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on Experimental Economics |
| By: | Jeanne Hagenbach (CNRS and Department of Economics, Sciences Po); Nicolas Jacquemet (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics); Philipp Sternal (University of Zurich, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We propose a two-stage experiment in which people receive feedback about their relative intelligence. This feedback is a noisy message reminded at every stage, so that subjects cannot forget this ego-relevant information. Instead, we exogenously vary whether the informativeness of the message is reminded in the second stage. We investigate how this treatment variation affects the informativeness reported by subjects, and their posterior beliefs about their intelligence. We show that subjects report informativeness in a self-serving way: subjects with negative messages report that these messages are significantly less informative in the absence of reminder than with it. We also show that the lack of reminder about message informativeness allows subjects to keep a better image of themselves. These results are confirmed by complementary treatments in which we decrease messages informativeness: subjects tend to inflate the informativeness of positive messages that should now be interpreted as bad news |
| Keywords: | Controlled experiment; Motivated beliefs; Overconfidence; Noisy feedback |
| JEL: | C91 D83 D63 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:24010 |
| By: | Cristobal Cheyre (Cornell University); Li Jiang (George Washington University); Florian Schaub (University of Michigan); Zijun Ding (Carnegie Mellon University); Cristiana Firullo (Cornell University); Yucheng Li (Carnegie Mellon University); Alessandro Acquisti (Carnegie Mellon University) |
| Abstract: | We present the design of a field experiment on the impact of tracking, targeting, ad-blocking, and anti-tracking technologies on consumers’ behavior and economic outcomes. The online data industry has often heralded the benefits of online tracking and targeting, particularly in the context of online advertising. Its claims are juxtaposed by the privacy concerns associated with the vast number of ad-tech companies tracking and analyzing consumers’ online behavior – often without consumers’ awareness. We use a field experiment to analyze the impact of online tracking and targeting as well as ad-blocking and anti-tracking technologies, focusing on consumers’ online behaviors (such as browsing and shopping), and their ultimate purchasing outcomes (as measured by amounts of money spent online, product prices paid, time spent on product searching, and purchase satisfaction). In this draft, we describe the rationale and motivations behind the study; the experimental design and the instrumentation infrastructure developed for the experiments; and the plans for data collection. |
| Keywords: | economics of digitization, economics of privacy, online experiments, online advertising, behavioral advertising |
| JEL: | C93 D01 M37 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:2410 |
| By: | Ryo Kato (Graduate School of Social Data Science, Hitotsubashi University and Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration (RIEB), Kobe University, JAPAN); Taiga Hashimoto (Amazon Japan G.K., JAPAN); Takahiro Hoshino (Faculty of Economics, Keio University and RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project, JAPAN) |
| Abstract: | This study conducts a randomized field experiment to examine the presence of the attraction effect in real-world purchasing situations. While previous research has confirmed the existence of the attraction effect in controlled environments, it has not been extensively tested in actual purchasing scenarios where consumers tend to think more analytically and the products are not represented numerically scenarios. In real-life situations, consumers use their own resources, which can affect their decision-making processes. Especially, the attraction effect is shown to be often driven by System 1, which involves intuitive and quick decision-making. This study tests the effect in an online subscription service where consumers may rely more on System 2, where the creators were randomly encouraged to create a decoy option. The results show that the attraction effect exists in real-world contexts, with the addition of a decoy plan significantly boosting sales. |
| Keywords: | Attraction effect; Randomized field experiment |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2024-33 |
| By: | Yannai A. Gonczarowski; Ori Heffetz; Guy Ishai; Clayton Thomas |
| Abstract: | We conduct an incentivized lab experiment to test participants' ability to understand the DA matching mechanism and the strategyproofness property, conveyed in different ways. We find that while many participants can (using a novel GUI) learn DA's mechanics and calculate its outcomes, such understanding does not imply understanding of strategyproofness (as measured by specially designed tests). However, a novel menu description of strategyproofness conveys this property significantly better than other treatments. While behavioral effects are small on average, participants with levels of strategyproofness understanding above a certain threshold play the classical dominant strategy at very high rates. |
| JEL: | C78 C91 D47 D91 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33020 |
| By: | Bachler, Sebastian; Haeussler, Stefan; Momsen, Katharina; Stefan, Matthias |
| JEL: | D83 D91 C44 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc24:302404 |
| By: | Dylong, Patrick; Übelmesser, Silke |
| JEL: | C90 D83 F22 J15 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc24:302334 |
| By: | David Reinstein; Valentin Klotzbucher; Evaluator 1; Evaluator 2; Evaluator 3 |
| Abstract: | Evaluation Summary and Metrics: "Selecting the Most Effective Nudge: Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment on Immunization" for The Unjournal. Evaluators: Anonymous (1) and Anonymous (2) |
| Date: | 2024–06–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bjn:evalua:evalsumeffectivenudge |
| By: | Bair, Sabrine; Miquel-Florensa, Josepa; Ozyilmaz, Hakan |
| Abstract: | This study examines the underadoption of digital wallets as network goods through a field experiment conducted in Jordan. We elicit consumers’ and merchants’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for interoperable mobile wallets using an incentive-compatible mechanism and measure their expectations regarding cross-market adoption. Our findings indicate a low demand for digital wallets across both sides of the market, with consumers and merchants willing to pay approximately 35% and 40% of the market price, respectively. While consumers’ aggregate expectations of merchant adoption are accurate, they exhibit considerable individual heterogeneity. Crucially, consumers’ sensitivity to cross-network effects is limited: a 1 p.p. increase in crossside adoption expectations translates into a 0.013 USD increase in WTP. Meanwhile, merchants significantly underestimate consumer adoption and demonstrate approximately half the sensitivity of consumers to cross-side network effects. These results hold significant implications for designing interventions that exploit network effects in order to increase digital wallet adoption. |
| Keywords: | financial inclusion, network effects, digital wallet, digital financial literacy |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:129817 |
| By: | Samantha Gonsalves Wetherell; Anna Josephson |
| Abstract: | We examine the propensity of individuals to donate to climate activism, evaluating the impact of different informational treatments on an incentive compatible charitable donation and stated climate change-related concerns. Participants were evaluated on climate literacy and general climate attitudes before being randomly assigned to a treatment which provided either education or neutral language about climate change, either with or without images of protest. After the treatment, participants engaged in an incentive compatible dictator game. We find that participants gave more to climate activism than seen in previous dictator game and charitable giving experiments, in both average amount given and proportion of participants who gave their entire endowment. However, we determine that climate activism information negatively influenced the amount of money donated. We also found that protest imagery moderated this negative effect and had a positive significant effect of increasing participants' climate concern. Finally, we found that the climate concern was significantly positively correlated with donations, while being a male was significantly negatively associated with donation amounts. |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2409.17378 |
| By: | Heller, Lorena; Nogales, Ricardo |
| Abstract: | Over 30 percent of female workers are self-employed across Latin America, relying on this mode of work for subsistence. Self-employment in the region is regularly marked by the absence of health insurance and lack of pension benefits. Despite the aspirations of many women to gain access to these benefits, they are persistently overrepresented among the socially unprotected part of the workforce. To address this issue and explore potential solutions, we conducted a laboratory experiment in Bolivia to assess the efficacy of nudges to influence the behavior of self-employed women. Participants were randomly assigned to one of six groups, each receiving either an informative message highlighting the benefits of contributing to a long-term pension system, a message emphasizing the advantages of health insurance, or a nudge aimed at reducing the effort and costs associated with enrolling in a savings or retirement plan. Our findings indicate that informative messages alone were effective in increasing voluntary contributions to experimental pension and health insurance schemes. Reductions in time and effort required for enrollment did not lead to a significant increase of voluntary contributions. Moreover, we found that the effectiveness of these interventions varied depending on the type of worker, with high-effort workers being the most responsive. |
| Keywords: | Self-employment;Pension system;Health Insurance;Laboratory experiment |
| JEL: | C91 J16 J20 J70 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13754 |
| By: | Nicolas Jacquemet (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Stéphane Luchini; Jason Shogren; Adam Zylbersztejn |
| Abstract: | Under incomplete contracts, the mutual belief in reciprocity facilitates how traders create value through economic exchange. Creating such beliefs among strangers can be challenging even when they are allowed to communicate, because communication is cheap. In this paper, we first extend the literature showing that a truth-telling oath increases honesty to a sequential trust game with pre-play, fixed-form, and cheap-talk communication. Our results confirm that the oath creates more trust and cooperative behavior thanks to an improvement in communication; but we also show that the oath induces selection into communication -it makes people more wary of using communication, precisely because communication speaks louder under oath. We next designed additional treatments featuring mild and deterrent fines for deception to measure the monetary equivalent of the non-monetary incentives implemented by a truth-telling oath. We find that the oath is behaviorally equivalent to mild fines. The deterrent fine induces the highest level of cooperation. Altogether, these results confirm that allowing for interactions under oath within a trust game with communication creates significantly more economic value than the identical exchange institutions without the oath. |
| Keywords: | Trust game, cooperation, communication, commitment, deception, fine, oath |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-04722343 |
| By: | Andrea Mattozzi (University of Bologna, Italy; CEPR; Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis); Samuel Nocito (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy); Francesco Sobbrio (Tor Vergata University of Rome, Italy; CESifo) |
| Abstract: | We study the reaction of national politicians to rigorous fact-checking of their public statements. Our research design relies on a novel randomized field experiment conducted in collaboration with a leading fact-checking company. Our results show that fact-checking discourages politicians from making factually incorrect statements, with effects lasting several weeks. At the same time, we document that fact-checking neither increases nor displaces correct statements. Instead, fact-checked politicians tend to substitute incorrect statements with either no statements or with unverifiable ones. This suggests that they also respond by increasing the “ambiguity” of their language to escape the possibility of public scrutiny. |
| Keywords: | Fact-Checking, Politicians, Accountability, Verifiability, Ambiguity, RCT |
| JEL: | D72 D78 D8 D91 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rim:rimwps:24-14 |
| By: | Ying Chen (University of Nottingham Ningbo China); Tom Lane (Newcastle University); Stuart McDonald (University of Nottingham Ningbo China) |
| Abstract: | Using a laboratory experiment, we study the evolution of economic networks in the context of fragmented social identity. We create societies in which members can initiate and delete links to others, and then earn payoffs from a public goods game played within their network. We manipulate whether the society initially consists of segregated or integrated identity groups, and vary whether societal mobility is high or low. Results show in-group favouritism in network formation. The effects of original network structure are long-lasting, with initially segregated societies permanently exhibiting more homophilic networks than initially integrated ones. Moreover, allowing greater social mobility results in networks becoming less rather than more integrated. This occurs in part because eviction from networks is based on out-group hostility when societal mobility is high, and on punishing free riders when mobility across groups is low. |
| Keywords: | social identity; social network; in-group bias; homophily; laboratory experiments |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notcdx:2024-07 |
| By: | Daron Acemoglu; Cevat Giray Aksoy; Ceren Baysan; Carlos Molina; Gamze Zeki |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether enduring authoritarian regimes are in part rooted in the population’s misperceptions about their social and economic costs—as opposed to a general preference for authoritarianism. We explore this question using online and field experiments in the context of Türkiye’s May 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections. We confirm that voters, especially those supporting the incumbent authoritarian government systematically underestimate the extent to which democracy and media freedom have been eroded in Türkiye and their usefulness in dealing with natural disasters and corruption (two salient issues in Türkiye). We find that providing (accurate) information about the state and implications of democracy and media freedom have significant effects on beliefs and increase the likelihood of voting for the opposition by about 3.7 percentage points (6.2 percent) in the online experiment. In the field experiment, we estimate similarly-sized impacts on the ballot-box level vote share—with the information treatment leading to a 2.4 percentage point (4.4 percent) increase in the opposition’s vote share. Interestingly, both in the field and online, the results are driven not by further mobilizing opposition supporters, but by influencing those likely to vote for the governing coalition and those holding more misperceived beliefs about democracy and media freedom in Türkiye. The evidence suggests that at least part of the support for authoritarian regimes may be coming from misperceptions about their institutions and policies, and may be more malleable than typically presumed. |
| JEL: | P16 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33018 |
| By: | Shunto J. Kobayashi (Questrom School of Business, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215); Garrett A. Johnson (Questrom School of Business, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215); Zhengrong Gu (Questrom School of Business, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215) |
| Abstract: | An advertiser can use retargeting to target its site visitors with ads offsite, often to push users to complete a purchase. Retargeting is controversial because it raises both user privacy concerns and questions about its effectiveness for advertisers. In this study, we partner with an advertiser intermediary to measure retargeting effectiveness across more than 2, 000 advertisers, leveraging an industry-wide experiment to evaluate both traditional and privacy-enhanced retargeting approaches. Google's Privacy Sandbox allows advertisers to retarget users without tracking cross-site browsing by moving ad selling onto the user's device. We provide broad-based evidence that retargeting lifts advertisers' baseline conversions by 4.6%. While removing third-party cookies significantly reduces ad clicks and click-through conversions, implementing Privacy Sandbox recovers 46.3% of lost ad clicks, and 43.5% of lost click-through conversions. Importantly, when adjusting for ad expenditure, the performance gap between privacy-enhanced and traditional retargeting narrows: Sandbox's click per dollar and click-through conversion per dollar achieve 86.4% and 81.8% of traditional counterparts, respectively. We provide additional evidence exploring time heterogeneity and advertiser heterogeneity in treatment effects, suggesting that the limited overall performance of Privacy Sandbox may be due to the lack of supply-side adoption of Privacy Sandbox. |
| Keywords: | privacy, online advertising, privacy-enhancing technologies, ad effectiveness |
| JEL: | M31 M37 D83 L86 K24 C93 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:2406 |
| By: | Zhexiao Lin; Pablo Crespo |
| Abstract: | Online controlled experiments (A/B testing) are essential in data-driven decision-making for many companies. Increasing the sensitivity of these experiments, particularly with a fixed sample size, relies on reducing the variance of the estimator for the average treatment effect (ATE). Existing methods like CUPED and CUPAC use pre-experiment data to reduce variance, but their effectiveness depends on the correlation between the pre-experiment data and the outcome. In contrast, in-experiment data is often more strongly correlated with the outcome and thus more informative. In this paper, we introduce a novel method that combines both pre-experiment and in-experiment data to achieve greater variance reduction than CUPED and CUPAC, without introducing bias or additional computation complexity. We also establish asymptotic theory and provide consistent variance estimators for our method. Applying this method to multiple online experiments at Etsy, we reach substantial variance reduction over CUPAC with the inclusion of only a few in-experiment covariates. These results highlight the potential of our approach to significantly improve experiment sensitivity and accelerate decision-making. |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2410.09027 |
| By: | Margherita Comola (Université Paris-Saclay (RITM) and Paris School of Economics); Agnieszka Rusinowska (CES, CNRS - University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Paris School of Economics); Marie Claire Villeval (CNRS, Université Lumière Lyon 2, Université Jean-Monnet Saint-Etienne, emlyon business school, GATE, 69007, Lyon, France; IZA, Bonn, Germany) |
| Abstract: | We experimentally investigate how players with opposing views compete for influence through strategic targeting in networks. We varied the network structure, the relative influence of the opponent, and the heterogeneity of the nodes’initial opinions. Although most players adopted a best-response strategy based on their relative influence, we also observed behaviors deviating from this strategy, such as the tendency to target central nodes and avoid nodes targeted by the opponent. Targeting is also affected by affinity and opposition biases, the strength of which depends on the distribution of initial opinions. |
| Keywords: | Network; Influence; Targeting; Competition; Laboratory Experiment |
| JEL: | C91 D85 D91 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:2411 |
| By: | Antoinette Baujard (Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne, CNRS, Université Lumière Lyon 2, emlyon business school, GATE, 42023 Saint-Etienne, France); Herrade Igersheim (CNRS, BETA and University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France); Jean-François Laslier (Paris School of Economics, Paris, France) |
| Abstract: | This module presents a variety of studies on voting. They tackle different subjects: participation, Condorcet cycles, strategic voting, electoral campaigns, the voter’s behaviour and psychology. They use different methods that can be labelled ‘experimental’ and all of them are more or less direct tests of models and theories. The module is therefore an introduction, by examples, to various experimental methods in use in political science. The presentation in three sections goes by increasing complexity of the experiments themselves or of their analysis, starting with ‘classroom’ experiments that can be organized very simply and used for pedagogical purposes. |
| Keywords: | Voting, participation, strategic voting, voting behaviors, voters psychology, experiments |
| JEL: | C9 D71 D72 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:2412 |
| By: | Stefano Piasenti (University of Bologna); Süer Müge (HU Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Behavioral differences by biological sex are still not fully understood, suggesting that studying gender differences in behavioral traits through the lenses of continuous identity might be a promising avenue to understand the remaining observed gender gaps. Using a large U.S. online sample (N=2017) and machine learning, we develop and validate a new continuous gender identity measure consisting of separate femininity and masculinity scores. In a first study, we identify ninety attributes from prior research and conduct an experiment to classify them as feminine and masculine. In a subsequent study, a different group of participants completes tasks designed to elicit behavioral traits that have been previously documented in the behavioral economics literature to exhibit binary gender differences. Data for the second study are collected in two waves; the first wave serves as a training sample, allowing us to identify key attributes predicting behavioral traits, create candidate identity measures, and select the most effective one, comprising sixteen attributes, based on predictive power. Finally, we use the second wave (test sample) to validate our gender identity measure, which outperforms existing ones in explaining gender differences in economic decision-making. We show that confidence, competition, and risk are associated with masculinity, while altruism, equality, and efficiency are with femininity, providing new possibilities for targeted policymaking. |
| Keywords: | Biological sex; Gender identity; Machine learning; Online experiment; |
| JEL: | D91 J16 J62 C91 |
| Date: | 2024–10–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:513 |
| By: | Arlinghaus, Johanna Brigitte; Konc, Théo; Mattauch, Linus; Sommer, Stephan |
| JEL: | H71 R41 Q52 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc24:302449 |
| By: | Eßer, Jana; Flörchinger, Daniela; Frondel, Manuel; Hiemann, Philipp; Sommer, Stephan |
| JEL: | D12 D81 H23 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc24:302368 |
| By: | Anirudh Tagat; Evaluator 1; Evaluator 2 |
| Abstract: | Evaluation Summary and Metrics: "Universal Basic Income: Short-Term Results from a Long-Term Experiment in Kenya" for The Unjournal. |
| Date: | 2024–06–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bjn:evalua:evalsumuniversalincome |
| By: | John A. List; Haruka Uchida |
| Abstract: | An unsettling stylized fact is that decorated early childhood education programs improve cognitive skills in the short-term, but lose their efficacy after a few years. We implement a field experiment with two stages of randomization to explore the underpinnings of the fade-out effect. We first randomly assign preschool access to children, and then partner with the local school district to randomly assign the same children to classmates throughout elementary school. We find that the fade-out effect is critically-linked to the share of classroom peers assigned to preschool access—with enough treated peers the classic fade-out effect is muted. Our results highlight a paradoxical insight: while the fade-out effect has been viewed as a devastating critique of early childhood programs, our results highlight that fade-out is a key rationale for providing early education to all children. This is because human capital accumulation is inherently a social activity, leading early education programs to deliver their largest benefits at scale when everyone receives such programs. |
| JEL: | C93 I24 I30 J19 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33027 |
| By: | Evaluator 1 |
| Abstract: | Evaluation of "Universal Basic Income: Short-Term Results from a Long-Term Experiment in Kenya" for The Unjournal. Evaluator: Anonymous |
| Date: | 2024–06–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bjn:evalua:eval1universalincome |
| By: | Evaluator 2 |
| Abstract: | Evaluation of "Universal Basic Income: Short-Term Results from a Long-Term Experiment in Kenya" for The Unjournal. Evaluator: Anonymous |
| Date: | 2024–06–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bjn:evalua:eval2universalincome |
| By: | Samuel Chang; Andrew Kennedy; Aaron Leonard; John A. List |
| Abstract: | We provide twelve best practices and discuss how each practice can help researchers accurately, credibly, and ethically use Generative AI (GenAI) to enhance experimental research. We split the twelve practices into four areas. First, in the pre-treatment stage, we discuss how GenAI can aid in pre-registration procedures, data privacy concerns, and ethical considerations specific to GenAI usage. Second, in the design and implementation stage, we focus on GenAI’s role in identifying new channels of variation, piloting and documentation, and upholding the four exclusion restrictions. Third, in the analysis stage, we explore how prompting and training set bias can impact results as well as necessary steps to ensure replicability. Finally, we discuss forward-looking best practices that are likely to gain importance as GenAI evolves. |
| JEL: | C9 C90 C91 C92 C93 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33025 |
| By: | Iris Kesternich; Marjolein Van Damme; Han Ye |
| Abstract: | One reason gender pay gaps persist is that women receive more of their total compensation through amenities. Since wages, but not amenities, increase retirement incomes, this may translate into gender pension gaps. Using a discrete choice experiment we investigate whether the valuation for amenities changes when the trade-off with pension income is made salient. We find that women value amenities more than men. Beliefs about the effect of wage changes on pension income do not show large gender differences. However, women change their choices much more strongly than men when reminded about the effects of current choices on pension income. |
| Keywords: | gender, pension gap, amenities, work meaning, workplace flexibility, hypothetical choice experiment, salience, beliefs |
| JEL: | D91 J16 J26 J32 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2024_600 |
| By: | Robert W. Fairlie; Daniel M. Oliver; Glenn Millhauser; Randa Roland |
| Abstract: | An extensive literature in the social sciences analyzes peer effects among students, but estimation is complicated by several major problems some of which cannot be solved even with random assignment. We design a field experiment and propose a new estimation technique to address these estimation problems including the mechanical problems associated with repeated observations within peer groups noted by Angrist (2014). The field experiment randomly assigns students to one-to-one partnerships in an important gateway STEM course at a large public university. We find no evidence of peer effects from estimates of exogenous peer effect models. We push further and estimate outcome-on-outcome models which sometimes reveal peer effects when exogenous models do not provide good proxies for ability. We find some limited evidence of small, positive outcome-on-outcome peer effects (which would have been missed without our new estimation technique). Standard estimation methods fail to detect peer effects and even return negative estimates in our Monte Carlo simulations because of the downward bias due to mechanical problems. Simulations reveal additional advantages of our technique especially when peer group sizes are fixed. Estimates of non-linear effects, heterogeneous effects, and different measures of peer ability and outcomes reveal mostly null effects but we find some evidence that low-ability peers negatively affect low-ability and medium-ability students. The findings in this setting of long-term, intensive interactions with classroom random assignment and “throwing everything at it” provide evidence of, at most, small positive peer effects contrasting with the common finding of large peer effects in previous studies in education. |
| JEL: | I22 I23 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33060 |
| By: | Chae, Je Hoon (University of California, Los Angeles); Tewksbury, David |
| Abstract: | Efforts to scale up fact-checking through technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), are increasingly being suggested and tested. This study examines whether previously observed effects of reading fact-checks remain constant when readers are aware of AI’s involvement in the fact-checking process. We conducted three online experiments (N = 3, 978), exposing participants to fact-checks identified as either human-generated or AI-assisted, simulating cases where AI fully generates the fact-check or automatically retrieves human fact-checks. Our findings indicate that the persuasive effect of fact-checking, specifically in increasing truth discernment, persists even among participants without a positive prior attitude toward AI. Additionally, in some cases, awareness of AI’s role reduced perceived political bias in fact-checks among Republicans. Finally, neither AI-generated nor human fact-checks significantly affected participants’ feelings toward or their perceptions of the competence of the targeted politicians. |
| Date: | 2024–09–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:mkd6f |
| By: | Baader, Malte (Dept. of Finance, University of Zurich); Bowen, Sarah (Verian Group); Hochleitner, Anna (Centre for Applied Research, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Mills, Richard (School of Psychology, University of Nottingham) |
| Abstract: | Even though reporting mistakes could substantially improve work processes and productivity within organisations, employees often hesitate to do so. This paper studies the role of fear (of being fired) and futility (i.e. reports being inconsequential) in explaining such employee silence. Drawing on a principal-agent framework with career concerns, we formalise mistakes as noisy signals of both agent quality and the work environment and show that optimal reporting decisions are affected by fear and futility considerations. We then use a novel experiment to exogenously manipulate the degree of fear and futility and test our theoretical predictions. In a 2x2 between-subject design, we vary the anonymity of reporting and the likelihood of organisational response. Results show that reducing fear and futility are complementary actions. Tackling both significantly increases reporting by about 20pp. This improvement in communication is accompanied by better organisational income, highlighting the value of improved reporting structures for firms and employees. |
| Keywords: | Organisational communication; reporting mistakes |
| JEL: | C92 D23 L21 |
| Date: | 2024–10–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2024_016 |
| By: | Capitán, Tabaré (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences); Thunstrom, Linda; van 't Veld, Klaas; Nordström, Jonas; Shogren, Jason F. |
| Abstract: | Calorie labeling is a popular policy to address the obesity epidemic, but it has had little empirical success. Under the premise that willful avoidance of information plays a role in this result, we propose a novel approach—pre-nudges—to make consumers more receptive to calorie information. Unlike nudges, which are used to directly influence a choice, pre-nudges are used to directly influence how consumers react to the nudge itself (the calorie label). In line with predictions from our theoretical analysis, we test two pre-nudges in the context of menu labeling: one aims to increase self-efficacy, and the other one highlights the long-term health risks of overeating. In a large-scale laboratory experiment, we find that both pre-nudges reduce calorie information avoidance. Overall, our paper suggests a possible role for pre-nudges in addressing the obesity epidemic—one of the largest public health issues globally—and illustrates the potential usefulness of pre-nudges more generally |
| Date: | 2024–10–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:vy6af |
| By: | Bert Van Landeghem; Thomas Dohmen; Arne Risa Hole; Annemarie Künn-Nelen |
| Abstract: | This study examines jobseekers' preferences for a variety of job attributes. It is based on a choice experiment involving 1, 852 clients of the Flemish Public Employment Service (PES). Respondents value flexibility (e.g., remote work and schedule flexibility), job security and social impact of the job, and require significant compensation for longer commute times. A majority (70%) would need very substantial wage increase beyond their acceptable baseline wage to compensate for less flexibility, job security or social impact. These findings enhance our understanding of labour supply decisions and can inform the design of salary packages and HR policies. |
| Keywords: | Reservation Wage; Job Search; Job Amenities; Compensating Differentials; Choice Experiments |
| JEL: | J31 J32 J64 J16 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2024_597 |
| By: | Laura E. McCann; Jeffrey D. Michler; Maybin Mwangala; Osaretin Olurotimi; Natalia Estrada Carmona |
| Abstract: | Population pressure is speeding the rate of deforestation in Sub-Saharan Africa, increasing the cost of biomass cooking fuel, which over 80 percent of the population relies upon. Higher energy input costs for meal preparation command a larger portion of household spending which in turn induces families to focus their diet on quick cooking staples. We use a field experiment in Zambia to investigate the impact of solar cook stoves on meal preparation choices and expenditures on biomass fuel. Participants kept a detailed food diary recording every ingredient and fuel source used in preparing every dish at every meal for every day during the six weeks of the experiment. This produces a data set of 93, 606 ingredients used in the preparation of 30, 314 dishes. While treated households used the solar stoves to prepare around 40 percent of their dishes, the solar stove treatment did not significantly increase measures of nutritional diversity nor did treated households increase the number of dishes per meal or reduce the number of meals they skipped. However, treated households significantly reduced the amount of time and money spent on obtaining fuel for cooking. These results suggest that solar stoves, while not changing a household's dietary composition, does relax cooking fuel constraints, allowing households to prepare more meals by reducing the share of household expenditure that goes to meal preparation. |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2410.02075 |
| By: | Andrew Caplin; David J. Deming; Shangwen Li; Daniel J. Martin; Philip Marx; Ben Weidmann; Kadachi Jiada Ye |
| Abstract: | We use a controlled experiment to show that ability and belief calibration jointly determine the benefits of working with Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI improves performance more for people with low baseline ability. However, holding ability constant, AI assistance is more valuable for people who are calibrated, meaning they have accurate beliefs about their own ability. People who know they have low ability gain the most from working with AI. In a counterfactual analysis, we show that eliminating miscalibration would cause AI to reduce performance inequality nearly twice as much as it already does. |
| JEL: | D81 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33021 |
| By: | Dato, Simon; Nieken, Petra; Feess, Eberhard |
| JEL: | C90 D82 D91 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc24:302385 |
| By: | Dorian Jullien (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, CNRS, Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, Paris, France); Alexandre Truc (Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, France) |
| Abstract: | Existing histories of behavioral and experimental economics (BE-XP) are mostly focused on the intellectual and institutional developments of these approaches in the United States of America - and to a lesser extent in Germany. While a seminal contribution to these approaches was produced in the early 1950s in France by Maurice Allais, the literature is rather silent on how BE-XP developed subsequently in France. We propose to fill this gap by comparing the history of BE-XP in France to international trends previously identified in the literature. We show that after an ambivalent influence of the work of Allais (1953) on BE-XP in France during the 1980s, that influence rapidly faded. BE-XP in France then largely follows international trends. We nevertheless identify some heterogeneity across the French territory and the development of at least two national specificities on the measurement of utility and the modeling of social preferences. |
| Keywords: | Behavioral economics, Experimental economics, History of economics |
| JEL: | B21 B40 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2024-23 |