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on Experimental Economics |
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Issue of 2024‒08‒12
28 papers chosen by |
| By: | Kim, Hyunjung; Li, Tongzhe |
| Keywords: | Research And Development/ Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Institutional And Behavioral Economics, Farm Management |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:344038 |
| By: | Li, Tongzhe; Wang, Siyu |
| Keywords: | Institutional And Behavioral Economics, Public Economics, Environmental Economics And Policy |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:343548 |
| By: | Batista, Catia (Nova School of Business and Economics); Costa, David M (Nova School of Business and Economics); Freitas, Pedro (Nova School of Business and Economics); Lima, Gonçalo (European University Institute); Reis, Ana B (Nova School of Business and Economics) |
| Abstract: | Study abroad migration is the fastest growing international migration flow. However, the college completion rates of students from low-income countries are often modest in OECD countries, raising the hypothesis that these migrants are poorly informed about the costs and benefits of their decision. Our work tests this hypothesis by running a lab-in-the-field experiment where graduating high school students in Cape Verde are faced with incentivized decisions to apply for college studies abroad. Our results show that potential migrants react strongly to information about the availability of financial support and about college completion rates. Since subjects' prior beliefs on availability of financial support are overestimated, it is likely that study migrants need to shift their time from study to work after uninformed migration, which likely harms their scholar performance. Policies that inform potential migrants of actual study funding possibilities should decrease study migration flows but are likely to improve successful graduation. |
| Keywords: | international study migration, lab-in-the-field experiment, education, information, uncertainty |
| JEL: | O15 F22 J61 C91 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17096 |
| By: | Boutin, Delphine (University of Bordeaux); Jouvin, Marine (University of Bordeaux); Olié, Louis |
| Abstract: | This study investigates dishonest behavior among cocoa middlemen in Côte d'Ivoire, focusing on the role of observability and financial penalties in deterring such behavior. Using on a modified version of the "die-under-cup task", we examine the cheating behaviors of 151 cocoa middlemen over several interaction rounds. Our findings reveal that cheating is prevalent among cocoa middlemen, with 78% of players cheating at least once during the game. However, we found heterogeneous cheating patterns: 59% of cocoa middlemen consistently cheated when faced with a losing outcome, even when the risk of detection and sanction is high, 22% of them never cheated, and 19% did so occasionally. Key factors influencing cheating include age, religion, and risk attitudes. The study finds that introducing monitoring and sanctions significantly reduces cheating, highlighting the effectiveness of such mechanisms in deterring dishonest behaviors. By shedding light on the prevalence and determinants of cheating among cocoa middlemen, this study contributes to the experimental literature on dishonest behavior and understanding middlemen's role in agricultural value chains. |
| Keywords: | dishonesty, middlemen, agricultural value chain, observability, financial penalties, lab-in-the-field experiment |
| JEL: | C91 C93 D82 D91 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17078 |
| By: | Erhard, Ainslee; Banerjee, Sanchayan; Morren, Meike |
| Abstract: | Taxing meat optimally is a first-best policy outcome to internalize environmental harms. However, meat taxes often lack public and governmental support. Recent research indicates that support for meat taxes can be improved by combining behavioral nudges with fiscal measures. In this study, we test this claim in a preregistered between-within-subjects experiment using a representative sample of the Dutch (N=2, 032) population. The Netherlands is currently considering a meat tax legislation, thereby making our study timely and policy relevant. Participants were randomly assigned to a treatment condition in a 2x2 experimental setup, varying across a framing nudge (“tax” versus “levy”) and a reflection (“yes” versus “no”) dimension. Subsequently, all participants engaged in a discrete choice experiment where they selected their preferred meat pricing policy from six sets of choice cards. Each card included random variations in levels of four attributes: meat pricing (costs), revenue recycling, policy coverage, and pricing rationale. We find that policy support increases with greater revenue recycling and broader policy coverage but decreases as costs rise. The rationale behind pricing does not alter public support substantially. Importantly, we find no significant difference in public support across the different behavioral nudge or reflection treatments. Our experimental findings underscore the importance of policy design in enhancing support for meat taxes. The effective design of a meat tax is crucial, as superficial changes, such as behavioral nudges, may not be sufficient to sway public opinion. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Public Economics, Sustainability |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gausfs:344114 |
| By: | Amer, Abdelrahman (University of Toronto); Craig, Ashley C (University of Michigan); Van Effenterre, Clémentine (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | Subjective performance evaluation is an important part of hiring and promotion decisions. We combine experiments with administrative data to understand what drives gender bias in such evaluations in the technology industry. Our results highlight the role of personal interaction. Leveraging 60, 000 mock video interviews on a platform for software engineers, we find that average ratings for code quality and problem solving are 12 percent of a standard deviation lower for women than men. Half of these gaps remain unexplained when we control for automated measures of coding performance. To test for statistical and taste-based bias, we analyze two field experiments. Our first experiment shows that providing evaluators with automated performance measures does not reduce the gender gap. Our second experiment removed video interaction, and compared blind to non-blind evaluations. No gender gap is present in either case. These results rule out traditional economic models of discrimination. Instead, we show that gender gaps widen with extended personal interaction, and are larger for evaluators educated in regions where implicit association test scores are higher. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, gender, coding, experiment, information |
| JEL: | C93 D83 J16 J71 M51 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17077 |
| By: | Gill, Mackenzie; Costanigro, Marco; Berry, Chris |
| Keywords: | Marketing, Consumer/ Household Economics, Agribusiness |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:343983 |
| By: | John J. Horton; Ramesh Johari; Philipp Kircher |
| Abstract: | In a labor market model with cheap talk, employers can send messages about their willingness to pay for higher-ability workers, which job-seekers can use to direct their search and tailor their wage bid. Introducing such messages leads—under certain conditions—to an informative separating equilibrium that affects the number of applications, types of applications, and wage bids across firms. This model is used to interpret an experiment conducted in a large online labor market: employers were given the opportunity to state their relative willingness to pay for more experienced workers, and workers can easily condition their search on this information. Preferences were collected for all employers but only treated employers had their signal revealed to job-seekers. In response to revelation of the cheap talk signal, job-seekers targeted their applications to employers of the right “type, ” and they tailored their wage bids, affecting who was matched to whom and at what wage. The treatment increased measures of match quality through better sorting, illustrating the power of cheap talk for talent matching. |
| Keywords: | sorting, cheap-talk, gig-economy, freelancer, field-experiment, online job search platform |
| JEL: | J64 D83 C87 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11163 |
| By: | Gustafson, Christopher R.; Champetier, Antoine |
| Keywords: | Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Research Methods/Statistical Methods, Institutional And Behavioral Economics |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:343750 |
| By: | Antoinette Baujard (Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne, CNRS, Université Lumière Lyon 2, emlyon business school, GATE, 42023, Lyon, France); Roberto Brunetti (Université Lumière Lyon 2, CNRS, Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne, emlyon business school, GATE, 69007, Lyon, France, and Univ Rennes, CNRS, CREM-UMR6211, F-35000 Rennes, France); Isabelle Lebon (Normandie Univ., CREM, UMR CNRS 6211, Caen, France and TEPP-CNRS, Caen, France); Simone Marsilio (Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano) |
| Abstract: | If individuals are to be empowered in their selection or use of a voting rule, it is necessary that they understand it. This paper analyzes people’s understanding of two voting rules: evaluative voting and majority judgment. We first distinguish three components of understanding in this context: how to fill in the ballot; how votes are aggregated; and how to vote strategically. To measure each component, we draw on results from a lab experiment on incentivized voting where participants are exogenously assigned single-peaked preferences and answer comprehension questions on the rules employed. We find that most participants understand how to fill in the ballot and how votes are aggregated; however, participants’ understanding of vote aggregation under majority judgment is lower and more heterogeneous. While some participants correctly understand its aggregation property, a sizable group fails to grasp it. We also observe no difference in voting behavior between evaluative voting and majority judgment: the data confirm the theoretical prediction that under evaluative voting there will be a greater incidence of strategic voting through the use of extreme grades, but contradict the prediction that under majority judgment voters will vote more sincerely. Finally, we find that with majority judgment, the better voters understand how votes are aggregated, the more they make use of extreme grades. |
| Keywords: | voting rules; understanding; evaluative voting; majority judgment; laboratory experiment |
| JEL: | A13 C92 D71 D72 O35 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:2408 |
| By: | Chen, Shuai (University of Leicester); Powdthavee, Nattavudh (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore); Wiese, Juliane V. (Warwick Business School) |
| Abstract: | We study whether the model minority stereotype about Asian Americans (e.g., hard-working, intelligent) reduces people's attention to inequality that adversely affects Asians. In a nationally representative US sample (N=3, 257), we find that around 90% of the participants either moderately or strongly believe that Asians work harder and are more economically successful compared to other ethnic minorities. We then demonstrate that an increase in the model minority belief has a dose-response relationship with people's tendency to overestimate incomes for Asians but not for Whites and Blacks. In a basic cognitive task, people are more likely to see an equal distribution of resources between Asians and people of other races when Asians have less than others by design. Although there is little evidence that a marginal increase in the model minority belief significantly reduces people's attention to inequality that adversely affects Asians in a pattern detection hiring task, we find that people who hold a strong model minority stereotype are only more likely to naturalistically point out unfair hiring practices when Whites are discriminated against. Our results offer new insights into the possible mechanisms behind why many Americans are relatively more apathetic toward Asians' unfair treatment and negative experiences compared to those of other races. |
| Keywords: | Asian Americans, model minority, stereotype, inequality, attention, redistribution |
| JEL: | D63 D91 J15 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17087 |
| By: | Joris Wauters (National Bank of Belgium); Zivile Zekaite (Central Bank of Ireland); Garo Garabedian (Central Bank of Ireland) |
| Abstract: | The ECB concluded its strategy review in 2021 with a plan to include owner-occupied housing (OOH) costs in its inflation measure in the future. This presentation uses the Bundesbank's online household panel to study how household expectations would react to this change. We conducted a survey experiment with different information treatments and compared long-run expectations for Euro-area overall in |
| Date: | 2024–06–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:fsug24:11 |
| By: | Anastasia Danilov (HU Berlin); Ju Yeong Hong (HU Berlin); Anja Schöttner (HU Berlin) |
| Abstract: | A significant portion of the workforce experiences what we term `unfriendly leadership, ' encompassing various forms of hostile behavior exhibited by managers. The motivations driving managers to adopt such behaviors are insufficiently understood. To explore this phenomenon, we conducted a laboratory experiment examining the relationship between managers' use of unfriendly leadership and labor market competition. We discern two labor market states: excess labor demand, where managers compete to hire workers, and excess labor supply, where workers compete to be hired. By perceiving unfriendly leadership as a performance-contingent punishment device inflicting discomfort on workers, we hypothesize that managers are less inclined to resort to unfriendly leadership when they compete to hire workers. We find that managers tend to engage in unfriendly leadership more frequently and intensely under excess labor supply, in comparison to excess labor demand. This trend is particularly pronounced among male participants. Additionally, workers display a decreased likelihood of accepting employment offers from more unfriendly managers and exert lower levels of effort when working under such managers, indicating that unfriendly leadership is costly. |
| Keywords: | leadership style; labor market competition; non-monetary incentives; |
| JEL: | L20 M14 M55 |
| Date: | 2024–07–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:507 |
| By: | Brown, J. David (U.S. Census Bureau); Heggeness, Misty L. (U.S. Census Bureau) |
| Abstract: | Several small-sample studies have predicted that a citizenship question in the 2020 Census would cause a large drop in self-response rates. In contrast, minimal effects were found in Poehler et al.'s (2020) analysis of the 2019 Census Test randomized controlled trial (RCT). We reconcile these findings by analyzing associations between characteristics about the addresses in the 2019 Census Test and their response behavior by linking to independently constructed administrative data. We find significant heterogeneity in sensitivity to the citizenship question among households containing Hispanics, naturalized citizens, and noncitizens. Response drops the most for households containing noncitizens ineligible for a Social Security number (SSN). It falls more for households with Latin American-born immigrants than those with immigrants from other countries. Response drops less for households with U.S.-born Hispanics than households with noncitizens from Latin America. Reductions in responsiveness occur not only through lower unit self-response rates, but also by increased household roster omissions and internet break-offs. The inclusion of a citizenship question increases the undercount of households with noncitizens. Households with noncitizens also have much higher citizenship question item nonresponse rates than those only containing citizens. The use of tract-level characteristics and significant heterogeneity among Hispanics, the foreign-born, and noncitizens help explain why the effects found by Poehler et al. were so small. Linking administrative microdata with the RCT data expands what we can learn from the RCT. |
| Keywords: | administrative records, noncitizen coverage, sensitive questions, survey error |
| JEL: | C83 C93 J11 J15 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17073 |
| By: | Jiang, Qi; Penn, Jerrod; Hu, Wuyang |
| Keywords: | Consumer/ Household Economics |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:344032 |
| By: | Alvin Christian; Matthew Ronfeldt; Basit Zafar |
| Abstract: | We survey undergraduate students at a large public university to understand the pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors driving their college major and career decisions with a focus on K-12 teaching. While the average student reports there is a 6% chance they will pursue teaching, almost 27% report a nonzero chance of working as a teacher in the future. Students, relative to existing statistics, generally believe they would earn substantially more in a non-teaching job (relative to a teaching job). We run a randomized information experiment where we provide students with information on the pecuniary and non-pecuniary job characteristics of teachers and non-teachers. This low-cost informational intervention impacts students' beliefs about their job characteristics if they were to work as a teacher or non-teacher, and increases the reported likelihood they will major or minor in education by 35% and pursue a job as a teacher or in education by 14%. Linking the survey data with administrative transcript records, we find that the intervention had small (and weak) impacts on the decision to minor in education in the subsequent year. Overall, our results indicate that students hold biased beliefs about their career prospects, they update these beliefs when provided with information, and that this information has limited impacts on their choices regarding studying and having a career in teaching. |
| JEL: | D80 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32641 |
| By: | Ennio Bilancini; Leonardo Boncinelli; Eugenio Vicario |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an analysis of two pre-registered experimental studies examining the impact of `Motivational Interviewing' and `Directing Style' on discussions about Sustainable Development Goals. To evaluate the effectiveness of these communication styles in enhancing awareness and motivating action toward the Sustainable Development Goals, we measured the engagement levels of participants, along with their self-reported interest and learning outcomes. Our results indicate that `Motivational Interviewing' is more effective than `Directing Style' for engagement and interest, while no appreciable difference is found on learning. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2407.01057 |
| By: | Laura E. Boudreau; Rocco Macchiavello; Virginia Minni; Mari Tanaka |
| Abstract: | Social movements are catalysts for crucial institutional changes. To succeed, they must coordinate members’ views (consensus building) and actions (mobilization). We study union leaders within Myanmar’s burgeoning labor movement. Union leaders are positively selected on both personality traits that enable them to influence others and ability but earn lower wages. In group discussions about workers’ views on an upcoming national minimum wage negotiation, randomly embedded leaders build consensus around the union’s preferred policy. In an experiment that mimics individual decision-making in a collective action set-up, leaders increase mobilization through coordination. Leaders empower social movements by building consensus that encourages mobilization. |
| JEL: | C93 D23 D70 J51 J52 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32619 |
| By: | Jordi Brandts; Francesc Trillas |
| Abstract: | We study the effects on citizens’ opinions of exposing them to opposing views in relation to the public vs private property nature of companies providing a public service. We focus on the issue of private vs public property of water distribution operators. Whether such operators should be publicly or privately owned is a hotly debated topic all over the world. The view of mainstream economic experts is rather agnostic about property. The crucial issue is considered to be the quality of the regulation of operators. However, there is also a broad citizen movement in favor of the opinion that water supply operators should be public property. In an online experiment we compare the effect on citizens’ opinions in Spain of three different texts: a neutral expository one, one which contains only arguments in favor of public operators and a third one which contains both the pro public property view and that of mainstream economic experts. We find that by itself the message of those in favor of public ownership does affect citizens opinion. However, the arguments of expert economists are effective at more than compensating the influence of the pro public companies arguments. This suggests that economists and expert thinking has a role to play in the public debate, beyond the role played in advising politicians or through the decision-making process in regulatory agencies. |
| Keywords: | opposing views, communication, public ownership, online experiments |
| JEL: | C9 D83 D9 Q25 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1453 |
| By: | Boczoń, Marta; Vespa, Emanuel; Weidman, Taylor; Wilson, Alistair J |
| Abstract: | Abstract: In repeated games, where both collusive and noncollusive outcomes can be supported as equilibria, it is crucial to understand the likelihood of selection for each type of equilibrium. Controlled experiments have empirically validated a selection criterion for the two-player repeated prisoner’s dilemma: the basin of attraction for always defect. This prediction device uses the game primitives to measure the set of beliefs for which an agent would prefer to unconditionally defect rather than attempt conditional cooperation. This belief measure reflects strategic uncertainty over others’ actions, where the prediction is for noncooperative outcomes when the basin measure is full, and cooperative outcomes when empty. We expand this selection notion to multi-player social dilemmas and experimentally test the predictions, manipulating both the total number of players and the payoff tensions. Our results affirm the model as a tool for predicting long-term cooperation, while also speaking to some limitations when dealing with first-time encounters. |
| Keywords: | Economics, Applied Economics, Economic Theory, Applied economics, Econometrics, Economic theory |
| Date: | 2024–07–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsdec:qt7pk7c4gb |
| By: | Raisa Sherif; Sven A. Simon |
| Abstract: | Today’s environmental challenges prompt individuals to take personal actions, though motivations vary. This paper presents causal evidence of a trade-off between two motivations behind pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs): maximizing environmental impact or being seen as green. In an experiment on voluntary carbon offsetting, we first isolate each motivation and quantify their impact. We then investigate whether individuals deliberately trade-off impact for the visibility of their actions, and why they do so. Our results show that while individuals respond to salient differences in efficiency and visibility, visible PEBs crowd out efficient alternatives, indicating a preference for being seen as green over actual environmental impact. We disentangle two motivations driving this preference for visible actions: social image concerns and role model aspirations. Role model aspirations exert a stronger influence, leading individuals to choose visible PEBs over efficient ones more frequently. |
| Keywords: | Pro-environmental behavior, Efficient behavior, Visible behavior, Role-model aspirations, Social image, Green preferences |
| JEL: | C90 D90 Q50 |
| Date: | 2023–06–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpi:wpaper:tax-mpg-rps-2023-27 |
| By: | Jiang, Qi; Penn, Jerrod; Hu, Wuyang |
| Keywords: | Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Environmental Economics And Policy |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:343917 |
| By: | Akinwehinmi, Oluwagbenga J.; Colen, Liesbeth |
| Keywords: | Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Consumer/ Household Economics, Agricultural And Food Policy |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea22:343674 |
| By: | Nunnari, Salvatore (Bocconi University); Proto, Eugenio (University of Glasgow); Rustichini, Aldo (University of Minnesota) |
| Abstract: | Rational choice theories assume that voters accurately assess the outcomes of policies. However, many important policies—such as regulating prices and introducing Pigouvian taxation—yield outcomes through indirect or equilibrium effects that may differ from their direct effects. Citizens may underestimate these effects, leading to a demand for bad policy, that is, opposition to reforms that would increase welfare or support for reforms that would decrease it. This appreciation might be linked to cognitive functions, raising important research questions: Do cognitive abilities influence how individuals form preferences regarding policies, especially untried reforms? If so, what is the underlying mechanism? We use a simple theoretical framework and an experiment to show that enhanced cognitive abilities may lead to better policy choices. Moreover, we emphasize the crucial role of beliefs about other citizens' cognitive abilities. These findings have important policy implications as they suggest that educational programs developing cognitive skills or interventions increasing trust in others' understanding could improve the quality of democratic decision-making in our societies. |
| Keywords: | voting, policy reform, political failure, cognition, experiment |
| JEL: | C90 D72 D91 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17112 |
| By: | Fabian Herweg; Svenja Hippel; Daniel Müller; Fabio Römeis |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether violations of canonical axioms of choice under risk are mistakes or a manifestation of true preferences. First, we elicit axiom and gamble preferences and then allow subjects to revise their potentially conflicting preferences. Among the behavioral patterns that allow for a clear-cut interpretation on the decision level, we find that roughly 70% of axiom viola-tions are intentional whereas only 30% are mistakes. On the subject level we can clearly categorize almost half of our subjects. Among those, roughly 24%are rational expected utility maximizers, 24% make occasional mistakes, and 52% refute the normative value of these axioms. |
| Keywords: | axiomatic rationality, choice under risk, context-dependent preferences, mistakes, regret theory |
| JEL: | C91 D01 D81 D91 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11166 |
| By: | Sitadhira Prima Citta (Ritsumeikan University); Takuro Uehara (Ritsumeikan University); Mateo Cordier (CEARC - Cultures, Environnements, Arctique, Représentations, Climat - UVSQ - Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Paris-Saclay); Takahiro Tsuge (Kanagawa University); Misuzu Asari (Kyoto University) |
| Abstract: | Plastic pollution is a global issue that endangers both human health and the ecosystem. Although interest in sustainable alternatives to single-use plastics has grown, their adoption has been insufficient, and menstrual products are no exception. Disposable menstrual products, such as sanitary napkins, continue to dominate over sustainable options like menstrual cups (MCs). Although studies on women's perceptions and attitudes toward menstrual hygiene management have abounded, there is a lack of research on the development of promotional strategies for sustainable menstrual products. This study aims to fill this research gap by investigating consumers' decision-making process in the face of a real-life option regarding menstruation products. In this comparative study, we conducted a labeled discrete choice experiment on consumers in Japan ( n = 1, 929), Indonesia ( n = 2, 031), and France ( n = 2, 067) to reveal their preferences for sanitary napkins, tampons, and MCs. The respondents from each country were divided into three groups (one control group and two treatment groups with information provided). The results showed that in all countries, the information regarding the cost-effectiveness of MCs (i.e., per-use cost) was unequivocally significant, whereas information about their health and environmental benefits was not. Access to free MCs can contribute to their adoption and alleviation of period poverty in all countries, with a relatively moderate acceptance in Japan. The results also showed variations across countries in consumer characteristics (attitude toward menstruation, innovation-friendliness, and green consumption) and the use and perceptions of MCs. Hence, tailored promotional strategies should be considered for each market. |
| Keywords: | Plastic, Menstrual cup, consumer, discrete choice experiment, period poverty, sanitary napkin, Tampon |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04625228 |
| By: | Boutin, Delphine (University of Bordeaux); Petifour, Laurene (Heidelberg University); Allard, Yvonne; Kontoubré, Souleymane (University of Ouagodougou); Ridde, Valéry (CEPED) |
| Abstract: | Offering health coverage to informal workers and their families is an ongoing and major challenge in most Sub-Saharan countries. As anchoring insurance to employment contracts is not possible and the demand for insurance is too low to deploy voluntarily sustainable schemes, alternative initiatives are needed. Bundling health insurance to microcredit is an option that we evaluate in this paper. We conducted a two-year cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the impact of a compulsory micro-health insurance scheme integrated into a micro-loan system for informal micro-entrepreneurs in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Our sample comprised 101 microcredit groups of a partner microfinance institution (MFI), among which we surveyed 1200 individuals (mostly female informal workers). The members of the 47 randomly selected treatment groups had to adhere to health insurance to get access to microcredit. In contrast, members of the 54 control groups did not get health insurance. We assessed the impact of subscription to health insurance on financial protection, healthcare utilization, and health out-comes, and estimated both the intention-to-treat effect (ITT) and the local average treatment effect (LATE). We did not identify any selective attrition, therefore there was no rejection of the MFI due to the health insurance product. Our results reveal a significant and positive impact of health insurance on financial protection. Out-of-pocket expenditures are reduced, as are difficulties in paying for healthcare and the adverse effects of healthcare expenses on professional activities. Health insurance encourages respondents to seek care at modern healthcare facilities rather than relying on self-medication and traditional healers. However, we find no significant impact on health outcomes, whether physical or psychological. Compulsory health insurance has the potential to offer financial protection against health risks to MFI members, a population that lacks social protection, without jeopardizing the retention rate of the MFI. It can create incentives for individuals to seek appropriate healthcare when necessary rather than relying on self-medication. However, the potential impacts on health involve indirect and long-term mechanisms, making them challenging to identify. |
| Keywords: | micro health insurance, financial protection, healthcare utilization, Informal sector, Burkina Faso |
| JEL: | I13 I15 O12 G21 O55 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17094 |
| By: | Jonathan Gehle; Ferdinand A. von Siemens; Ferdinand von Siemens |
| Abstract: | We investigate how heterogeneous social preferences affect the communication of painful information in social relationships. We characterize the existence conditions for a pooling equilibrium in which individuals conceal painful information because revealing the latter would signal that they are selfish, thereby leading to a loss of trust. We also find that compassionate individuals may then be more tempted to reveal bad news than selfish individuals because they benefit less from an intact social relationship. Moreover, there may be multiple equilibria with different degrees of information disclosure and standard equilibrium refinements have no bite. Coordination on an inefficient equilibrium could therefore lead to severe information frictions, even if the pain of receiving bad news is quite small. |
| Keywords: | communication, painful information, social preferences, trust |
| JEL: | D82 D83 D91 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11181 |