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on Experimental Economics |
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Issue of 2022‒04‒18
twenty papers chosen by |
| By: | Lubomir Cingl; Tomas Lichard; Tomas Miklanek |
| Abstract: | Tax designation has been a popular attribute of the tax plans in a rising number of countries, yet evidence of its effects on tax compliance remains scarce. We conduct an online experiment with 830 Czech taxpayers who are self-employed or regular employees. Our approach mimics the actual tax designation mechanism: it allows subjects to express their preferences for how a part of their taxes is used by redirecting some of the money to a non-governmental organization (NGO). We exogenously vary the presence of the tax designation mechanism, the possibility to choose the recipient NGO from a list, the tax rate, and the use of tax revenues. We find no consistent significant effects of the tax designation mechanism on overall compliance, though for employees, we do find a small effect on the probability of them being fully compliant. This result complements previous findings of experiments with students, who, like employees, also do not personally file their tax returns. Our results imply that the tax designation mechanism does not encourage higher compliance among taxpayers with the greatest opportunities for tax evasion. |
| Keywords: | tax-enforcement; tax compliance; online tax experiment; tax designation; |
| JEL: | C91 C93 D02 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cer:papers:wp725&r= |
| By: | Katharina Momsen (University of Innsbruck); Sebastian O. Schneider (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether the presence of a default interacts with the willingness of decision-makers to gather, process and consider information. In an online experiment, where about 2,300 participants choose between two compiled charity donation options worth $100, we vary the availability of information and the presence of a default. Information avoidance, when possible, increases default effects considerably, manifesting a hitherto undocumented channel of the default bias. Moreover, we show that defaults trigger motivated reasoning: In the presence of a default – even if self-selected–, participants consider new information to a lower degree than without a preselected option. |
| Keywords: | Motivated reasoning, information avoidance, defaults, status quo, charitable giving, experiment |
| JEL: | C90 D64 D83 D91 |
| Date: | 2022–04–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2022_03&r= |
| By: | Georgia Michailidou; Hande Erkut (Division of Social Science) |
| Abstract: | In lying utility models, benefits and costs typically occur presently and simultaneously. However, lying and its products often develop asynchronously. To evaluate how these asynchronies affect the psychological costs of lying, we develop an experiment in which lying decisions occur presently, while externalities (external costs) and observability (internal costs) occur in future temporal brackets. To assess if lying costs or social preferences drive our findings, we compare against a baseline in which lying opportunities become simple distributive choices. We report significant behavioral differences when outcomes occur as products of lying rather than distributive choices which suggests that lying, per se, begets distinct psychological costs. Further, the results from exponential and quasi-hyperbolic discounting estimations suggest that temporally distancing antisocial decision-making from its consequences dilutes the associated psychological costs. External psychological costs caused by lying are discounted less and are subject to milder present-bias compared to those produced by distributive choices while manipulating internal psychological costs via observability attenuates discounting and present-bias in both cases. |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nad:wpaper:20220076&r= |
| By: | Elias Bouacida; Renaud Foucart |
| Abstract: | We study revealed preferences towards the use of random procedures in allocation mechanisms. We report the results of an experiment in which subjects vote on a procedure to allocate a reward to half of them. The first possibility is an explicitly random device: the result of a lottery. The second is either an unpredictable procedure they could interpret as meritocratic, or one that is obviously arbitrary. We run all treatments with and without control. We identify an aversion to lotteries and clearly arbitrary procedures across treatments, even though, on aggregate, subjects do not believe any procedure to give them a higher probability of success and there is no correlation between beliefs and outcomes. In line with the literature, we also find evidence of a control premium in most procedures. |
| Keywords: | lotteries, mechanism design, allocation problems, procedures, tiebreaking rule |
| JEL: | D01 D78 D91 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:344119591&r= |
| By: | Anna Hochleitner (University of Nottingham) |
| Abstract: | While economic crises tend to raise questions about a fair distribution of resources, less is known about whether and how fairness views themselves are affected by negative shocks. To answer this question, I conduct two experimental studies investigating the causal link between income shocks and preferences for redistribution. While Study 1 exogenously manipulates within experiment shocks, Study 2 capitalises on the recent Covid-19 crisis and investigates the behaviour of subjects hit by real world income shocks. The results from Study 1 show that allocation decisions as well as reactions to shocks depend on participants' relative income. Participants who are relatively poorer exhibit little reaction to shocks and distribute resources in line with an egalitarian fairness view. Participants who are relatively richer, by contrast, distribute resources proportionate to individual contributions and are quite responsive to shocks. They allocate more to themselves if they suffered a shock, but less if the other faced a shock. Study 2 confirms that negative shocks affect redistributive preferences with participants allocating more to individuals who suffered the Covid-19 shock. The results contribute to a growing literature on context-dependent preferences and show that economic shocks can have a substantial impact on the demand and acceptance of redistributive policies. |
| Keywords: | Redistribution, Inequality, Fairness, Laboratory-Individual Behavior |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notcdx:2022-08&r= |
| By: | KATO Hiroki; SASAKI Shusaku; OHTAKE Fumio |
| Abstract: | This study conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in a nationwide online survey to examine which text-based nudges best promote rubella antibody testing and vaccination. The main results are as follows. First, the altruistic message, which emphasizes that the fetus's health could be impaired by infecting women in the early stages of pregnancy with rubella, has a positive effect on the intention and behavior relating to the antibody test among men, who had automatically received a free coupon from the local government in 2019. Second, most people who test negative for antibodies (do not have antibodies), regardless of the type of nudge messages or whether or not they have received the coupon, have since been vaccinated. This result suggests that policies to increase antibody testing of pre-test individuals should be prioritized over those to increase vaccination of post-test negatives. Third, text-based messages have no statistically significant effect among men who had to apply for coupons themselves in 2019. |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:22010&r= |
| By: | Claus, Corinna; Köhler, Ekkehard A.; Krieger, Tim |
| Abstract: | Using an incentivized online classroom experiment, we assess the effectiveness of deontological vs. consequentialist moral reminders. Participants were told that they are the responsible public servant for acquiring a Covid-19 vaccine, providing them with the opportunity to generate some extra private income by accepting a bribe. Our findings indicate that a deontological moral reminder ("corruption is immoral") leads to a significant reduction in accepting bribes. A consequentialist moral reminder, pointing out that bribes are costly to taxpayers, shows no significant effect. Furthermore, we do not find any empirical support that male participants are more corrupt in comparison to female participants. Students majoring in economics or business/management show more corrupt behavior than students studying to become economics school teachers, but the difference is not statistically significant. A person's disposition towards risk appears to have a strong dissuading effects. Our experiment was conducted before and after the unexpected announcement by pharmaceutical companies BioNTech and Pfizer on November 9th, 2020, that they will be able to provide an effective Covid-19 vaccine. This announcement does not correlate with a changed level of bribe-taking. |
| Keywords: | Moral Reminder,Ethics,Corruption,Dishonesty,Economics Students,Experiment,Covid-19 |
| JEL: | A20 C91 D73 H12 I20 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wgspdp:202201&r= |
| By: | John List |
| Abstract: | In 2019, I put together a summary of data from my field experiments website that pertained to artefactual field experiments. Several people have asked me if I have an update. In this document I update all figures and numbers to show the details for 2021. I also include the description from the 2019 paper below. |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feb:artefa:00749&r= |
| By: | Hubert Janos Kiss (KRTK KTI and Corvinus University of Budapest); Ismael Rodriguez-Lara (Department of Economics, Universidad de Granada and Economic Science Institute, Chapman University); Alfonso Rosa-Garcia (Department of Economics, Universidad de Murcia) |
| Abstract: | We study how lines form in front of banks. In our model, depositors choose first the level of effort to arrive early at the bank and then whether or not to withdraw their deposit. We argue that the informational environment (i.e., the possibility of observing the action of others) a ects the emergence of bank runs and should, therefore, influence the line formation. We test this prediction experimentally. While the informational environment has no e ect on the line formation when we look at the average level of e ort, our rindings suggest that the reasons to arrive early at the bank varies across informational environment. Thus, expectations on the occurrence of bank run are key to explain the level of effort when depositors cannot observe the action of others. In this setting, depositors who expect a run arrive early at the bank to withdraw their funds. If actions can be observed, however, those who expect a run arrive early at the bank to keep their funds deposited. Depending on the informational environment, there are other factors (e.g., irrationality of depositors or loss aversion) that also explain the behavior of depositors. |
| Keywords: | bank run, beliefs, experimental economics, line formation, loss aversion, observability |
| JEL: | C91 D90 G21 G40 J16 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chu:wpaper:22-04&r= |
| By: | Argenton, Cedric (Tilburg University, TILEC); Ivanova-Stenzel, Radosveta; Müller, Wieland (Tilburg University, TILEC) |
| Keywords: | cournot; Bayesian game; Bayes-Nash equilibrium; repeated games; collusion; cooperation; experimental economics |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiutil:03d1f1c4-0f0f-4d7c-8428-406bc1002e97&r= |
| By: | Demirović, Melisa; Rogers, Jonathan; Robbins, Blaine G (New York University Abu Dhabi) |
| Abstract: | Gender differences in wage negotiations is a popular explanation for why the gender gap in pay persists in the United States. In this study, we use data from an artificial wage negotiation experiment (N = 330) to interrogate the gender-negotiation link, and to test whether gender role attitudes (GRAs) moderate this association. Our experiment yields three principal discoveries. First, men are more likely to select into negotiations than women, but this effect varies by GRAs. As GRAs become more traditional, men enter negotiations at a much higher rate than women, but for non-traditional GRAs we observe no gender differences in selection. Second, while men and women are proficient at knowing when to negotiate, men and women are much less proficient when they harbor traditional GRAs. Third, profits are equivalent for men and women, and traditional men are no more effective than women—regardless of their GRAs—at securing higher profits. Our findings suggest that traditional women should “lean-in”, and that traditional men should “lean-out”. |
| Date: | 2022–03–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:7esb9&r= |
| By: | Jérémy Hervelin; Pierre Villedieu (Université de Cergy-Pontoise, THEMA) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether work experience gained through a subsidized job program can improve the employment prospects of young school dropouts. Relying on a correspondence study field experiment conducted in France, we find that the chances to be invited for a job interview are more than doubled (from 7.6 percent to 19.3 percent) when youths signal a one-year job-related experience in their résumé - either in the private or public sector; either certified or not - compared to youths who remained mainly inactive after dropping out from high school. We show that this e ect is fairly stable across firm, contract or labor market characteristics, and also when testing another channel of application where resumes were sent spontaneously to firms. |
| Keywords: | School dropouts, Work experience, Subsidized employment, Job Interview, Field experiment |
| JEL: | J08 J24 J71 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2022-07&r= |
| By: | Bago, Bence; Rand, David; Pennycook, Gordon |
| Abstract: | What are the underlying cognitive mechanisms that support belief in conspiracies? Common dual-process perspectives suggest that deliberation helps people make more accurate decisions and decreases belief in conspiracy theories that have been proven wrong (therefore, bringing people closer to objective accuracy). However, evidence for this stance is i) mostly correlational and ii) existing causal evidence might be influenced by experimental demand effects and/or a lack of suitable control conditions. Furthermore, recent work has found that analytic thinking tends to increase the coherence between prior beliefs and new information, which may not always lead to accurate conclusions. In two studies, participants were asked to evaluate the strength of conspiratorial (or non-conspiratorial) explanations of events. In the first study, which used well-known conspiracy theories, deliberation had no effect. In the second study, which used relatively unknown conspiracy theories, we found that experimentally manipulating deliberation did increase belief accuracy - but only among people with a strong ‘anti-conspiracy’ or strong ‘pro-conspiracy’ mindset from the outset, and not among those with an intermediate conspiratorial mindset. Although these results generally support the idea that encouraging people to deliberate can help to counter the growth of novel conspiracy theories, they also indicate that the effect of deliberation on conspiratorial beliefs is more complicated than previously thought. |
| Date: | 2022–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:iastwp:126833&r= |
| By: | Henninger, Felix (University of Koblenz-Landau); Kieslich, Pascal J.; Fernández-Fontelo, Amanda; Greven, Sonja; Kreuter, Frauke |
| Abstract: | Survey participants' mouse movements provide a rich, unobtrusive source of paradata, and offer insight into the response process beyond the observed answers. However, the use of mouse-tracking may require participants' explicit consent that their movements are recorded and analyzed. Thus, the fundamental question arises how this affects the willingness of participants to take part in a survey at all -- if prospective respondents are reluctant to complete the survey if additional measures are collected, paradata collection may do more harm than good. Previous research has found that other paradata collection modes reduce the willingness to participate, and that this decrease may be influenced by the specific motivation provided to participants for collecting the data. However, the effects of mouse movement collection on survey consent and participation have not been addressed so far. In a vignette experiment, we show that willingness to participate in a survey decreased when mouse-tracking was part of the overall consent. However, a larger proportion of the sample was willing to both take part and provide mouse-tracking data when these decisions were combined, compared to an independent opt-in to paradata collection, separated from the decision to complete the study. This indicates that survey practitioners may face a trade-off between maximizing their overall participation rate and maximizing the number of participants that also provide mouse-tracking data. Explaining motivations for paradata collection did not have a positive effect and, in some cases, even reduced participants' willingness to participate. |
| Date: | 2022–03–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:6weqx&r= |
| By: | IGARASHI Akira; ONO Yoshikuni |
| Abstract: | The presence of native allies is important for the success of immigrants' social movements in East Asian countries, as the number of immigrants is relatively low. However, it remains unclear whether advocacy messages from natives or from immigrants are more effective in changing the attitudes of natives to support policies for immigrants. From the perspective of social identity theory, we hypothesized that the effectiveness of persuasive messages would vary depending on the group issuing the message. To test this, we conducted a survey experiment using a Japanese case of granting local voting rights to immigrants. Our results showed that Japanese support for granting immigrants local voting rights did not decrease when they heard an advocacy message from Japanese but decreased when it came from a Korean immigrant whose voting rights are highly relevant. These results suggest that advocacy messages from natives may lead to more support for immigrants. |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:22008&r= |
| By: | Gonzalo Ballestero (Universidad de San Andrés) |
| Abstract: | Firms increasingly delegate their strategic decisions to algorithms. A potential concern is that algorithms may undermine competition by leading to pricing outcomes that are collusive, even without having been designed to do so. This paper investigates whether Q-learning algorithms can learn to collude in a setting with sequential price competition and stochastic marginal costs adapted from Maskin and Tirole (1988). By extending a previous model developed in Klein (2021), I find that sequential Q-learning algorithms leads to supracompetitive profits despite they compete under uncertainty and this finding is robust to various extensions. The algorithms can coordinate on focal price equilibria or an Edgeworth cycle provided that uncertainty is not too large. However, as the market environment becomes more uncertain, price wars emerge as the only possible pricing pattern. Even though sequential Q-learning algorithms gain supracompetitive profits, uncertainty tends to make collusive outcomes more dicult to achieve. |
| Keywords: | Competition Policy, Artificial Intelligence, Algorithmic Collusion |
| JEL: | D43 K21 L13 |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aoz:wpaper:118&r= |
| By: | Siddique, Abu; Islam, Asad; Mozumder, Tanvir Ahmed; Rahman, Tabassum; Shatil, Tanvir |
| Abstract: | Forced displacement is a major driver of mental disorders among refugees worldwide. Poor mental health of adult refugees, particularly mothers, is also considered a risk factor for the psychological well-being and development of their children. In this study, we experimentally examine the extent to which a multifaceted psychosocial program improves the mental well-being of refugee mothers, and facilitates growth and development among children under the age of two. In partnership with BRAC, we ran a cluster randomized controlled trial on 3,500 Rohingya mother-child dyads in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Participants were given weekly psychosocial support for a year that includes psychoeducation and parenting support for mothers and play activities for both mothers and children. The intervention was largely successful and led to: (i) reductions in the psychological trauma and depression severity of mothers and children, (ii) improvements in communication, gross-motor, problem-solving, and social skills of children, and (iii) reductions in stunting, underweight, and wasting among children in the treatment group. The intervention also caused the mental health of children to be more aligned with the mental health of their mothers, implying policies targeting the mental well-being of displaced mothers can be an important stepping stone to developing psychological resilience among their children, which can help them grow into well-rounded, healthy adults. |
| Date: | 2022–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:b4fc7&r= |
| By: | TANAKA Ayumu; ITO Banri; JINJI Naoto |
| Abstract: | In this study, we conduct a conjoint survey experiment in Japan to analyze the determinants of preferences toward the acquisitions by foreign firms. Conjoint survey experiments allow us to simultaneously estimate the effects of various attributes of foreign acquisitions, enabling us to analyze the complex causal relationships between various attributes of an acquisition project and people's antipathy toward it. The results of the experiment demonstrate that the nationality of the foreign firm, reciprocity, and the economic conditions of the location of the firm being acquired are important factors. Specifically, our respondents' approval rates for acquisitions by US firms are higher and those for acquisitions by Chinese, Korean, and Russian firms are lower compared to those for the acquisitions by the baseline "foreign firms." Moreover, their approval rates are higher for acquisitions by firms from countries that have been receptive to Japanese investment and for the foreign takeover of firms in areas with a high unemployment rate. |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:22005&r= |
| By: | Diego Marino Fages (University of Nottingham); Matias Morales (New York University) |
| Abstract: | Anti-immigrant sentiment is frequently motivated by the idea that migrants are a threat to the host country’s culture (Rapoport et al., 2020). We contribute to the discussion by investigating whether migrants adapt their social preferences (SPs) to those prevalent in their host country. For this, we rely on a global and experimentally validated survey to show that migrants’ preferences strongly correlate with their host population’s SPs and provide some evidence of a causal relationship. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Assimilation, Social Preferences |
| Date: | 2022–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notcdx:2022-07&r= |
| By: | Andrej Gill (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz); Florian Hett (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz); Johannes Tischer (Deutsche Bundesbank) |
| Abstract: | Households regularly fail to make optimal financial decisions. But what are the underlying reasons for this? Using two conceptually distinct measures of time inconsistency based on bank account transaction data and behavioral measurement experiments, we show that the excessive use of bank account overdrafts is linked to time inconsistency. By contrast, there is no correlation between a survey-based measure of financial literacy and overdraft usage. Our results indicate that consumer education and information may not suffice to overcome mistakes in households’ financial decision-making. Rather, behaviorally motivated interventions targeting specific biases in decision-making should also be considered as effective policy tools. |
| Keywords: | Household Finance, Paycheck Sensitivity, Fintech, Time Inconsistency, Time Preferences, Experiment, Behavioral Measurement |
| JEL: | D14 D90 G51 G53 |
| Date: | 2022–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jgu:wpaper:2205&r= |