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on Experimental Economics |
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Issue of 2023‒01‒23
39 papers chosen by |
| By: | Giuseppe Attanasi; James C. Cox; Vjollca Sadiraj |
| Abstract: | We run a staged field experiment during three concerts in the South of Italy, characterized by the same traditional music and a comparable average level of alcohol consumption by attendees. Individual blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is measured with electronic breathalyzers. The experimental games proposed to concert attendees are mini-games of payoff equivalent private and common property games (Cox et al. 2009). We find that alcohol consumption leads to less pro-social behavior independently of the version of the game, and that the rate of efficient choices is more than twice as high in the private property game than in the common property game. Efficiency of play decreases with alcohol consumption, increases with belief about the percentage of participants who are not inebriated, and is higher for tourists than local participants. |
| Keywords: | Staged Field Experiment, Alcohol, Private Property Game, Common Property Game, Reciprocity, Tourists |
| JEL: | C72 C93 Z10 Z32 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:exc:wpaper:2022-03&r=exp |
| By: | Madland, Kjetil Røiseland; Strømland, Eirik |
| Abstract: | This paper reports from a large-scale experiment conducted to study the effects of social norms on distributive decision-making. In an incentivized spectator experiment, subjects chose how to divide bonus earnings between a pair of stakeholders. Before choosing a distribution, our spectators stated their beliefs about, and received a signal about, the share of payoff-equalizing spectators in a reference group, randomly drawn from a previous study with the same distributive setting (Almås et al., 2020). This draw gives random variation in the intensity of the signal about the norm that applies in the current setting. We find a statistically significant but small effect of the number of payoff-equalizing spectators in the reference group on the probability of equalizing payoffs in the current setting. The redistribution choice is strongly correlated with spectators’ initial beliefs about the reference group. The effect of the signal about redistribution is primarily driven by the subgroup of participants who receive a large shock to their initial beliefs. |
| Date: | 2022–12–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:tnv3g&r=exp |
| By: | M. Mehrab Bakhtiar; Marcel Fafchamps; Markus Goldstein; Kenneth L. Leonard; Sreelakshmi Papineni |
| Abstract: | Most studies of intrahousehold resource allocation examine outcomes and do not consider the decision-making process by which those outcomes are achieved. We conduct an original lab-in-the-field experiment on the decision-making process of married couples over the allocation of rival and non-rival household goods. The experiment measures individual preferences over allocations and traces the process of consultation, communication, deferral, and accommodation by which couples implement these preferences. We find few differences in individual preferences over allocations of goods. However, wives and husbands have strong preferences over process: women prefer to defer budget allocation decisions to their husband even when deferral is costly and is not observed by the husband; the reverse is true for men. Our study follows a randomized controlled trial that ended a year earlier and gave large cash transfers over fifteen months to half of the women in the study. We estimate the effect of treatment on the demand for agency among women and find that the receipt of cash transfers does not change women's bargaining process except in a secret condition when the decision to defer is shrouded from her husband: only in that case does the cash transfer increase women's expressed demand for agency. |
| JEL: | D1 O12 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30789&r=exp |
| By: | Angelova, Vera (TU Berlin); Tolksdorf, Michel (TU Berlin) |
| Abstract: | We investigate experimentally whether individuals or groups are more lied to, and how lying depends on the group size and the monetary loss inflicted by the lie. We employ an observed cheating game, where an individual's misreport of a privately observed number can monetarily benefit her while causing a loss to either a single individual, a group of two or a group of five. As the privately observed number is known to the experimenter, the game allows to study both, whether the report deviates from the observed number and also by how much. Treatments either vary the individual loss caused by a given lie (keeping the total loss constant), or the total loss (keeping the individual loss constant). We find more lies toward individuals than toward groups. Liars impose a larger loss with their lie when that loss is split among group members rather than borne individually. The size of the group does not affect lying behavior. |
| Keywords: | cheating; lying; groups; observed cheating game; laboratory experiment; |
| JEL: | C91 D82 D91 |
| Date: | 2022–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:350&r=exp |
| By: | Henning Hermes; Marina Krauß; Philipp Lergetporer; Frauke Peter; Simon Wiederhold |
| Abstract: | We present experimental evidence that enabling access to universal early child care for families with lower socioeconomic status (SES) increases maternal labor supply. Our intervention provides families with customized help for child care applications, resulting in a large increase in enrollment among lower-SES families. The treatment increases lower-SES mothers’ full-time employment rates by 9 percentage points (+160%), household income by 10%, and mothers’ earnings by 22%. The effect on full-time employment is largely driven by increased care hours provided by child care centers and fathers. Overall, the treatment substantially improves intra-household gender equality in terms of child care duties and earnings. |
| Keywords: | child care, maternal employment, gender equality, randomized controlled trial |
| JEL: | D90 J13 J18 J22 C93 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10178&r=exp |
| By: | Jeanne Hagenbach (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Rachel Kranton (Duke University [Durham]); Victoria Lee (Duke University [Durham]) |
| Abstract: | Many empirical and experimental studies show that social divisions negatively impact economic outcomes. This experiment reverses the causal arrow and asks if economic settings affect individuals' social perceptions. Subjects receive information about counterparts' preferences and demographics and then work for bonus pay by completing a real-effort task. Subjects who compete for pay against their counterparts report having less in common with their counterparts than subjects in a cooperative setting. This effect emerges despite monetary incentives to report correctly the number of traits in common. The economic setting has little effect on the less precise evaluation of similarity to counterparts. |
| Date: | 2022–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03792554&r=exp |
| By: | Joseph Campbell; Alessandra Casella; Lucas de Lara; Victoria R. Mooers; Dilip Ravindran |
| Abstract: | Under Liquid Democracy (LD), decisions are taken by referendum, but voters are allowed to delegate their votes to other voters. Theory shows that in common interest problems where experts are correctly identified, the outcome can be superior to simple majority voting. However, even when experts are correctly identified, delegation must be used sparely because it reduces the variety of independent information sources. We report the results of two experiments, each studying two treatments: in one treatment, participants have the option of delegating to better informed individuals; in the second, participants can choose to abstain. The first experiment follows a tightly controlled design planned for the lab; the second is a perceptual task run online where information about signals’ precision is ambiguous. The two designs are very different, but the experiments reach the same result: in both, delegation rates are unexpectedly high and higher than abstention rates, and LD underperforms relative to both universal voting and abstention. |
| JEL: | C92 D7 D8 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30794&r=exp |
| By: | Fischbacher, Urs (Universität Konstanz); Kübler, Dorothea (WZB Berlin, TU Berlin and CESifo); Stüber, Robert (NYU Abu Dhabi) |
| Abstract: | Many occupations and industries are highly segregated with respect to gender. This segregation could be due to perceived job-specific productivity differences between men and women. It could also result from the belief that single-gender teams perform better. We investigate the two explanations in a lab experiment with students and in an online experiment with personnel managers. The subjects bet on the productivity of teams of different gender compositions in tasks that differ with respect to gender stereotypes. We obtain similar results in both samples. Women are picked more often for the stereotypically female task and men more often for the stereotypically male task. Subjects do not believe that homogeneous teams perform better but bet more on diverse teams, especially in the task with complementarities. Elicited expectations about the bets of others reveal that subjects expect the effect of the gender stereotypes of tasks but underestimate others’ bets on diversity. |
| Keywords: | gender segregation; hiring decisions; teams; discrimination; stereotypes; |
| JEL: | D91 J16 |
| Date: | 2022–12–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:355&r=exp |
| By: | Andreas Fuster (Swiss National Bank); Ricardo Perez-Truglia (UCLA - University of California [Los Angeles] - UC - University of California); Mirko Wiederholt (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Basit Zafar (ASU - Arizona State University [Tempe]) |
| Abstract: | We use a survey experiment to generate direct evidence on how people acquire and process information. Participants can buy different information signals that could help them forecast future national home prices. We elicit their valuations and exogenously vary the cost of information. Participants put substantial value on their preferred signal and, when acquired, incorporate the signal in their beliefs. However, they disagree on which signal to buy. As a result, making information cheaper does not decrease the cross-sectional dispersion of expectations. We provide a model with costly acquisition and processing of information, which can match most of our empirical results. |
| Keywords: | Expectations, Experiment, Housing, Information frictions, Rational inattention |
| Date: | 2022–09–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03878688&r=exp |
| By: | Guy Aridor; Duarte Gonçalves; Daniel Kluver; Ruoyan Kong; Joseph Konstan |
| Abstract: | We conduct a field experiment on a movie-recommendation platform to identify if and how recommendations affect consumption. We use within-consumer randomization at the good level and elicit beliefs about unconsumed goods to disentangle exposure from informational effects. We find recommendations increase consumption beyond its role in exposing goods to consumers. We provide support for an informational mechanism: recommendations affect consumers’ beliefs, which in turn explain consumption. Recommendations reduce uncertainty about goods consumers are most uncertain about and induce information acquisition. Our results highlight the importance of recommender systems’ informational role when considering policies targeting these systems in online marketplaces. |
| Keywords: | recommender systems, information acquisition, field experiment |
| JEL: | D83 D47 D12 L15 M37 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10129&r=exp |
| By: | Jiang, Shuguang (Shandong University); Villeval, Marie Claire (CNRS, GATE) |
| Abstract: | We study cheating as a collective-risk social dilemma in a group setting in which individuals are asked to report their actual outcomes. Misreporting their outcomes increases the individual's earnings but when the sum of claims in the group reaches a certain threshold, a risk of collective sanction affects all the group members, regardless of their individual behavior. Because of the pursuit of selfish interest and a lack of coordination with other group members, the vast majority of individuals eventually earn less than the reservation payoff from honest reporting in the group. Over time, most groups are trapped in a "Tragedy of Dishonesty", despite the presence of moral costs of lying. The risk of collective sanction is triggered less frequently in small groups than in large ones, while priming a collectivist mindset has little effect on lying. |
| Keywords: | dishonesty, public bad, group size, collectivism, individualism, experiment |
| JEL: | C92 D01 D91 D62 H41 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15813&r=exp |
| By: | John A. List; Ian Muir; Gregory K. Sun |
| Abstract: | This study investigates how to use regression adjustment to reduce variance in experimental data. We show that the estimators recommended in the literature satisfy an orthogonality property with respect to the parameters of the adjustment. This observation greatly simplifies the derivation of the asymptotic variance of these estimators and allows us to solve for the efficient regression adjustment in a large class of adjustments. Our efficiency results generalize a number of previous results known in the literature. We then discuss how this efficient regression adjustment can be feasibly implemented. We show the practical relevance of our theory in two ways. First, we use our efficiency results to improve common practices currently employed in field experiments. Second, we show how our theory allows researchers to robustly incorporate machine learning techniques into their experimental estimators to minimize variance. |
| JEL: | C9 C90 C91 C93 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30756&r=exp |
| By: | Clément de Chaisemartin (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Jaime Ramirez-Cuellar (Microsoft - Microsoft Research [Cambridge] - Microsoft Research) |
| Abstract: | In clustered and paired experiments, to estimate treatment effects, researchers often regress their outcome on the treatment and pair fixed effects, clustering standard errors at the unit-ofrandomization level. We show that even if the treatment has no effect, a 5%-level t-test based on this regression will wrongly conclude that the treatment has an effect up to 16.5% of the time, an error rate much larger than the researcher's 5% target. To achieve their targeted error rate, researchers should instead cluster standard errors at the pair level. Using simulations, we show that similar results apply to clustered experiments with small strata. |
| Keywords: | clustered standard errors, clustering, paired experiments, stratified experiments, randomized experiments, RCT |
| Date: | 2022–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03873897&r=exp |
| By: | Michele Fioretti (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Alexander Vostroknutov (Maastricht University [Maastricht]); Giorgio Coricelli (USC - University of Southern California) |
| Abstract: | In a stock market experiment, we examine how regret avoidance influences the decision to sell an asset while its price changes over time. Participants know beforehand whether they will observe the future prices after they sell the asset or not. Without future prices, participants are affected only by regret about previously observed high prices (past regret), but when future prices are available, they also avoid regret about expected after-sale high prices (future regret). Moreover, as the relative sizes of past and future regret change, participants dynamically switch between them. This demonstrates how multiple reference points dynamically influence sales. (JEL C91, G12, G41) |
| Keywords: | stock market behavior, behavioral finance, regret avoidance, dynamic regret, dynamic discrete choice, structural models, experiments, multiple reference points |
| Date: | 2022–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03562318&r=exp |
| By: | Christoph Kuzmics; Brian W. Rogers; Xiannong Zhang |
| Abstract: | The 1961 Ellsberg paradox is typically seen as an empirical challenge to the subjective expected utility framework. Experiments based on Ellsberg's design have spawned a variety of new approaches, culminating in a new paradigm represented by, now classical, models of ambiguity aversion. We design and implement a decision-theoretic lab experiment that is extremely close to the original Ellsberg design and in which, empirically, subjects make choices very similar to those in the Ellsberg experiments. In our environment, however, these choices cannot be rationalized by any of the classical models of ambiguity aversion. |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2212.03603&r=exp |
| By: | Giebe, Thomas (Linnaeus University); Ivanova-Stenzel, Radosveta (TU Berlin); Kocher, Martin G. (University of Vienna, CESifo and University of Gothenburg); Schudy, Simeon (LMU Munich and CESifo) |
| Abstract: | Overbidding in sealed-bid second-price auctions (SPAs) has been shown to be persistent and associated with cognitive ability. We study experimentally to what extent cross-game learning can reduce overbidding in SPAs, taking into account cognitive skills. Employing an order-balanced design, we use first-price auctions (FPAs) to expose participants to an auction format in which losses from high bids are more salient than in SPAs. Experience in FPAs causes substantial cross-game learning for cognitively less able participants but does not affect overbidding for the cognitively more able. Vice versa, experiencing SPAs before bidding in an FPA does not substantially affect bidding behavior by the cognitively less able but, somewhat surprisingly, reduces bid shading by cognitively more able participants, resulting in lower profits in FPAs. Thus, 'cross-game learning' may rather be understood as 'cross-game transfer', as it has the potential to benefit bidders with lower cognitive ability whereas it has little or even adverse effects for higher-ability bidders. |
| Keywords: | cognitive ability; cross-game learning; cross-game transfer; experiment; auction; heuristics; first-price auctions; second-price auctions; |
| JEL: | C72 C91 D44 D83 |
| Date: | 2022–12–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:358&r=exp |
| By: | Camille Cornand (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - Université de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Paul Hubert (OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po) |
| Abstract: | We compare disagreement in expectations and the frequency of forecast revisions among five categories of agents: households, firms, professional forecasters, policymakers and participants to laboratory experiments. We provide evidence of disagreement among all categories of agents. There is however a strong heterogeneity across categories: while policymakers and professional forecasters exhibit low disagreement, firms and households show strong disagreement. This translates into a heterogeneous frequency of forecast revision across categories of agents, with policymakers revising more frequently their forecasts than firms and professional forecasters. Households last revise less frequently. We are also able to explore the external validity of experimental expectations. |
| Keywords: | inflation expectations, information frictions, disagreement, forecast revisions, experimental forecasts, survey forecasts, central bank forecasts |
| Date: | 2021–09–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:halshs-03351632&r=exp |
| By: | Camille Cornand (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - ENS Lyon - École normale supérieure - Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet [Saint-Étienne] - Université de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Paul Hubert |
| Abstract: | We compare disagreement in expectations and the frequency of forecast revisions among five categories of agents: households, firms, professional forecasters, policymakers and participants to laboratory experiments. We provide evidence of disagreement among all categories of agents. There is however a strong heterogeneity across categories: while policymakers and professional forecasters exhibit low disagreement, firms and households show strong disagreement. This translates into a heterogeneous frequency of forecast revision across categories of agents, with policymakers revising more frequently their forecasts than firms and professional forecasters. Households last revise less frequently. We are also able to explore the external validity of experimental expectations. |
| Keywords: | inflation expectations,information frictions,disagreement,forecast revisions,experimental forecasts,survey forecasts,central bank forecasts |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03468918&r=exp |
| By: | Benndorf, Volker (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt); Kübler, Dorothea (WZB Berlin, TU Berlin and CESifo); Normann, Hans-Theo (Universität Düsseldorf) |
| Abstract: | Information unraveling is an elegant theoretical argument suggesting that private information may be fully and voluntarily surrendered. The experimental literature has, however, failed to provide evidence of complete unraveling and has suggested senders' limited depth of reasoning as one behavioral explanation. In our novel design, decision-making is essentially sequential, which removes the requirements on subjects' reasoning and should enable subjects to play the standard Nash equilibrium with full revelation. However, our design also facilitates coordination on equilibria with partial unraveling which exist with other-regarding preferences. Our data confirm that the new design is successful in that it avoids miscoordination entirely. Roughly half of the groups fully unravel whereas other groups exhibit monotonic outcomes with partial unraveling. Altogether, we nd more information unraveling with the new design, but there is clear evidence that other-regarding preferences do play a role in impeding unraveling. |
| Keywords: | data protection; inequality aversion; information revelation; level-k reasoning; |
| JEL: | C72 C90 C91 |
| Date: | 2022–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:354&r=exp |
| By: | Jérémy Hervelin (CY - CY Cergy Paris Université, THEMA - Théorie économique, modélisation et applications - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CY - CY Cergy Paris Université); Pierre Villedieu (Sciences Po - Sciences Po, LIEPP - Laboratoire interdisciplinaire d'évaluation des politiques publiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po) |
| 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 effect 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 |
| Date: | 2022–07–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:halshs-03618526&r=exp |
| By: | Fehr, Dietmar (University of Heidelberg and CESifo); Kübler, Dorothea (WZB Berlin, TU Berlin and CESifo) |
| Abstract: | We study the endowment effect and expectation-based reference points in the field leveraging the setup of the Socio-Economic Panel. Households receive a small item for taking part in the panel, and we randomly assign respondents either a towel or a notebook, which they can exchange at the end of the interview. We observe a trading rate of 32 percent, consistent with an endowment effect, but no relationship with loss aversion. Manipulating expectations of the exchange opportunity, we find no support for expectation-based reference points. However, trading predicts residential mobility and is related to stock-market participation, i.e., economic decisions that entail parting with existing resources. |
| Keywords: | exchange asymmetry; reference-dependent preferences; loss aversion; field experiment; SOEP; |
| JEL: | C93 D84 D91 |
| Date: | 2022–12–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:353&r=exp |
| By: | Benjamin Marx (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Vincent Pons (Harvard Business School - Harvard University [Cambridge]); Tavneet Suri (MIT Sloan - Sloan School of Management - MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | We present the results from a field experiment on team diversity. Individuals working as door-to-door canvassers for a non-profit organization were randomly assigned a teammate, a supervisor, and a list of individuals to canvass. This created random variation within teams in the degree of horizontal diversity (between teammates), vertical diversity (between teammates and their supervisor) and external diversity (between teams and the individuals they canvassed). We observe team-level measures of performance and find that horizontal ethnic diversity decreases performance, while vertical diversity often improves performance, and external diversity has no effect. The data on time use suggests that horizontally homogeneous teams organized tasks in a more efficient way, while vertically homogeneous teams exerted lower effort. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic diversity,Organizational behavior,Labor management,Performance |
| Date: | 2021–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03873741&r=exp |
| By: | Toman Barsai; Vojtĕch Bartoš; Victoria Licuanan; Andreas Steinmayr; Erwin Tiongson; Dean Yang; Vojtech Bartos |
| Abstract: | We experimentally study an intervention to reduce mistreatment of Filipino overseas domestic workers (DWs) by their employers. Encouraging DWs to show their employers a family photo while providing a small gift when starting employment reduced DW mistreatment, increased their job satisfaction, and increased the likelihood of contract extension. While generally unaware of the intervention, DWs’ families staying behind become more positive about international labor migration. An online experiment with potential employers suggests that the effect operates through a reduction in employers’ perceived social distance from their employees. A simple intervention can protect migrant workers without requiring destination country policy reforms. |
| Keywords: | temporary labor migration, working conditions, contract enforcement, dictator game |
| JEL: | D90 J61 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10177&r=exp |
| By: | Kasser, Lea (University of Regensburg, CESifo and CEPR); Fischer, Mira (WZB Berlin and IZA); Valero, Vanessa (Loughborough University and CeDEx) |
| Abstract: | Mindfulness-based meditation practices are becoming increasingly popular in Western societies, including in the business world and in education. While the scientific literature has largely documented the benefits of mindfulness meditation for mental health, little is still known about potential spillovers of these practices on other important life outcomes, such as performance. We address this question through a field experiment in an educational setting. We study the causal impact of mindfulness meditation on academic performance through a randomized evaluation of a well-known 8-week mindfulness meditation training delivered to university students on campus. As expected, the intervention improves students' mental health and non-cognitive skills. However, it takes time before students' performance can benefit from mindfulness meditation: we find that, if anything, the intervention marginally decreases average grades in the short run, i.e., during the exam period right after the end of the intervention, whereas it significantly increases academic performance, by about 0.4 standard deviations, in the long run (ca. 6 months after the end of intervention). We investigate the underlying mechanisms and discuss the implications of our results. |
| Keywords: | performance; mental health; education; meditation; field experiment; |
| JEL: | I21 C93 I12 I31 |
| Date: | 2022–11–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:349&r=exp |
| By: | Rita Abdel Sater (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | The works compiled in this thesis are concrete examples of how methods, insights and evidence from behavioural science and economics could enlighten policy makers wishing to understand and reinforce pro-environmentalism. The 1st part is an application of methods and insights from psychology to environmental public policy and is the product of a collaboration with policy makers in the French Parisian region, to tackle two polluting behaviours: littering and household combustion. The 1st chapter shows how laboratory experiments using psychometric methods from vision research could be crucial to inform policy makers on how to maximise the effectiveness of littering interventions, by quantifying the increase in visual salience following a change in the colour of trash bins in an urban setting. The 2nd chapter, using a field experimental setting, shows that while information provision is not enough to change household combustion behaviour, increasing the salience of indoor pollution by combining feedback provision and social comparison is effective in changing behaviour and decreasing indoor air pollution. The 2nd part of this thesis examines the relationship between socioeconomic status and the psychological mechanisms underlying pro-environmentalism and behavioural interventions. The 3rd chapter shows that the positive association between socioeconomic status and pro-environmental attitudes is partially mediated by individual time preferences. Chapter 4 is a short review suggesting that socioeconomic backgrounds could moderate the effectiveness of popular environmental behavioural interventions that leverage on biases likely to be heterogeneous across income groups. |
| Abstract: | Les travaux compilés dans cette thèse représentent des exemples de la manière dont les méthodes, connaissances et résultats des sciences comportementales et économiques pourraient informer les décideurs publics souhaitant comprendre et renforcer les politiques environnementales. La 1ère partie est une application des méthodes de la psychologie aux politiques publiques environnementales, et le produit d'une collaboration avec des décideurs publics de la région parisienne, abordant deux comportements polluants : les déchets et la combustion domestique. Le premier chapitre illustre comment les expérimentations en laboratoire utilisant des méthodes psychométriques peuvent informer les décideurs sur la manière de maximiser l'efficacité des interventions contre les ordures dans la rue. Le 2ème chapitre, utilisant un cadre expérimental sur le terrain, montre qu'une combinaison de feedback personnalisé et des éléments de comparaison sociale est efficace pour modifier le comportement de combustion domestique et réduire la pollution de l'air intérieur. La 2ème partie de cette thèse examine la relation entre le statut socioéconomique et les mécanismes psychologiques qui sous-tendent le pro-environnementalisme et les interventions comportementales. Le chapitre 3 montre que l'association positive entre le statut socio-économique et les attitudes pro-environnementales est partiellement médiée par les préférences temporelles. Le chapitre 4 suggère que les antécédents socioéconomiques peuvent modérer l'efficacité des interventions comportementales environnementales couramment employées qui s'appuient sur des biais susceptibles d'être hétérogènes entre les différents niveaux de revenus. |
| Keywords: | Behavioural science, Environmental policy, Experiments, Sciences comportementales, Politiques environnementales, Expérimentation |
| Date: | 2021–09–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:tel-03450909&r=exp |
| By: | Klimm, Felix (LMU Munich and CESifo); Kocher, Martin G. (University of Vienna, CESifo and University of Gothenburg); Opitz, Timm (MPI and LMU Munich); Schudy, Simeon (LMU Munich and CESifo) |
| Abstract: | Perceived urgency and regret are common in many sequential search processes; for example, sellers often pressure buyers in search of the best offer, both time-wise and in terms of potential regret of forgoing unique purchasing opportunities. theoretically, these strategies result in anticipated and experienced regret, which systematically affect search behavior and thereby distort optimal search. In addition, urgency may alter decision-making processes and thereby the salience of regret. To understand the empirical relevance of these aspects, we study the causal effects of regret, urgency, and their interaction on search behavior in a pre-registered, theory-based, and well-powered experiment. Empirically, we and that anticipated regret does not affect search behavior either with or without time pressure, while experienced regret leads to systematic adjustments in search length. Urgency reduces decision times and perceived decision quality, but does not generally alter search length. Only very inexperienced decision-makers buy earlier when pressured. Thus, consumer protection measures against pressure selling tactics can help inexperienced consumers in particular. |
| Keywords: | sequential search; time pressure; regret; anticipated regret; experienced regret; |
| JEL: | C91 D01 D03 D18 D83 |
| Date: | 2022–12–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:359&r=exp |
| By: | Yann Algan (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales); Elizabeth Beasley (CEPREMAP - Centre pour la recherche économique et ses applications - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres); Sylvana Côté (UdeM - Université de Montréal); Jungwee Park (Statistics Canada); Richard E Tremblay (UCD - University College Dublin [Dublin], UdeM - Université de Montréal); Frank Vitaro (UdeM - Université de Montréal) |
| Abstract: | A childhood intervention to improve the social skills and self-control of at-risk kindergarten boys in the 1980s had positive impacts over the life course: higher trust and self-control as adolescents; increased social group membership, education, and reduced criminality as young adults; and increased marriage and employment as adults. Using administrative data, we find this intervention increased average yearly employment income by about 20 percent and decreased average yearly social transfers by almost 40 percent. We estimate that $1 invested in this program around age 8 yields about $11 in benefits by age 39, with an internal rate of return of around 17 percent. |
| Date: | 2022–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03887405&r=exp |
| By: | Clement De Chaisemartin (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, J-PAL Europe - Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab - Europe, NBER - National Bureau of Economic Research [New York] - NBER - The National Bureau of Economic Research); Nicolás Navarrete (City University of London) |
| Abstract: | Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs that target disruptive students aim to improve their classroom behavior. Small-scale programs in high-income countries have demonstrated positive effects. Using a randomized experiment, we show that a nationwide SEL program in Chile has no effect. Very disruptive students seem to reduce the program's effectiveness. ADHD being more prevalent in middle-than high-income countries, very disruptive students may be more present there, which could diminish the effectiveness of SEL programs. Moreover, implementation fidelity seems lower in this program than in the small-scale ones considered earlier, which could also explain the program's null effect. |
| Keywords: | disruptive students, spillover effects, peer effects, social and emotional learning, implementation fidelity |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03796424&r=exp |
| By: | Frohnweiler, Sarah (RWI); Beber, Bernd (RWI); Ebert, Cara (RWI) |
| Abstract: | Information frictions about the benefits of migration can lead to inefficient migration choices. We study the effects of a randomly assigned information treatment about regional income differentials in Ghana and Uganda to learn about participants' belief updating and subsequent changes in migration intentions and destination preferences. Participants react to the provided information by correcting their destination preferences towards regions with higher incomes, whereas their intent to migrate changes less. Participants' belief updating follows an asymmetric process restricted to individuals who initially underestimated regional differentials. The results suggest that income differentials matter for where to and less whether to migrate. |
| Keywords: | income differentials, migration decision, belief updating |
| JEL: | J31 J68 O15 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15826&r=exp |
| By: | Andersson, Jonas (Dept. of Business and Management Science, Norwegian School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In this paper the experimental data collected by Masclet, Montmarquette, and Viennot-Briot (2019a) is revisited in order to study some aspects of the drivers of the declaration rate, not studied in the authors’ article. By using a zero-one inflated beta regression model, a more detailed analysis of the special values, zero declaration and full declaration, is enabled. It turns out that some of the drivers of the declaration rate is affecting the three parts of the declaration rate distribution, the zero declarers, the full declarers and the intermediate declarers, differently. It is found that the effect of tax payers’ monitoring, i.e., their knowledge about other tax payers’ evasion, increases the probability to declare zero. Among the individuals declaring a part of their income, the effect is significantly positive; they declare more. Another result is that, for the average experiment participant, both the probability to fully declare or declare nothing of the income is increasing as the experiment progresses. |
| Keywords: | Tax evasion; Zero-one inflated beta regression; experimental data |
| JEL: | C46 C50 H26 |
| Date: | 2022–12–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhhfms:2022_015&r=exp |
| By: | Joseph Campbell; Alessandra Casella; Lucas de Lara; Victoria Mooers; Dilip Ravindran |
| Abstract: | Liquid Democracy is a voting system touted as the golden medium between representative and direct democracy: decisions are taken by referendum, but voters can delegate their votes as they wish. The outcome can be superior to simple majority voting, but even when experts are correctly identified, delegation must be used sparely. We ran two very different experiments: one follows a tightly controlled lab design; the second is a perceptual task run online where the precision of information is ambiguous. In both experiments, delegation rates are high, and Liquid Democracy underperforms both universal voting and the simpler option of allowing abstention. |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2212.09715&r=exp |
| By: | Clément de Chaisemartin (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | I consider estimation of the average treatment effect (ATE), in a population composed of G groups, when one has unbiased and uncorrelated estimators of each group's conditional average treatment effect (CATE). These conditions are met in stratified randomized experiments. I assume that the outcome is homoscedastic, and that each CATE is bounded in absolute value by B standard deviations of the outcome, for some known B. I derive, across all linear combinations of the CATEs' estimators, the estimator of the ATE with the lowest worst-case mean-squared error. This minimax-linear estimator assigns a weight equal to group g's share in the population to the most precisely estimated CATEs, and a weight proportional to one over the estimator's variance to the least precisely estimated CATEs. I also derive the minimax-linear estimator when the CATEs' estimators are positively correlated, a condition that may be met by differences-indifferences estimators in staggered adoption designs. |
| Keywords: | Bias-variance trade-off, Average treatment effect, Mean-squared error, Minimaxlinear estimator, Bounded normal mean model, Stratified randomized experiments, Differencesin-differences, Staggered adoption designs, Shrinkage |
| Date: | 2022–03–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03873919&r=exp |
| By: | Jasmina Arifovic; Liang Dia; Nobuyuki Hanaki |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we extend the individual evolutionary learning model by incorporating other-regarding considerations and apply the model to some Cournot games. Using the model fitted to the experimental data of a repeated 3-player Cournot game (with nonlinear cost and demand functions), we construct out-of-sample predictions regarding the ``feedback effects'' and ``number effects'' and test these using data gathered via newly conducted experiments. The prediction regarding the feedback effect is only partially confirmed, being observed for 3- and 4-player games but not the 2-player game. The prediction regarding the number effect is also partially confirmed in that while the model predicts the number effect to be observed with detailed and not aggregate feedback, the effect is observed with both types of feedback. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:1200&r=exp |
| By: | Silvia Angerer; Daniela Glätzle-Rützler; Philipp Lergetporer; Thomas Rittmannsberger |
| Abstract: | Social norms affect a wide range of behaviors in society. We conducted a representative experiment to study how beliefs about the existing social norm regarding COVID-19 vaccination affect vaccination readiness. Beliefs about the norm are on average downward biased, and widely dispersed. Randomly providing information about the existing descriptive norm succeeds in correcting biased beliefs, thereby reducing belief dispersion. The information has no effect on vaccination readiness on average, which is due to opposite effects among women (positive) and men (negative). Fundamental differences in how women and men process the same information are likely the cause for these contrasting information effects. Control-group vaccination intentions are lower among women than men, so the information reduces polarization by gender. Additionally, the information reduces gendered polarization in policy preferences related to COVID-19 vaccination. |
| Keywords: | social norms, vaccination, COVID-19 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2022-20&r=exp |
| By: | Taisuke Imai; Davide D. Pace; Peter Schwardmann; Joël van der Weele; Davide Domenico Pace |
| Abstract: | Policy makers put great emphasis on the role of information about carbon emissions in achieving sustainable decisions by consumers. We conduct two studies to understand the optimal targeting of such information and its effects. First, we conduct an incentivized and representative survey among US consumers (N = 1, 022) to investigate awareness of climate impact and willingness to mitigate it. We find a large variation in the perceptions of the carbon emissions of different consumption behaviors, with an overall tendency to underestimate these emissions. We also find a positive but highly concave willingness to mitigate climate impact. We combine elicited misperceptions and willingness to mitigate in a structural model that delivers sharp predictions about where to best target information campaigns. In an experiment with actual consumption decisions (N = 2, 081), we then test for the effect of CO2 information on the demand for beef, a product predicted to be a productive target for information. Correcting misperceptions has no effect on the demand for beef, both in absolute terms and compared to a predictably less productive target of information, i.e. the demand for poultry. Our dataset allows us to hone in on the underlying reason for this null effect. |
| Keywords: | climate change, carbon emissions, information provision, consumer behavior |
| JEL: | C81 C93 D84 Q54 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10138&r=exp |
| By: | Pak, Tae-Young; Babiarz, Patryk |
| Abstract: | Previous research suggests that the emotional consequences of unfavorable social comparisons determine individual attitudes and behaviors. However, few studies assessed the effect of relative deprivation on prosocial behaviors, and any evidence in the Asian context is particularly scarce. In this study, we examined the association between relative deprivation and prosociality among Korean adults. We used two complementary approaches involving experimental manipulation of relative deprivation via an online survey (Study 1) and an econometric analysis of longitudinal data (Study 2). Study 1 showed that exposure to the relative deprivation condition reduced participants’ willingness to donate, volunteer, and accept unwanted public facilities. Study 2 showed that relative disadvantage within the reference group was negatively related to the extensive and intensive margins of donating or volunteering. We conclude that relative disadvantage constitutes a major determinant of prosocial intention and behaviors among Korean adults. |
| Keywords: | relative deprivation; upward social comparison; donation; volunteering |
| JEL: | D64 D90 H40 |
| Date: | 2022–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:115720&r=exp |
| By: | Pascal Flurin Meier (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich); Raphael Flepp (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich); Egon Franck (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | We examine whether finance professionals deviate from Bayes’ theorem on the processing of nondiagnostic information when forecasting quarterly earnings. Using field data from sell-side financial analysts and employing a regression discontinuity design, we find that analysts whose forecasts have barely been met become increasingly optimistic relative to when their forecasts have barely been missed. This result is consistent with an update of analysts’ expectations after observing uninformative performance signals. Our results also suggest that this behavior leads to significantly worse forecasting accuracy in the subsequent quarter. We contribute to the literature by providing important field evidence of expectation formation under uninformative signals. |
| Keywords: | Financial Analysts; Information Processing; Uninformative Signals; Outcome Bias; Regression Discontinuity Design |
| JEL: | D81 D83 D91 G41 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zrh:wpaper:396&r=exp |
| By: | Bhargava, Palaash (Columbia University); Chen, Daniel L. (Toulouse School of Economics); Sutter, Matthias (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods); Terrier, Camille (University of Lausanne) |
| Abstract: | Social networks are a key factor of success in life, but they are also strongly segmented on gender, ethnicity, and other demographic characteristics (Jackson, 2010). We present novel evidence on an understudied source of homophily, namely behavioral traits. Behavioral traits are important determinants of life-time outcomes. While recent work has focused on how these traits are influenced by the family environment or how they can be affected by childhood interventions, little is still known about how these traits are associated to social networks. Based on unique data that we collected using incentivized experiments on more than 2, 500 French high-school students, we find high levels of homophily across all ten behavioral traits that we study (including social, risk, competitive preferences, and aspirations). Notably, the extent of homophily depends on similarities in demographic characteristics, in particular with respect to gender. Furthermore, the larger the number of behavioral traits that students share, the higher the overall homophily. Then, using network econometrics, we show that the observed homophily is not only an outcome of endogenous network formation, but is also a result of friends influencing each others' behavioral traits. Importantly, the transmission of traits is larger when students share demographic characteristics, such as gender, have been friends for longer or are friends with more popular individuals. |
| Keywords: | homophily, social networks, behavioral traits, peer effects, experiments |
| JEL: | D85 C91 D01 D90 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15840&r=exp |
| By: | Pierre Cahuc (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research - CEPR); Stéphane Carcillo (Sciences Po - Sciences Po, IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit - Institute of Labor Economics); Andreea Minea (Sciences Po - Sciences Po, CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - X - École polytechnique - ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effects of the labor market experience of high school dropouts four years after leaving school by sending fictitious résumés to real job postings in France. Compared to those who have stayed unemployed since leaving school, the callback rate is not raised for those with employment experience, whether it is subsidized or nonsubsidized, if there is no training accompanied by skill certification. We find no stigma effect associated with subsidized work experience. Moreover, training accompanied by skill certification improves youth prospects only when the local unemployment rate is sufficiently low, which occurs in one-fifth of the commuting zones only. |
| Date: | 2021–01–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03878721&r=exp |