in single and multiple-play scenarios. Consequences for individual decision making in the health context are considered as well as for the interpretation of the differences between single vs. multiple play treatments in previous studies. |
| Keywords: | medical treatments; single-play, multiple-play, repetition bias, alternation bias. |
| JEL: | D03 D81 I12 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pab:wpaper:15.16&r=exp |
| By: | Susanne James-Burdumy; Nicholas Beyler; Kelley Borradaile; Martha Bleeker; Alyssa Maccarone; Jane Fortson |
| Abstract: | The impact of Playworks was larger among minority students than among non-Hispanic white students. |
| Keywords: | Accelerometry, Intervention Study, Physical Activity, Youth |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2015–07–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7cc8b3923f4442519ea1f3de16787947&r=exp |
| By: | Matteo M. Galizzi |
| Abstract: | Across health systems, there is increasing interest in applying behavioral economics insights to health policy challenges. Policy decision makers have recently discussed a range of diverse health policy interventions that are commonly brought together under a behavioral umbrella. These include randomized controlled trials, comparison portals, information labels, financial incentives, sin taxes, and nudges. A taxonomy is proposed to classify such behavioral interventions. In the context of risky health behavior, each cluster of policies is then scrutinized under two respects: (i) What are its genuinely behavioral insights? (ii) What evidence exists on its practical effectiveness? The discussion highlights the main challenges in drawing a clear mapping between how much each policy is behaviorally inspired and its effectiveness. |
| Keywords: | behavioral economics; behavioral policy; nudges; health behavior |
| JEL: | C90 I10 I18 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:55969&r=exp |
| By: | Swaha Bhattacharya; Sona Biswas |
| Abstract: | The aim of the present investigation is to study the social interaction anxiety and self-esteem of internet users between the ages 18 to 25 years. Accordingly, a group of 90 internet users (30 from internet user without addiction, 30 from internet user with mild addiction and 30 from internet user with moderate addiction) were selected as sample in this investigation. A General Information Schedule, Internet Addiction Test, Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale were used as tools. The findings revealed that social interaction anxiety increases with the increase of internet usage, on the other hand, self-esteem is comparatively higher among the internet users without addiction than that of the mild and moderately addicted internet users. Besides this, there is positive correlation between internet usage and social interaction anxiety. On the contrary, there is negative correlation between internet usage and self-esteem. Considering the findings of the study, it can be said that there is a dire need to develop intervention strategies for the internet addicted people to increase their self-esteem and also to reduce their problems related to social interaction anxiety. Key words: Social-interaction anxiety, Self-esteem and Internet usage |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vor:issues:2015-12-01&r=exp |