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on Experimental Economics |
| By: | Opitz, Timm (MPI-IC Munich and LMU Munich) |
| Abstract: | Matching markets can be unstable when individuals prefer to be matched to a partner who also wants to be matched with them. Through a pre-registered and theory-guided laboratory experiment, we provide evidence that such reciprocal preferences exist, significantly decrease stability in matching markets, and are driven both by belief-based and preference-based motives. Participants expect partners who want to be matched with them to be more cooperative, and are more altruistic themselves. This leads to higher cooperation and larger profits when participants can consider each other's preferences. |
| Keywords: | experiment; market design; matching; reciprocal preferences; incomplete information; Gale-Shapley deferred acceptance mechanism |
| JEL: | C78 C91 C92 D82 D83 D91 |
| Date: | 2023–01–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:366&r=exp |
| By: | Christoph Kuzmics (University of Graz, Austria); Brian W. Rogers (Washington University in St. Louis, U.S.A.); Xiannong Zhang (Washington University in St. Louis, U.S.A.) |
| Abstract: | We design and implement lab experiments to evaluate the normative appeal of behavior arising from models of ambiguity-averse preferences. We report two main empirical findings. First, we demonstrate that behavior reflects an incomplete understanding of the problem, providing evidence that subjects do not act on the basis of preferences alone. Second, additional clarification of the decision making environment pushes subjects’ choices in the direction of ambiguity aversion models, regardless of whether or not the choices are also consistent with subjective expected utility, supporting the position that subjects find such behavior normatively appealing. |
| Keywords: | Knightian uncertainty; subjective expected utility; ambiguity aversion; lab experiment. |
| JEL: | C91 D81 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grz:wpaper:2023-01&r=exp |
| By: | Salomo Hirvonen (Department of Economics, University of Turku.); Maarit Lassander (Prime Minister's Office, Finland.); Lauri Sääksvuori (Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland.); Janne Tukiainen (Department of Economics, University of Turku.) |
| Abstract: | We conduct a large-scale randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of short text messages (SMS) as a tool to mobilize young voters, and thus, ameliorate the stubborn gap in political participation between younger and older citizens. We find that receiving an SMS reminder before the Finnish county elections in 2022 increases the probability of voting among 18-29 year-old voters by 0.9 percentage points. Moreover, we observe that the most simplified message is more effective than messages appealing to expressive or rational motivations to vote. Using comprehensive administrative data and data-driven machine learning methods, we also examine treatment effect heterogeneity and spillover effects. We document that SMS based mobilization of voters does not only reduce existing social inequalities in voting between the age cohorts but also among the young citizens. Moreover, we remarkably find that over 100 percent of the direct treatment effect spilled over to non-treated household members. Our results highlight the importance of understanding spillover effects and treatment effect heterogeneities in the evaluation of get-out-the-vote interventions. |
| Keywords: | Get-out-the-vote, Field experiments, Spillover effects, Voter turnout |
| JEL: | C93 D72 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tkk:dpaper:dp157&r=exp |
| By: | Dietmar Fehr; Dorothea Kübler |
| 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 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10150&r=exp |
| By: | Sanjit Dhami; Mengxing Wei; Pavan Mamidi |
| Abstract: | We use the trust and the dictator games to explore the effects of religious identity on trust, trustworthiness, prosociality, and conditional reciprocity within a beliefs-based model. We provide a novel and rigorous theoretical model to derive the relevant predictions, which are then tested in pre-registered lab-in-the-field experiments from villages in the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. We find strong evidence of religious identity effects in the beliefs, and the chosen actions, for Hindu and Muslim subjects. Priming has little effect on Hindu subjects but it enhances religious polarization in beliefs and actions among Muslim subjects. There is taste-based discrimination but no statistical discrimination. All our underlying assumptions on beliefs, and their dependence on priming and identity are confirmed by the data, identifying a precise beliefs-based mechanism for the effects of religious identity. More religious subjects expect greater prosociality/reciprocity and often are more prosocial/reciprocal. |
| Keywords: | religious identity, trust, trustworthiness, prosociality, priming, conditional reciprocity |
| JEL: | C91 D01 D84 D91 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10147&r=exp |
| By: | Tim Johnson; Nick Obradovich |
| Abstract: | Scientists and philosophers have debated whether humans can trust advanced artificial intelligence (AI) agents to respect humanity's best interests. Yet what about the reverse? Will advanced AI agents trust humans? Gauging an AI agent's trust in humans is challenging because--absent costs for dishonesty--such agents might respond falsely about their trust in humans. Here we present a method for incentivizing machine decisions without altering an AI agent's underlying algorithms or goal orientation. In two separate experiments, we then employ this method in hundreds of trust games between an AI agent (a Large Language Model (LLM) from OpenAI) and a human experimenter (author TJ). In our first experiment, we find that the AI agent decides to trust humans at higher rates when facing actual incentives than when making hypothetical decisions. Our second experiment replicates and extends these findings by automating game play and by homogenizing question wording. We again observe higher rates of trust when the AI agent faces real incentives. Across both experiments, the AI agent's trust decisions appear unrelated to the magnitude of stakes. Furthermore, to address the possibility that the AI agent's trust decisions reflect a preference for uncertainty, the experiments include two conditions that present the AI agent with a non-social decision task that provides the opportunity to choose a certain or uncertain option; in those conditions, the AI agent consistently chooses the certain option. Our experiments suggest that one of the most advanced AI language models to date alters its social behavior in response to incentives and displays behavior consistent with trust toward a human interlocutor when incentivized. |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2212.13371&r=exp |
| By: | Vladimir Novak; Andrei Matveenko; Silvio Ravaioli |
| Abstract: | We show that rational but inattentive agents can become polarized ex-ante. We present how optimal information acquisition, and subsequent belief formation, depend crucially on the agent-specific status quo valuation. Beliefs can systematically - in expectations over all possible signal realizations conditional on the state of the world - update away from the realized truth and even agents with the same initial beliefs might become polarized. We design a laboratory experiment to test the model’s predictions. The results confirm our predictions about the mechanism (rational information acquisition), its effect on beliefs (systematic polarization) and provide general insights into demand for information. |
| Keywords: | Polarization, Beliefs Updating, Rational Inattention, Status Quo, Experiment |
| JEL: | C92 D72 D83 D84 D91 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2023_382&r=exp |
| By: | Vladimir Novak; Andrei Matveenko; Silvio Ravaioli |
| Abstract: | We show that rational but inattentive agents can become polarized ex-ante. We present how optimal information acquisition, and subsequent belief formation, depend crucially on the agent-specific status quo valuation. Beliefs can systematically - in expectations over all possible signal realizations conditional on the state of the world - update away from the realized truth and even agents with the same initial beliefs might become polarized. We design a laboratory experiment to test the model’s predictions. The results confirm our predictions about the mechanism (rational information acquisition), its effect on beliefs (systematic polarization) and provide general insights into demand for information. |
| Keywords: | Polarization, Beliefs Updating, Rational Inattention, Status Quo, Experiment |
| JEL: | C92 D72 D83 D84 D91 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2022_382&r=exp |
| By: | Stefano Carattini; Kenneth Gillingham; Xiangyu Meng; Erez Yoeli |
| Abstract: | Observability has been demonstrated to influence the adoption of pro-social behavior in a variety of contexts. This study implements a field experiment to examine the influence of observability in the context of a novel pro-social behavior: peer-to-peer solar. Peer-to-peer solar offers an opportunity to households who cannot have solar on their homes to access solar energy from their neighbors. However, unlike solar installations, peer-to-peer solar is an invisible form of pro-environmental behavior. We implemented a set of randomized campaigns using Facebook ads in the Massachusetts cities of Cambridge and Somerville, in partnership with a peer-to-peer company. In the campaigns, treated customers were informed that they could share “green reports” online, providing information to others about their greenness. We find that interest in peer-to-peer solar increases by up to 30% when “green reports, ” which would make otherwise invisible behavior visible, are mentioned in the ads. |
| Keywords: | peer to peer solar, pro-environmental behavior, social rewards, visibility, Facebook |
| JEL: | C93 D91 Q20 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10173&r=exp |
| By: | Adam Zylbersztejn (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); Zakaria Babutsidze (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) - COMUE UCA - COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UCA - Université Côte d'Azur, OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po); Nobuyuki Hanaki (Osaka University [Osaka]) |
| Abstract: | We contribute to the ongoing debate in the psychological literature on the role of thin slices of observable information in predicting others' social behavior, and its generalizability to cross-cultural interactions. We experimentally assess the degree to which subjects, drawn from culturally dierent populations (France and Japan), are able to predict strangers' trustworthiness based on a set of visual stimuli (mugshot pictures, neutral videos, loaded videos, all recorded in an additional French sample) under varying cultural distance to the target agent in the recording. Our main nding is that cultural distance is not detrimental for predicting trustworthiness in strangers, but that it may aect the perception of dierent components of communication in social interactions. |
| Keywords: | Trustworthiness, communication, hidden action game, cross-cultural comparison, laboratory experiment |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03432600&r=exp |
| By: | Pablo Selaya (University of Copenhagen); Neda Trifkovic (University of Copenhagen); Vincent Leyaro (University of Dar es Salaam) |
| Abstract: | We construct measures of gender altruism, or the propensity of an equal allocation towards the other gender, in a series of dictator and ultimatum games. We compare different types of fishing societies in rural Tanzania, and find (a) systematically lower levels of gender altruism in lake-fishing villages compared to sea-fishing villages, and (b) a higher tendency for participants in lake-fishing villages to justify violence against women. Our findings provide experimental evidence supporting the idea that differences in cultural norms about gender equality shape individual attitudes towards violence against women. |
| Keywords: | Inequality, violence against women, altruism, equality, dictator game, ultimatum game, fishing societies, Tanzania, |
| JEL: | O13 J16 C93 |
| Date: | 2023–01–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kuderg:2319&r=exp |
| By: | Andrea F.M. Martinangeli; Lisa Windsteiger |
| Abstract: | We explore cheating in a die roll task in response to information about tax evasion in a large-scale experiment on a representative sample of the Italian population. We thus generalise laboratory findings on conditional behaviours (cooperation, cheating) to uncover their real-world bearing in the context of tax compliance. Cheating is conditioned on information about tax evasion, as is the perceived tax compliance norm. We uncover asymmetries along the income gradient: Conditional cheating responses are driven by information about tax evasion on behalf of top income earners, while perceived tax compliance norms are driven by information about tax evasion among low income earners. Instrumental variable investigations of posterior beliefs about tax evasion strengthen these results, and reveal moreover that information about top income tax evasion erodes social trust, reinforces beliefs that wealth accumulation only occurs at others’ expense, and increases beliefs that a fundamental role of the State is that of ensuring an equitable distribution of income. |
| Keywords: | tax evasion, tax avoidance, conditional cooperation, cheating, survey experiment |
| JEL: | D01 D31 D63 H23 H26 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10144&r=exp |
| By: | Toman Barsbai; Vojtech Bartos; Victoria Licuanan; Andreas Steinmayr; Erwin Tiongson; Dean Yang |
| Abstract: | International migrant workers are vulnerable to abuses by their employers. We implemented a randomized controlled trial of an intervention to reduce mistreatment of Filipino women working as domestic workers (DWs) by their household employers in Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia. The intervention -- encouraging DWs to show their employers a photo of their family while providing a small gift when starting employment -- caused DWs to experience less mistreatment, have higher satisfaction with the employer, and be more likely to stay with the employer. DWs' families in the Philippines also come to view international labor migration more positively, while they generally remain unaware of the intervention. An online experiment with potential employers in Hong Kong and the Middle East suggests that a mechanism behind the treatment effect is a reduction in the employer's perceived social distance from the employee. |
| JEL: | J50 O15 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30804&r=exp |
| By: | Eric Schniter (Economic Science Institute, Chapman University); Timothy W. Shields (Economic Science Institute, Chapman University) |
| Abstract: | People’s appearance and behaviors in strategic interactions provide a variety of informative clues that can help people accurately predict beliefs, intentions, and future behaviors. Mind reading mechanisms may have been selected for that allow for better-than-chance prediction of others’ strategic social propensities based on the sparse information available when forming first and second impressions. We hypothesize that first impressions are based on prior beliefs and available information gleaned from another’s description and appearance. For example, where another’s gender is identified, prior gender stereotypes could influence expectations and correct guesses about them. We also hypothesize that mind reading mechanisms use second impressions to predict behavior: using new knowledge of past behaviors to predict future behavior. For example, knowledge of the last round behaviors in a repeated strategic interaction should improve the accuracy of guesses about the next round behavior. We conducted a two-part study to test our predictive mind reading hypotheses and to evaluate evidence of accurate cheater and cooperator detection. First, across multiple rounds of play between matched partners, we recorded thin slice videos of university students just prior to their choices in a repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma. Subsequently, a worldwide sample of raters recruited online evaluated either thin-slice videos, photo stills from the videos, no images with gender labeled, or no images with gender blinded for each target. Raters guessed players’ Prisoner’s Dilemma choices in the first round, and, again, in the second round after viewing first round behavior histories. Indicative of mindreading: in all treatments where targets are seen, or their gender is labeled, or their behavioral history is provided, raters guess unacquainted players’ behavior with above-chance accuracy. Overall, cooperators are more accurately detected than cheaters. In both rounds, both cooperator and cheater detection are significantly more accurate when players’ photo or video are seen, where their gender is revealed by image or label, and under conditions with behavioral history. These results provide supporting evidence for predictive mind reading abilities that people use to efficiently detect cooperators and cheaters with betterthan-chance accuracy under sparse information conditions. This ability to apply and hone predictive mindreading may help explain why cooperation is commonly observed among strangers in everyday social dilemmas. |
| Keywords: | Mind reading, Cheater detection, Cooperation, Prisoner’s dilemma, Photographs, Thin slices |
| JEL: | B52 C72 C73 D63 D64 D83 D84 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chu:wpaper:22-19&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:spmain:hal-03873741&r=exp |
| By: | Barsbai, Toman; Bartos, Vojtech; Licuanan, Victoria S.; Steinmayr, Andreas; Tiongson, Erwin R.; Yang, Dean |
| 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: | D9 J61 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:2237&r=exp |
| By: | Sylvain Chassang; Samuel Kapon |
| Abstract: | This paper describes a number of strategies that experimenters may use to improve the external validity of their own findings, and of their research field as a whole. The paper emphasizes a dynamic view of research processes, in which learning about treatment and treatment adoption does not cease after a given study is performed. External validity need not be an unattainable goal in such a context. However, because researchers today need not be the same as researchers and policy-makers tomorrow, dynamic research processes are affected by research externalities, i.e. research practices that have high social value but low private returns. The paper identifies several of these research externalities and argues that funding organizations can have a significant impact at a relatively modest cost by subsidizing external-validity add-on modules specifically targeting research externalities. |
| JEL: | C90 C93 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30762&r=exp |
| By: | Giovanni Abbiati; Davide Azzolini; Anja Balanskat; Katja Engelhart; Daniela Piazzalunga; Enrico Rettore; Patricia Wastiau |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the effects of an online self-assessment tool on teachers’ competencies and beliefs about ICT in education. The causal impact of the tool is evaluated through a randomized encouragement design, involving 7, 391 lower secondary teachers across 11 European countries. Short-run impact estimates show that the use of the tool led teachers to critically revise their technology-enhanced teaching competencies (-0.14 standard deviations) and their beliefs about ICT in education (-0.35 s.d.), while there is no impact on their probability of taking specific training. The effects are concentrated among teachers in the top-end tail of the distribution of pre-treatment outcomes. We provide suggestive evidence that the feedback score provided by the tool triggered such results by providing a negative information shock. |
| Keywords: | ICT, technology-enhanced teaching, self-assessed competencies, experimental design, teaching practices |
| JEL: | I21 C93 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fbk:wpaper:2023-01&r=exp |
| By: | M. Ali Choudhary; Anil K. Jain |
| Abstract: | https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/i fdp/credit-access-and-relational-contrac ts.htm |
| Keywords: | enforcement; credit markets; contracts; screening; banks; asymmetric information |
| JEL: | O16 C93 G21 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgif:2022&r=exp |
| By: | Margarita Leib; Nils K\"obis; Rainer Michael Rilke; Marloes Hagens; Bernd Irlenbusch |
| Abstract: | Artificial Intelligence (AI) increasingly becomes an indispensable advisor. New ethical concerns arise if AI persuades people to behave dishonestly. In an experiment, we study how AI advice (generated by a Natural-Language-Processing algorithm) affects (dis)honesty, compare it to equivalent human advice, and test whether transparency about advice source matters. We find that dishonesty-promoting advice increases dishonesty, whereas honesty-promoting advice does not increase honesty. This is the case for both AI- and human advice. Algorithmic transparency, a commonly proposed policy to mitigate AI risks, does not affect behaviour. The findings mark the first steps towards managing AI advice responsibly. |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2301.01954&r=exp |
| By: | Ahmed, Akhter; Coleman, Fiona; Hoddinott, John F.; Menon, Purnima; Parvin, Aklima; Pereira, Audrey; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Roy, Shalini |
| Abstract: | We use a randomized controlled trial in rural Bangladesh to compare two models of delivering nutrition content jointly to husbands and wives: deploying female nutrition workers versus mostly male agriculture extension workers. Both approaches increased nutrition knowledge of men and women, household and individual diet quality, and women’s empowerment. Intervention effects on agriculture and nutrition knowledge, agricultural production diversity, dietary diversity, women’s empowerment, and gender parity do not significantly differ between models where nutrition workers versus agriculture extension workers provide the training. The exception is in an attitudes score, where results indicate same-sex agents may affect scores differently than opposite-sex agents. Our results suggest opposite-sex agents may not necessarily be less effective in providing training. In South Asia, where agricultural extension systems and the pipeline to those systems are male-dominated, training men to deliver nutrition messages may offer a temporary solution to the shortage of female extension workers and offer opportunities to scale promote nutrition-sensitive agriculture. |
| Keywords: | BANGLADESH, SOUTH ASIA, ASIA, agriculture, agricultural workers, diet, dietary diversity, diet quality, households, gender, gender analysis, gender norms, gender relations, men, nutrition, nutrition knowledge, nutrition research, rural areas, women, women's empowerment, attitudes score, opposite-sex agents, agricultural production diversity |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2149&r=exp |
| By: | Rastislav Rehak |
| Abstract: | We study informational dissociations between decisions and decision confidence. We explore the consequences of a dual-system model: the decision system and confidence system have distinct goals, but share access to a source of noisy and costly information about a decision-relevant variable. The decision system aims to maximize utility while the confidence system monitors the decision system and aims to provide good feedback about the correctness of the decision. In line with existing experimental evidence showing the importance of post-decisional information in confidence formation, we allow the confidence system to accumulate information after the decision. We aim to base the post-decisional stage (used in descriptive models of confidence) in the optimal learning theory. However, we find that it is not always optimal to engage in the second stage, even for a given individual in a given decision environment. In particular, there is scope for post-decisional information acquisition only for relatively fast decisions. Hence, a strict distinction between one-stage and two-stage theories of decision confidence may be misleading because both may manifest themselves under one underlying mechanism in a non-trivial manner. |
| Keywords: | decision; confidence; sequential sampling; optimal stopping; |
| JEL: | C11 C41 C44 D11 D83 D91 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cer:papers:wp739&r=exp |
| By: | Aju, Stellamaris; Kramer, Berber; Waithaka, Lilian |
| Abstract: | Oftentimes, a man’s opinion is valued over a woman’s, with women expected to take a back seat when decisions are made in their households and in society (Kawarazuka et al., 2019). Such social norms create unequal participation between female and male smallholder farmers in African agriculture. Additionally, it puts women in positions where they can be abused (and tolerate abuse), especially by their spouses. This is a threat to women’s empowerment, increasing gender gaps in society and within families. It is therefore imperative to address societal norms that do not allow a level playing ground for both sexes in agriculture. |
| Keywords: | KENYA, EAST AFRICA, AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA, AFRICA, education, gender, women, decision making, agriculture, households, edutainment |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:prnote:december2022&r=exp |
| By: | Luc Behaghel; Sofia Dromundo; Marc Gurgand; Yagan Hazard; Thomas Zuber |
| Abstract: | We analyze the employment effects of directing job seekers' applications towards establishments likely to recruit, building upon an existing Internet platform developed by the French public employment service. Our two-sided randomization design, with about 1.2 million job seekers and 100, 000 establishments, allows us to measure precisely the effects of the recommender system at hand. Our randomized encouragement to use the system induces a 2% increase in job finding rates among women. This effect is due to an activation effect (increased search effort, stronger for women than men), but also to a targeting effect by which treated men and women were more likely to be hired by the firms that were specifically recommended to them. In a second step, we analyze whether these partial equilibrium effects translate into positive effects on aggregate employment. Drawing on the recent literature on the econometrics of interference effects, we estimate that by redirecting the search effort of some job seekers outside their initial job market, we reduced congestion in slack markets. Estimates suggest that this effect is only partly offset by the increased competition in initially tight markets, so that the intervention increases aggregate job finding rates. |
| Keywords: | Search and Matching, Occupational Mobility, Displacement Effects |
| JEL: | E24 J60 J62 J64 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:900&r=exp |
| By: | Sanjit Dhami; Mengxing Wei; Pavan Mamidi |
| Abstract: | We consider a private sector job that offers high-powered incentives and two public sector jobs that produce an identical public good, but only one of them offers opportunities for corruption. Our theoretical predictions relate occupation and effort choices, in these three jobs, to preferences for altruism and morality that are structurally estimated. The predictions are tested in pre-registered experiments. We also estimate proxies for altruism/morality from the dictator/die-rolling games. We demonstrate the mutual portability of parameters between both sets of games. Those choosing the private sector job use a simple heuristic of maximizing legal monetary payoffs, but they are not less altruistic or less moral; they exhibit context dependent preferences. Conditional on choosing the public sector, less moral subjects are more likely to choose the corrupt public sector job. The effects of altruism on occupational choice are subtle, but altruism positively influences the effort choices in the public sector. The majority of subjects choose the corrupt public sector job, but effort is highest in the private sector. On average, corruption increases the size of the public sector, although the public output received by society is identical in both public sector jobs. |
| Keywords: | morality, altruism, institutional corruption, occupational choice, effort choice, portability of behavioural parameters |
| JEL: | D01 D91 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10162&r=exp |
| By: | Marco Aschenwald; Armando Holzknecht; Michael Kirchler; Michael Razen |
| Abstract: | Building on cross-sectional data for Austrian high school students from fifth to twelfth grade, we investigate the correlations between socio-economic background variables and a comprehensive set of variables related to financial decision-making (i.e., financial knowledge, behavioral consistency, economic preferences, field behavior, and perception of financial matters). We confirm the findings of previous literature that the male gender is positively associated with financial knowledge and risk-taking and that there is a strong and beneficial correlation between math grades and healthy financial behavior (e.g., saving). Moreover, we find that students’ behavioral consistency is positively correlated with measures of financial attitude (e.g., self-assessed future financial well-being and financial education received from parents). Finally, our results indicate that financial education, as perceived by the students, is primarily provided by parents. |
| Keywords: | financial literacy, behavioral biases, economic preferences, field behavior, perception, experiment, adolescents |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2023-01&r=exp |
| By: | Barron, Kai; Fries, Tilman |
| Abstract: | Modern life offers nearly unbridled access to information; it is the harnessing of this information to guide decision-making that presents a challenge. We study how one individual may try to shape the way another person interprets objective information by proposing a causal explanation (or narrative) that makes sense of this objective information. Using an experiment, we examine the use of narratives as a persuasive tool in the context of financial advice where advisors may hold incentives that differ from those of the individuals they are advising. Our results reveal several insights about the underlying mechanisms that govern narrative persuasion. First, we show that advisors construct self-interested narratives and make them persuasive by tailoring them to fit the objective information. Second, we demonstrate that advisors are able to shift investors' beliefs about the future performance of a company. Third, we identify the types of narratives that investors find convincing, namely those that fit the objective information well. Finally, we evaluate the efficacy of several potential policy interventions aimed at protecting investors. We find that narrative persuasion is difficult to protect against. |
| Keywords: | Narratives, beliefs, financial advice, conflicts of interest, behavioral finance |
| JEL: | D83 G40 G50 C90 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbeoc:spii2023301&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:spmain:hal-03878721&r=exp |
| By: | Burgess, Robin (Dept of Economics, LSE); Greenstone, Michael (Dept of Economics, University of Chicago); Ryan, Nicholas (Dept of Economics, Yale University); Sudarshan, Anant (Department of Economics, University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Falling off-grid solar prices and an expanding grid are revolutionizing choices for nearly a billion people without electricity. Using experimental price variation, we estimate demand for all electricity sources in Bihar, India, during a four-year period when electrification leapt from 27% to 64%. We find that: (i) household surplus from electrification increased five-fold; (ii) both solar and the grid boost electrification but households gain more surplus from the grid; (iii) grid investments and subsidies strongly reduce demand for off-grid solar. When we extend the model to eight African countries where grid infrastructure is weaker and subsidies lower we find that off-grid solar often provides higher surplus than the grid. JEL Codes: O13 ; Q41 ; Q21 ; C93 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1445&r=exp |
| By: | Lehner, Lukas; Kasy, Maximilian |
| Abstract: | We evaluate a guaranteed job program that was piloted, starting in October 2020, in the municipality of Gramatneusiedl in Austria. This program provided individually tailored, voluntary jobs to all long-term unemployed residents. Our evaluation is based on three estimation approaches. The first approach uses pairwise matched randomization of participants into waves for program adoption. The second approach uses a pre-registered synthetic control at the municipality level. The third approach compares program participants to observationally similar individuals in control municipalities. These different approaches allow us to separate out direct effects of program participation, anticipation effects of future participation, and municipality-level equilibrium effects. We find strong positive impacts of program participation on participants' economic (employment, income, security) and non-economic wellbeing (social recognition, time structure, social interactions, collective purpose). We do not find effects on physical health, or risk- and time-preferences. At the municipality level, we find a large reduction of long-term unemployment, and a slightly attenuated reduction of total unemployment. Comparing participants to similar individuals in control towns, we obtain estimates that are very close to the estimates from the experimental comparison. There is evidence of positive anticipation effects in terms of subjective wellbeing, status and social inclusion for future program participants, relative to ineligible control-town individuals. |
| JEL: | I38 J08 J45 |
| Date: | 2022–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amz:wpaper:2022-29&r=exp |