|
on Experimental Economics |
|
Issue of 2020‒06‒15
thirty-one papers chosen by |
| By: | Kevin Boudreau; Nilam Kaushik |
| Abstract: | Many technology companies struggle to fill all their positions and to achieve gender parity in their ranks. One explanation for gender disparities is the possibility that men and women differ in their willingness to work under competitive organizational environments of tech firms. To investigate this question, this paper reports on a large platform-based field experiment in which 97,696 U.S. university-educated individuals were given the opportunity to join a tech-related product development activity. Individuals were randomly assigned to treatments emphasizing either competitive or collaborative interactions with other participants. We find that (1) in non-STEM fields, the competition treatment leads to a 27% drop in participation for females in comparison to males. However, in our main finding, (2) in STEM fields, we find no statistical differences in men and women’s responses to competition. The patterns are consistent with (3) men in non-STEM fields exhibiting overconfidence in their likelihood of succeeding under competition. We also find that, while participation in highest in STEM fields, (4) the ratio of female to male participation in a field is better predicted by whether the field is male- or female-dominated, than it is by whether it is a STEM field or not. We discuss theoretical interpretations and implications for organizations. |
| JEL: | C9 D2 J16 J2 J71 O3 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27154&r=all |
| By: | Giuseppe Attanasi (University of Côte d’Azur, Nice); Samuele Centorrino (Stony Brook University); Elena Manzoni (Department of Economics (University of Verona)) |
| Abstract: | We study two well-known electronic markets: an over-the-counter (OTC) market, in which each agent looks for the best counterpart through bilateral negotiations, and a double auc- tion (DA) market, in which traders post their quotes publicly. We focus on the DA-OTC efficiency gap and show how it varies with different market sizes (10, 20, 40, and 80 traders). We compare experimental results from a sample of 6,400 undergraduate students in Economics with zero-intelligent (ZI) agent-based simulations. Simulations with ZI traders show that the traded quantity (with respect to the efficient one) increases with market size under both DA and OTC. Experimental results with human traders confirm the same tendency under DA, while the share of periods in which the traded quantity is higher (lower) than the efficient one decreases (increases) with market size under OTC, ultimately leading to a DA-OTC efficiency gap increasing with market size. We rationalize these results by putting forward a novel game-theoretical model of OTC market as a repeated bargaining procedure under incomplete information on buyers’ valuations and sellers’ costs, showing how efficiency decreases slightly with size due to two counteracting effects: acceptance rates in earlier periods decrease with size, and earlier offers increase, but not always enough to compensate the decrease in acceptance rates. |
| Keywords: | Market Design, Classroom Experiment, Agent-based Modelling, Game-theoretic Modelling. |
| JEL: | C70 C91 C92 D41 D47 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ver:wpaper:05/2020&r=all |
| By: | Dalia Ghanem (UC Davis); Sarojini Hirshleifer (Department of Economics, University of California Riverside); Karen Ortiz-Becerra (UC Davis) |
| Abstract: | We approach attrition in field experiments with baseline outcome data as an identification problem in a panel model. A systematic review of the literature indicates that there is no consensus on how to test for attrition bias. We establish identifying assumptions for treatment effects for both the respondent subpopulation and the study population. We then derive their sharp testable implications on the baseline outcome distribution and propose randomization procedures to test them. We demonstrate that the most commonly used test does not control size in general when internal validity holds. Simulations and applications illustrate the empirical relevance of our analysis. |
| Keywords: | attrition, non-response, treatment effects, field experiment, randomized experiment, randomized control trial, internal validity, identifying assumptions, randomization test, panel data |
| JEL: | C12 C21 C23 C93 |
| Date: | 2019–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucr:wpaper:202010&r=all |
| By: | Lorenz Götte; Marta Kozakiewicz |
| Abstract: | We test experimentally the theory of misguided learning formulated by Heidhues et al. (2018). The model predicts the behavior of an agent who has a biased perception of his ability and is learning about an unknown, decision-relevant parameter. We use a novel experimental design to demonstrate that the learning process of an overcon dent agent di ers signi cantly from that of an unbiased agent. In a dynamic setting, the overcon dent agent repeatedly takes suboptimal actions, misinterprets the output and forms erroneous beliefs about the unknown parameter. We provide the rst empirical evidence that giving a biased agent the opportunity to experiment and acquire new information is not only ine ective, but in some cases counterproductive. |
| Keywords: | overcon dence, belief formation, learning, experiment |
| JEL: | C91 D83 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2020_170&r=all |
| By: | Ronayne, David (University of Oxford and Nuffield College); Sgroi, Daniel (University of Warwick, ESRC CAGE Centre and IZA Bonn); Tuckwell, Anthony (Universityof Warwick, ESRC CAGE Centre and the Alan Turing Institute) |
| Abstract: | We provide experimental evidence of behavior consistent with the sunk cost effect. Subjects who earned a lottery via a real-effort task were given an opportunity to switch to a dominant lottery; yet 23% chose to stick with their dominated lottery. The endowment effect accounts for roughly only one third of the effect. Subjects’ capacity for cognitive reflection is a significant determinant of sunk cost behavior. We also find stocks of knowledge or experience (crystallized intelligence) predict sunk cost behavior, rather than algorithmic thinking (fluid intelligence) or the personality trait of openness. We construct and validate a scale, the “SCE-8”, which encompasses many resources individuals can spend, and offers researchers an efficient way to measure susceptibility to the sunk cost effect. |
| Keywords: | sunk cost effect ; sunk cost fallacy ; endowment effect ; cognitive ability ; fluid intelligence ; crystallized intelligence ; reflective thinking ; online experiment ; online survey ; psychological scales ; scale validation ; Raven’s progressive matrices ; international cognitive ability resource ; cognitive reflection test ; openness. JEL codes: D91 ; C83 ; C90 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1269&r=all |
| By: | Fischer, Mira; Rilke, Rainer Michael; Yurtoglu, B. Burcin |
| Abstract: | We analyze how the team formation process influences the ability composition and performance of teams, showing how self-selection and random assignment affect team performance for different tasks in two natural field experiments. We identify the collaboration intensity of the task as the key driver of the effect of self-selection on team performance. We find that when the task requires low collaborative efforts, the team performance of self-selected teams is significantly inferior to that of randomly assigned teams. When the task involves more collaborative efforts, self-selected teams tend to outperform randomly assigned teams. We observe assortative matching in self-selected teams, with subjects more likely to match with those of similar ability and the same gender. |
| Keywords: | Team Performance,Self-selection,Field Experiment,Education |
| JEL: | I21 M54 C93 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbmbh:spii2020201&r=all |
| By: | Fischer, Mira; Rilke, Rainer Michael (WHU Vallendar); Yurtoglu, B. Burcin (WHU Vallendar) |
| Abstract: | We analyze how the team formation process influences the ability composition and performance of teams, showing how self-selection and random assignment affect team performance for different tasks in two natural field experiments. We identify the collaboration intensity of the task as the key driver of the effect of self-selection on team performance. We find that when the task requires low collaborative efforts, the team performance of self-selected teams is significantly inferior to that of randomly assigned teams. When the task involves more collaborative efforts, self-selected teams tend to outperform randomly assigned teams. We observe assortative matching in self-selected teams, with subjects more likely to match with those of similar ability and the same gender. |
| Keywords: | team performance, self-selection, field experiment, education |
| JEL: | I21 M54 C93 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13201&r=all |
| By: | Christoph Huber; Jürgen Huber; Michael Kirchler |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate how the experience of stock market shocks, like the COVID-19 crash, influences risk taking behavior. To isolate changes in risk taking from a variety of other confounding factors during stock market crashes, we ran controlled experiments with finance professionals in December 2019 and March 2020. We observe that their investments in the experiment were 12 percent lower in March 2020 than in December 2019, even though their future price expectations did not change. This finding is supported by the behavior of students who do not change risky behavior, supposedly because most of them were not invested. |
| Keywords: | Experimental finance, reinforcement learning, countercyclical risk aversion, finance professionals |
| JEL: | C91 G01 G11 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2020-11&r=all |
| By: | Chandrayee Chatterjee; James C. Cox; Michael K. Price; Florian Rundhammer |
| Abstract: | Donations to charity are widely encouraged by policymakers through targeted tax incentives such as tax credits for contributions only to qualifying causes. We use a framed field experiment to test how the largest such program, Arizona’s state income tax credit for donations to qualifying charities, affects donation decisions in a modified dictator game. In the experiment, we randomize whether subjects receive detailed information about the tax credit program prior to selecting potential recipients and completing the allocation task. We also vary the number of charities that subjects can select as recipients along with the (tax-credit) qualifying vs. non-qualifying composition of the choice set. We find that average giving is unaffected by the information provision and composition of the choice set. However, subjects direct significantly more funds towards qualifying charities when provided information about the tax program; an effect that is enhanced when subjects select multiple recipients from lists that contain a mixture of qualifying and non-qualifying organizations. Our results underline the importance of including a portfolio of choices when studying the impact of targeted incentives because this makes it possible to identify a central feature of our data: participants “rob Peter” (non-qualifying charities) “to pay Paul” (qualifying charities). |
| JEL: | C93 H41 L38 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27163&r=all |
| By: | Matthias Stefan (University of Innsbruck); Jürgen Huber (University of Innsbruck); Michael Kirchler (University of Innsbruck); Matthias Sutter; Markus Walzl (University of Innsbruck; Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Rankings are prevalent information and incentive tools in labor markets with strong competition for talent. In a dynamic model of multi-tasking and an accompanying experiment with financial professionals, we identify hidden ranking costs when performance in one task is incentivized and ranked while another prosocial task is not: (i) a ranking influences behavior if individuals lag behind: they spend more total effort and substitute effort in the prosocial task with effort in the ranked task; (ii) those ahead in the ranking spend less total effort and lower relative effort in the ranked task. Implications for incentive schemes are discussed. |
| Keywords: | multi-tasking decision problem, rank incentives, framed field experiment, finance professionals |
| JEL: | C93 D02 D91 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2020_10&r=all |
| By: | Pierre Dubois (TSE - Toulouse School of Economics - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UT1 - Université Toulouse 1 Capitole - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Paulo Albuquerque (INSEAD - Institut Européen d'administration des Affaires); Oliver Allais (INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Céline Bonnet (TSE - Toulouse School of Economics - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UT1 - Université Toulouse 1 Capitole - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Patrice Bertail (MODAL'X - Modélisation aléatoire de Paris X - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre); Pierre Combris (INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Saadi Lahlou (LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science); Nathalie Rigal (UPN - Université Paris Nanterre); Bernard Ruffieux (INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Pierre Chandon (INSEAD - Institut Européen d'administration des Affaires) |
| Abstract: | To examine whether four pre-selected front-of-pack nutrition labels improve food purchases in real-life grocery shopping settings, we put 1.9 million labels on 1,266 food products in four categories in 60 supermarkets and analyzed the nutritional quality of 1,668,301 purchases using the FSA nutrient profiling score. Effect sizes were 17 times smaller on average than those found in comparable laboratory studies. The most effective nutrition label, Nutri-Score, increased the purchases of foods in the top third of their category nutrition-wise by 14%, but had no impact on the purchases of foods with medium, low, or unlabeled nutrition quality. Therefore, Nutri-Score only improved the nutritional quality of the basket of labeled foods purchased by 2.5% (-0.142 FSA points). Nutri-Score's performance improved with the variance (but not the mean) of the nutritional quality of the category. In-store surveys suggest that Nutri-Score's ability to attract attention and help shoppers rank products by nutritional quality may explain its performance. |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02562456&r=all |
| By: | Parampreet Christopher Bindra; Graeme Pearce |
| Abstract: | We present a natural field experiment designed to examine the extent to which priming can influence the behaviour of sellers in a real world market for credence goods. We employed 40 testers to take 600 taxi journeys in and around Vienna, Austria. Using a between-subject design we vary the script spoken by testers, with each script designed to prime either honest behaviour, dishonest behaviour, or the existence of a market competitor. In contrast to our hypotheses, we find that priming honesty increases taxi fares by 5% in comparison to a baseline, increasing the frequency of overcharging by 15% and the amount overcharged by around 44%. The dishonesty prime has no impact. The market competitor prime increases both overcharging and overtreatment by amounts that are individually indistinguishable from zero, but jointly raise fares by 5%. All of the treatments are found to have no significant effect on journey length (overtreatment). |
| Keywords: | Fraud, Credence Goods, Priming, Field Experiment |
| JEL: | C93 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2020-13&r=all |
| By: | Parampreet Christopher Bindra (University of Innsbruck); Rudolf Kerschbamer (University of Innsbruck); Daniel Neururer (University of Innsbruck); Matthias Sutter (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Credence goods markets with their asymmetric information between buyers and sellers are prone to large inefficiencies. In theory, poorly informed consumers can protect themselves from maltreatment through sellers by asking for second opinions from other sellers. Yet, empir-ical evidence whether this is a successful strategy is scarce. Here we present a natural field experiment in the market for computer repairs. We find that revealing a second opinion from another expert to the seller does neither increase the rate of successful repairs nor decrease the average repair price. We assess under which conditions gathering a second opinion can be valuable |
| Keywords: | Credence goods, expert services, second opinions, natural field experiment |
| JEL: | C93 D82 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2020_11&r=all |
| By: | Minnich, Aljoscha; Rau, Holger A.; Schlüter, Jan |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes in a large-scale field experiment (N = 2,980) the incentive effects of monetary vs. non-monetary incentives on the usage of a sustainable Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) system. Financial incentives were implemented by offering customers vouchers, which were received when they reached a certain threshold of rides with the DRT service (EcoBus). In the non-financial incentive treatment, we applied the same thresholds. In this case, we exploited the sustainable character of the EcoBus and offered environmental certificates which documented the saved level of carbon dioxide because of the bus usage. The data show strong support that financial incentives excellently work to increase the demand for a sustainable transport service. EcoBus rides nearly doubled during the intervention phase. Interestingly, non-financial incentives also have a positive effect on the demand for the bus service. However, the effect is attenuated at the end of the treatment phase. Thus, financial incentives outperform non-financial incentives. |
| Keywords: | Demand Responsive Transport,Field Experiment,Incentive Effects |
| JEL: | C93 D12 D83 D91 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cegedp:394&r=all |
| By: | Camille Cornand (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)); Paul Hubert (Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques) |
| Abstract: | Establishing the external validity of experimental inflation forecasts is essential if laboratory experiments are to be used as decision-making tools for monetary policy. Our contribution is to document whether different measures of inflation expectations, based on various categories of agents (participants in experiments, households, industry forecasters, professional forecasters, financial market participants and central bankers), share common patterns. We do so by analyzing the forecasting performance of these different categories of data, their deviations from full information rational expectations, and the variables that enter the determination of these expectations. Overall, the different categories of forecasts exhibit common features: forecast errors are comparably large and autocorrelated, and forecast errors and forecast revisions are predictable from past information, suggesting the presence of some form of bounded rationality or information imperfections. Finally, lagged inflation positively affects the determination of inflation expectations. While experimental forecasts are relatively comparable to survey and financial market data, more heterogeneity is observed compared to central bank forecasts. |
| Keywords: | Inflation expectations; Experimental forecasts; Survey forecasts; Market-based forecasts; Central bank forecasts |
| JEL: | E3 E5 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/7t8isspkbs8hk8kol9kk9sjdl6&r=all |
| By: | Parampreet Bindra; Rudolf Kerschbamer; Daniel Neururer; Matthias Sutter |
| Abstract: | Credence goods markets with their asymmetric information between buyers and sellers are prone to large inefficiencies. In theory, poorly informed consumers can protect themselves from maltreatment through sellers by asking for second opinions from other sellers. Yet, empirical evidence whether this is a successful strategy is scarce. Here we present a natural field experiment in the market for computer repairs. We find that revealing a second opinion from another expert to the seller does neither increase the rate of successful repairs nor decrease the average repair price. We assess under which conditions gathering a second opinion can be valuable. |
| Keywords: | Credence goods, expert services, second opinions, natural field experiment |
| JEL: | C93 D82 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2020-09&r=all |
| By: | Brice Corgnet (emlyon business school, GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Étienne] - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon); Camille Cornand (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Étienne] - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon); Nobuyuki Hanaki (Osaka University [Osaka]) |
| Abstract: | Recent works have shown how tail events could account for financial anomalies such as the equity premiumpuzzle. These models do not explore, however, why investors would discount tail risk so heavily. We take on this challenge by designing a novel tail-event experiment to assess both investors' behavioral and physiological reactions. We show that investors who observe the tail event without suffering losses tend to decrease their pricing of the asset subsequently. By contrast, loss-averse investors who suffer tail losses tend to increase their bids. This response is especially pronounced for those who exhibit a strong emotional response to tail losses. This demonstrates the key role played by emotions in influencing investors' response to tail events. Finally, investors who exhibit high anticipatory arousal, as measured with electrodermal activity, posted lower bids and were less likely to suffer tail losses and go bankrupt. They also achieved higher earnings when tail events occurred frequently. This finding contrasts with the common view that investors should silence their emotions. |
| Keywords: | tail events,emotions,risk |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02613344&r=all |
| By: | Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf); Trieu, Chi (Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE)); Willrodt, Jana (Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE)) |
| Abstract: | Debates about affirmative action often revolve around fairness. Accordingly, we document substantial heterogeneity in the fairness perception of various affirmative action policies. But do these differences translate into different consequences? In a laboratory experiment, we study three different quota rules that favor individuals whose performance is low, either due to bad luck (discrimination), low productivity, or choice of a short working time. Higher fairness perceptions coincide with a higher willingness to compete and less retaliation against winners. No policy harms overall efficiency or post-competition teamwork. Furthermore, individuals seem to internalize the normbehind the policies that are perceived as fairest. |
| Keywords: | experiment, fairness ideals, affirmative action, tournament, real effort |
| JEL: | C91 D02 D63 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13202&r=all |
| By: | Leonhard K. Lades (UCD Environmental Policy & Geary Institute for Public Policy, University College Dublin); Kate Laffan (UCD School of Economics & Geary Institute for Public Policy, University College Dublin); Till O. Weber (Newcastle University Business School, Newcastle University) |
| Abstract: | Understanding the determinants of pro-environmental behaviour is key to address many environmental challenges. Economic theory and empirical evidence suggest that human behaviour is determined by peoples preferences over risk, time, and social consequences. As such, individual differences in these preferences should predict individual differences in pro-environmental behaviour. In a pre-registered study, we measure economic preferences in seven domains (risk taking, patience, present bias, altruism, positive reciprocity, negative reciprocity, and trust) and test whether these preferences predict pro-environmental behaviour in everyday life measured using the day reconstruction method. We find that only altruism is significantly associated with everyday pro-environmental behaviour. This suggests that people recognise everyday pro-environmental behaviours to be beneficial to others, but do not integrate the riskiness, inter-temporal structure, nor other social characteristics of pro-environmental behaviour into their decision-making. We also show in an exploratory analysis that different clusters of everyday pro-environmental behaviours are predicted by patience, positive reciprocity, and altruism, indicating that these considerations are relevant for some, but not other, pro-environmental behaviours. |
| Keywords: | Time preferences, risk preferences, social preferences, pro-environmental behaviour, day reconstruction method |
| Date: | 2020–05–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:202003&r=all |
| By: | Federico Bonetto; Maurizio Iacopetta (Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the rise in the acceptability fiat money in a Kiyotaki–Wright economy by developing a method that can determine dynamic Nash equilibria for a class of search models with genuine heterogeneous agents. We also address open issues regarding the stability properties of pure strategy equilibria and the presence of multiple equilibria, numerical experiments illustrate the liquidity conditions that favor the transition from partial to full acceptance of fiat money, and the effects of inflationary shocks on production, liquidity, and trade. |
| Keywords: | Acceptability of money; Perron; Search |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/48v4b2d60n9bipfp9hcmbgtucs&r=all |
| By: | Ek, Claes (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Söderberg, Magnus (Department of Sociology, Environmental and Business Economics, University of Southern Denmark) |
| Abstract: | Reduced waste generation is a prioritized environmental policy objective in the EU as well as worldwide. We perform a randomized controlled trial in Sweden with school children aged 10-16 to evaluate an intervention designed to reduce household waste, Environmental Education Programs (EEP). Crucially, we are able to examine the causal effect of a wastethemed EEP on the actual waste generated in households where a child was treated. This is done by coupling the addresses of participating students with high-resolution address-level panel data on collected waste amounts, supplied by municipal waste authorities. Our design allows identifcation of the differential effect of the EEP on waste generation in treated versus control households. We fnd no signifcant evidence that the intervention had any effect on waste generation. There is also no indication that this null result is due to interference between treated and control students. |
| Keywords: | Field experiments; Environmental Education Programs; household waste; intergenerational learning |
| JEL: | D13 I21 Q53 |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0783&r=all |
| By: | Jean-Michel Servet (IHEID - Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement - University of Geneva [Switzerland]); Bruno Tinel (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | One-sentence summary : Randomized controlled trials by behavioural economists pretend to be pragmatic and only interested in what really works to solve practical problems but in reality they have notorious normative and ideological aspects. Key points: Behavioural RCTs ignore contexts and composition effects and reflect the biases of those who perform assessments. Behavioural randomizers presume without demonstrating that market exchanges are the most effective form of regulation for societies in all situations of social life. The positive or negative incentives ("nudges") offered by behavioural economics aim to normalize the behaviour of consumers, users, employees or small/independent producers. They are part of a set of power devices by which individual behaviours are shaped and forced, without their knowledge, to conform to dominant class interests. |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02562758&r=all |
| By: | Sanghyun Hong (University of Canterbury); W. Robert Reed (University of Canterbury) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this study is to show how Monte Carlo analysis of meta-analytic estimators can be used to select estimators for specific research situations. Our analysis conducts 1,620 individual experiments, where each experiment is defined by a unique combination of sample size, effect heterogeneity, effect size, publication selection mechanism, and other research characteristics. We compare eleven estimators commonly used in medicine, psychology, and the social sciences. These are evaluated on the basis of bias, mean squared error (MSE), and coverage rates. For our experimental design, we reproduce simulation environments from four recent studies: Stanley, Doucouliagos, & Ioannidis (2017), Alinaghi & Reed (2018), Bom & Rachinger (2019), and Carter et al. (2019a). We demonstrate that relative estimator performance differs across performance measures. An estimator that may be especially good with respect to MSE may perform relatively poorly with respect to coverage rates. We also show that sample size and effect heterogeneity are important determinants of relative estimator performance. We use these results to demonstrate how the observable characteristics of sample size and effect heterogeneity can guide the meta-analyst in choosing the estimators most appropriate for their research circumstances. All of the programming code and output files associated with this project are available at https://osf.io/pr4mb/. |
| Keywords: | Meta-analysis, Estimator performance, Publication bias, Simulation design, Monte Carlo, Experiments |
| JEL: | B41 C15 C18 |
| Date: | 2020–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbt:econwp:20/10&r=all |
| By: | Cullen,Claire Alexis |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the magnitude and predictors of misreporting on intimate partner and sexual violence in Nigeria and Rwanda. Respondents were randomly assigned to answer questions using one of three survey methods: an indirect method (list experiment) that gives respondents anonymity; a direct, self-administered method that increases privacy; and the standard, direct face-to-face method. In Rwanda, intimate partner violence rates increase by 100 percent, and in Nigeria, they increase by up to 39 percent when measured using the list method, compared with direct methods. Misreporting was associated with indicators often targeted in women's empowerment programs, such as gender norms and female employment and education. These results suggest that standard survey methods may generate significant underestimates of the prevalence of intimate partner violence and biased correlations and treatment effect estimates. |
| Date: | 2020–06–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9274&r=all |
| By: | Elisabeth Gsottbauer; Daniel Müller; Samuel Müller; Stefan T. Trautmann; Galina Zudenkova |
| Abstract: | Are upper class individuals less ethical? Highly popularized research findings support this notion. This paper provides a novel test to evaluate the relationship between social status and ethical behavior. We successfully prime a large heterogeneous sample of the German population as either high or low social status. We then elicit ethical behavior in an incentivized experimental task. Thus, our data allows us to study both correlation (using demographic data) and causality (using the priming). Our study does not support the claim that higher social status individuals are less ethical, as prominently suggested by the literature. This result holds both for a respondent's true social status and for her primed subjective social status. Our findings call for a re-interpretation of the existing evidence. |
| Keywords: | cheating, ethics, mind game, priming, social class |
| JEL: | D63 D31 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2020-10&r=all |
| By: | Hayk Manucharyan (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw) |
| Abstract: | This study presents the perceived importance of different supplier attributes for managers’ choice of suppliers in emerging market economies. We analyze the supplier selection process based on multiple attributes categorized into six groups: quality, cost, delivery, product, service, and business. Empirical data for this study was collected from 163 corporate executives in the automotive and fast-moving consumer goods industries operating in Poland and India. A two-part survey was conducted; the first part consisted of a Likert scale set of questions aimed at determining the perceived importance of supplier attributes. The second part of the survey was a discrete choice experiment that examined the actual choices of experimental supplier profiles made by executives. Comparing our results to previous works in this domain, we find that the importance of the cost attribute has decreased over the past two decades, whereas the relevance of delivery and product has increased. Each of the six supplier attributes was broken down into sub-attributes, which provided us with an insight into the decision-making process. The results indicate that with respect to delivery, delivery lead time, responsiveness to demand fluctuations, and compliance with due date had a significant effect on executives’ decisions. At the same time, new product availability and product range played crucial role amongst product attributes. Finally, the dataset was split into different sub-groups, based on the two industries and two countries analyzed, to examine industrial and cultural differences. |
| Keywords: | supplier selection, vendor selection, purchasing, supply chain management, conjoint analysis, stated preferences, discrete choice experiment |
| JEL: | C01 C44 C90 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2020-11&r=all |
| By: | Navin Kartik; Frances Lee; Wing Suen |
| Abstract: | We develop a result on Bayesian updating, dubbed information validates the prior (IVP). Roughly, when two agents have different priors, each believes that a (Blackwell) more informative experiment will, on average, bring the other's posterior mean closer to his own prior mean. We apply the result in two contexts of games of asymmetric information: voluntary testing or certification, and costly signaling or falsification. IVP can be used to determine how an agent's behavior responds to additional exogenous or endogenous information. We discuss economic implications. |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2005.05714&r=all |
| By: | Timothée Demont (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - AMU - Aix Marseille Université) |
| Abstract: | This paper asks whether local savings and credit associations help poor rural households hit by climatic shocks. Combining data from an original field experiment with meteorological data, I investigate how Self-Help Groups (SHGs) allow households to cope with rainfall shocks in villages of East India over a sevenyear period. I show that SHGs withstand large rainfall shocks remarkably, and that credit flows are very stable in treated villages. As a result, treated households experience a higher food security during the lean season following a drought and increase seasonal migration to mitigate future income shocks. These results imply that small-scale financial institutions like SHGs help to finance temporary risk management strategies and to cope with important covariate income shocks such as droughts. |
| Keywords: | microfinance,weather shocks,risk management,seasonal migration,food security |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02571730&r=all |
| By: | Felix Holzmeister; Rudolf Kerschbamer |
| Abstract: | Based on a small set of assumptions on preferences, Kerschbamer (2015) introduces a geometric delineation of distributional preferences and a parsimonious, non-parametric identification procedure - the Equality Equivalence Test (EET). The assumptions of the test result in a mutually exclusive taxonomy of social preference archetypes, nesting all empirically relevant types identified in the literature. This article presents a ready-to-use software module for use with oTree (Chen et al., 2016), which facilitates the implementation of the EET in the laboratory, the field, or online. The app can be straightforwardly configured and parametrized using a single file and can be seamlessly integrated into existing projects. Furthermore, the app features predefined evaluations of subjects' responses and provides a real-time report of the results in the experimenter's dashboard. By this means, the module offers a comprehensive, flexible, and time-saving tool for implementing and conducting the EET in a myriad of configurations determined by the user. |
| Keywords: | oTree, Equality Equivalence Test, Distributional Preferences |
| JEL: | C81 C90 D63 D91 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2020-14&r=all |
| By: | Cappelen, Alexander W. (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Falch, Ranveig (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Sørensen, Erik Ø. (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Tungodden, Bertil (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | In a large-scale pre-registered survey experiment with a representative sample of more than 8,000 Americans, we examine how the COVID-19 pandemic causally affects people’s solidarity and fairness. We randomly manipulate whether respondents are asked general questions about the crisis before answering moral questions. By making the pandemic particularly salient for treated respondents, we causally identify how the crisis changes moral views. We find that the crisis makes respondents more willing to prioritize society’s problems over their own problems, but also more tolerant of inequalities due to luck. We show that people’s moral views are strongly associated with their policy preferences for redistribution. The findings suggest that the pandemic may alter the moral and political landscape in the United States and, consequently, the support for redistribution and welfare policies. |
| Keywords: | Fairness; inequality; COVID-19 |
| JEL: | D63 D64 |
| Date: | 2020–05–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2020_006&r=all |
| By: | Serra Garcia, Marta; Szech, Nora |
| Abstract: | We study individual demand for COVID-19 antibody tests in an incentivized study on a representative sample of the US population. Almost 2,000 participants trade off obtaining an athome test kit against money. At prices close to zero, 80 percent of individuals want the test. However, this broad support of testing falls sharply with price. Demand decreases by 19 percentage points per $10 price increase. Demand for testing increases with factors related to its potential value, such as age, increased length and strength of protective immunity from antibodies, and greater uncertainty about having had the virus. Willingness to pay for antibody tests also depends on income, ethnicity and political views. Black respondents show significantly lower demand than white and Hispanic respondents, and Trump-supporters demonstrate significantly lower demand for testing. The results suggest that charging even moderate prices for antibody tests could widen health inequalities. |
| Keywords: | Coronavirus,COVID-19,Antibody Tests,Information Preferences,Beliefs,Uncertainty |
| JEL: | D81 D91 I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:kitwps:140&r=all |