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on Experimental Economics |
| By: | Massimo Filippini (ETH Zürich; University of Lugano - Faculty of Economics); Markus Leippold (University of Zurich; Swiss Finance Institute); Tobias Wekhof (ETH Zürich - CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research at ETH Zurich) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of an educational program on Sustainable Finance Literacy (SFL) and the impact of this program on sustainable investment decisions. For this purpose, we conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and an incentivized choice experiment. Our findings demonstrate that the SFL educational treatment significantly improves literacy while considering the influence of priming. Participants exposed to the SFL program were more likely to invest in highly sustainable funds by 6 percentage points and less likely to choose less sustainable options with magnitudes between 3 and 2.5 percentage points. The treatment effects increased by up to one half among investors with pre-existing green attitudes. In addition, we provide suggestive evidence that a higher SFL leads to more accurate sustainability perceptions and reduces the tendency to chase high past returns. |
| Keywords: | Sustainable Finance Literacy, RCT, text analysis, household finance |
| JEL: | G11 G18 G53 C83 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chf:rpseri:rp2457 |
| By: | Huizhen Zhong (College of Economics and Management, South China Agricultural Universit); Cary Deck (University of Alabama and Economic Science Institute, Chapman University); Daniel J. Henderson (Department of Economics, Finance and Legal Studies, University of Alabama) |
| Abstract: | This paper reports a series of experiments designed to evaluate how the advertised participation payment impacts participation rates in laboratory experiments. Our initial goal was to generate variation in the participation rate as a means to control for selection bias when evaluating treatment efects in common laboratory experiments. Initially, we varied the advertised participation payment to 1734 people from $5 to $15 using standard email recruitment procedures, but found no statistical evidence this impacted the participation rate. A second study increased the advertised payment up to $100. Here, we fnd marginally signifcant statistical evidence that the advertised participation payment afects the participation rate when payments are large. To combat skepticism of our results, we also conducted a third study in which verbal ofers were made. Here, we found no statistically signifcant increase in participation rates when the participation payment increased from $5 to $10. Finally, we conducted an experiment similar to the frst one at a separate university. We found no statistically signifcant increase in participation rates when the participation payment increased from $7 to $15. The combined results from our four experiments suggest moderate variation in the advertised participation payment from standard levels has little impact on participation rates in typical laboratory experiments. Rather, generating useful variation in participation rates likely requires much larger participation payments and/or larger potential subject pools than are common in laboratory experiments. |
| Keywords: | participation payment; selection bias; treatment efect; laboratory experiments |
| JEL: | C91 D81 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chu:wpaper:24-16 |
| By: | Holden, Stein T. (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Tilahun, Mesfin (Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences) |
| Abstract: | Our study investigates how the devastating 2020-2022 Tigray War has affected the social preferences, reciprocity norms, and trust in a large sample of rural young adults in Tigray, Ethiopia, belonging to rural business groups. We rely on field experimental data with standardized incentivized experiments conducted in 2019 and 2023 to categorize subjects into social preference types. We also identify reciprocity norms, generosity, trustworthiness, and trust in in-group and out-group conditions for a large balanced sample (N=1939). The in-group framing is for subjects belonging to the same business group (N=238 business groups). The out-group is an unknown person from another business group in the same district. Overall, the war in Tigray has resulted in an erosion of within-community social capital. This erosion of social capital includes weakened reciprocity norms, a reduction in the share of the population that behaves altruistically or egalitarian, and a reduction in generosity, trustworthiness, and trust (reduction of 0.6-0.75 Cohen’s d units) that is strongest among those who behaved altruistically or egalitarian before the war. The same and similar effect sizes are also prevalent within business groups, but within business groups, social capital remains high compared to generalized social capital in the study areas. To a small extent, we find that differential exposure to violence or other war incidents among subjects explains the fairly large changes in social capital that our experiments revealed. This may imply that the war spillover effects overshadow the effects of individual war exposure. |
| Keywords: | War impacts; Social preferences; Reciprocity norms; Trust; Field experiment; Rural business groups; Ethiopia |
| JEL: | C93 D74 D84 D91 O12 |
| Date: | 2024–11–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nlsclt:2024_006 |
| By: | Guy Aridor; Rafael Jiménez-Durán; Ro'ee Levy; Lena Song |
| Abstract: | We provide a practical guide to designing, conducting, and analyzing experiments using social media platforms. First, we discuss the benefits and challenges of using the targeting capabilities of advertisements on social media to recruit participants for a large class of experiments. Next, we outline the different types of interventions and their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, we summarize available compliance and outcome data, as well as the main limitations and challenges involved in the design and analysis of social media experiments. Throughout, we provide technical details that are helpful when implementing these experiments. Overall, we argue that experiments on social media are powerful not only for studying economic issues around social media and online platforms but also for experiments studying economic behavior more broadly. |
| Keywords: | social media, experiments, digital interventions, subject recruitment, experiment design |
| JEL: | C90 C93 L82 L96 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11275 |
| By: | Alexandra Baier; Natalie Struwe |
| Abstract: | We study cooperation in an environment where public good providers face the decision to accept a newcomer to their group. A bottom-up process for accepting new members to social groups reveals individual preferences to include newcomers. Alternatively, inclusion can be decided in a top-down process by a third party. We present data from an online public good experiment, varying first whether inclusion of a newcomer is exogenously imposed through a random draw or endogenously decided on by the group members through a majority voting rule. Secondly, we target uncertainty about the behavior of the newcomer by providing feedback information on previous prosocial behavior from a dictator-to-charity task of the newcomer. The results demonstrate a high general willingness to include newcomers, with the voting process resulting in significantly higher inclusion rates compared to the exogenous process. The prosocial information neither affects aggregate inclusion nor aggregate cooperation outcomes significantly. Providing information on prior prosocialty, however, constitutes a significant determinant for individual behavior: it directly affects the likelihood of group members to vote for inclusion, as well as influencing expectations on future cooperativeness of the newcomer. |
| Keywords: | endogenous group formation, inclusion, public good, charitable giving, cooperation |
| JEL: | C72 C92 D64 H41 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2024-08 |
| By: | Andrea La Nauze; Lana Friesen; Kai Li Lim; Flavio Menezes; Lionel Page; Thara Philip; Jake Whitehead |
| Abstract: | In a field experiment tracking 390 electric vehicles minute-by-minute, we show that incentives reduce charging by 17%—27% during peak times and increase it by 34% during midday when solar generation is highest. Peak charging decreases at home, while midday charging rises out of the home. Participants shift and reduce charging, drive less, and run batteries lower. We find heterogeneity based on rooftop solar ownership, commuting, and having a fast home charger. These findings suggest electric vehicles can support the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy and highlight the enabling role of charging infrastructure. |
| Keywords: | electric vehicles, field experiment, renewable energy, rooftop solar, dynamic electricity prices |
| JEL: | Q41 Q42 Q48 R41 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11386 |
| By: | Claes, Ek (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Söderberg, Magnus (Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Griffith University); Kataria, Mitesh (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | In two separate field experiments with Swedish school children aged 10-16, we evaluate variants of an Environmental Education Program designed to promote pro-environmental behavior; specifically, reduce household waste. We match the addresses of participating students with high-resolution administrative records on collected household waste. This allows us to estimate causal effects on the waste generated in households where a child was treated. Both experiments produce null effects on waste generation. In the second experiment, we are also able to estimate the effect of regular environmental education within the Swedish school curriculum, and find only weak evidence that this affects household waste. |
| Keywords: | Field experiments; Environmental Education Programs; Household waste; Intergenerational learning |
| JEL: | D13 I21 Q53 |
| Date: | 2024–10–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0848 |
| By: | Lohmann, Paul M; Gsottbauer, Elisabeth; Farrington, James; Human, Steve; Reisch, Lucia A |
| Abstract: | Greenhouse gas emissions from the food system constitute about one-third of the global total, hence mitigation in this sphere of human activity is a vital goal for research and policy. This study empirically tests the effectiveness of different interventions to reduce the carbon footprint of food choices made on food-delivery apps, using an incentive-compatible online randomized controlled trial with 4, 008 participants. The experiment utilized an interactive web platform that mimics popular online food-delivery platforms (such as Just Eat) and included three treatment conditions: a sign-posted meat tax, a carbon-footprint label, and a choice-architecture intervention that changed the order of the menu so that the lowest carbon-impact restaurants and dishes were presented first. Results show that only the choice-architecture nudge significantly reduced the average meal carbon footprint—by 0.3 kg/CO2e per order (12%), driven by a 5.6 percentage point (13%) reduction in high-carbon meal choices. Moreover, we find evidence of significant health and well-being co-benefits. Menu repositioning resulted in the average meal order having greater nutritional value and fewer calories, whilst significantly increasing self-reported satisfaction with the meal choice. Simple back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that menu repositioning would be a highly cost-effective policy instrument if implemented at scale, with the return on investment expected to be in the range of £1.28 to £3.85 per metric ton of avoided CO2 emissions, depending on implementation costs. |
| Keywords: | carbon-footprint labeling; choice architecture; food-delivery apps; low-carbon diets; repositioning |
| JEL: | L81 |
| Date: | 2024–10–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:125835 |
| By: | Vanessa Valero; Roberto Weber (UZH - Universität Zürich [Zürich] = University of Zurich); Björn Bartling (UZH - Universität Zürich [Zürich] = University of Zurich); Lan Yao (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the causal impact of public discourse on socially responsible market behavior. Across three laboratory experiments, having market participants engage in public discourse generally increases market social responsibility. These positive impacts are robust to variation in several characteristics of the discourse. We provide evidence that discourse strengthens beliefs that others support socially responsible exchange. However, relaxing requirements to engage in discourse sharply reduces its effectiveness. Our findings suggest that campaigns encouraging discussion of appropriate market behavior can have sizable impacts on addressing inefficiencies due to market failures, but that policies encouraging broad public engagement may be important. |
| Keywords: | JEL Classification: C92 D62 D83 M14 Public discourse market failure externalities social responsibility experiment communication, JEL Classification: C92, D62, D83, M14 Public discourse, market failure, externalities, social responsibility, experiment, communication |
| Date: | 2024–08–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04740097 |
| By: | Abril, Veronica; Norza, Ervyn; Perez-Vincent, Santiago; Tobon, Santiago (Universidad EAFIT); Weintraub, Michael (Universidad de los Andes) |
| Abstract: | We study how improving police-citizen interactions increases public trust by experimentally evaluating a police training program in Colombia. The National Police retrained officers in procedural justice principles—such as fairness and respect—while instructing them to intensify citizen interactions. The intervention improved policing frequency, perceptions of fair treatment, and public trust. Our analysis points to strong complementarities between more and better policing: more interactions that lack good behavior or good behavior without increased interactions do not improve trust. We find no impacts on officers’ trust in citizens or beliefs about public trust, implying that institutional change may require more profound efforts. |
| Date: | 2024–10–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:mrh5q |
| By: | Christina A. Martini; Björn Bos; Moritz A. Drupp; Jasper N. Meya; Martin F. Quaas |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the link between dishonesty and the spread of COVID- 19 infections. In an online experiment and panel survey, 2, 723 Germans completed an incentivized coin-tossing task in March 2020 and reported their infection status in four subsequent survey waves up until December 2021. We find that individuals who are most likely dishonest in the coin-tossing task at the onset of the pandemic, as they report the highest number of winning coin tosses, are more than twice as likely to get a future COVID-19 infection than the sample mean. Respondents who are most likely to have reported dishonestly also engage more in behaviors that increase the risk of becoming infected and of transmitting the infection relative to likely honest respondents. Hence, we postulate that differences in preferences and norm compliance are underlying determinants that affect behavior in the experiment and in the field. We observe a similar relationship at the country level between an incentivized measure of civic honesty and excess deaths due to COVID-19 in 22 OECD countries. |
| Keywords: | dishonesty, Covid-19 infections, excess deaths, online experiment |
| JEL: | C90 I12 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11381 |
| By: | Carroll, James; Denny, Eleanor; Lyons, Ronan C.; Petrov, Ivan |
| Abstract: | With buildings accounting for roughly 40 % of energy consumption in the US and Europe, energy efficiency upgrades will be central in meeting climate targets. Using a nationwide controlled field experiment, we find that the inclusion of property-specific energy cost labels within property advertisements increases energy efficiency premiums. We also show that more energy efficient properties sell faster and, for the first time, that energy cost labels shortened time-to-sell. While a major departure from existing property labelling policy, these results suggest that framing property energy efficiency according to their cost implications, rather than in energy units, increases the demand for energy efficiency. |
| Keywords: | energy efficiency; energy policy; field experiment; framing; housing demand; imperfect information |
| JEL: | R21 Q41 Q48 D83 D91 |
| Date: | 2024–11–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:125663 |
| By: | Gräser, Melanie; Grimm, Christine; Hoffmann, Roman |
| Abstract: | Medical treatments in hospitals can be highly stressful for children, potentially affecting their well-being and recovery. Clown interventions have been proposed as an effective non-medical approach to alleviate this stress and improve health outcomes. Here, we employ a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the effects of hospital clown visits on pediatric patients in Palestine, an environment characterized by challenges in healthcare access, sociopolitical tensions and conflicts, and limited resources. As outcomes, we consider the children’s well-being during the hospital stay, the recovery process, and the caregiver’s perception of the quality of the hospitals. The results show that clown visits have a significant, positive effect on the well-being of children during their hospital stay: The children’s well-being in the treatment group was by 0.25 standard deviations higher compared to children who did not see a clown during their hospital stay. The positive well-being impacts are particularly strong among children with a higher socio- economic status and those with a positive attitude towards clowns. No effects of clown visits are found on the subjective recovery of patients as measured by caregivers and on the caregiver’s perception of the hospitals. The findings underscore the potential of non-medical interventions like clown visits to alleviate the psychological burden of hospitalization for children and to increase their well-being, particularly in vulnerable settings like Palestine. |
| Keywords: | Healthcare; clown visits; pediatrics; well-being; randomized controlled trial; Palestine |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wus005:68240480 |
| By: | Lena Dräger; Maximilian Floto; Marina Schröder |
| Abstract: | We provide evidence for an expectation gap, where risk-averse as well as impatient households and experts provide significantly higher prior inflation forecasts. Using a survey randomized control trial (RCT), we can show that information about inflation forecasts closes this expectations gap. The group, whose prior expectations was farthest from the treatment information, tends to adjust posterior expectations more strongly. However, we find no such effect with respect to forecasts for energy prices, which are less informative. Our results suggest that the expectation gap seems to be partially due to differences in information seeking between different types of individuals. |
| Keywords: | inflation expectations, patience, risk preference, households, experts, survey experiment, randomized control trial (RCT) |
| JEL: | E52 E31 D84 D90 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11326 |
| By: | Benjamin Enke; Thomas Graeber; Ryan Oprea; Jeffrey Yang; Thomas W. Graeber |
| Abstract: | We report a large-scale examination of behavioral attenuation: due to information-processing constraints, the elasticity of people’s decisions with respect to economic fundamentals is generally too small. We implement more than 30 experiments, 20 of which were crowd-sourced from leading experts. These experiments cover a broad range of economic decisions, from choice and valuation to belief formation, from strategic games to generic optimization problems, involving investment, savings, effort supply, product demand, taxes, environmental externalities, fairness, cooperation, beauty contests, information disclosure, search, policy evaluation, memory, forecasting and inference. In 93% of our experiments, the elasticity of decisions to fundamentals decreases in participants’ cognitive uncertainty, our measure of the severity of information-processing constraints. Moreover, in decision problems with objective solutions, we observe elasticities that are universally smaller than is optimal. Many widely-studied decision anomalies represent special cases of behavioural attenuation. We discuss both its limits and why it often gives rise to the classic phenomenon of diminishing sensitivity. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11345 |
| By: | Prithwiraj Choudhury; Bart S. Vanneste; Amirhossein Zohrehvand |
| Abstract: | Can generative artificial intelligence (AI) transform the role of the CEO by effectively automating CEO communication? This study investigates whether AI can mimic a human CEO and whether employees’ perception of the communication’s source matter. In a field experiment with a firm, we extend the idea of a Turing test (i.e., a computer mimicking a person), to the idea of generative AI mimicking a specific person, namely the CEO. We call this the “Wade test” and assess if employees can distinguish between communication from their CEO and communication generated by an AI trained on the CEO’s prior communications. We find that AI responses are correctly identified 59% of the time, somewhat better than random chance. When employees believe a response is AI generated, regardless of its actual source, they perceive it as less helpful. To assess causal mechanisms, a second study with a general audience, using public statements from CEOs and from an AI intended to mimic those CEOs, finds that AI-labeled responses (irrespective of their actual source) are rated as less helpful. These findings highlight that, when using generative AI in CEO communication, people may inaccurately identify the source of communication and exhibit aversion towards communication they identify as being AI generated. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11316 |
| By: | Justin Valasek; Pauline Vorjohann; Weijia Wang; Justin Mattias Valasek |
| Abstract: | An influential subset of the literature on distributional preferences studies how preferences condition on information about workers’ characteristics, such as their relative productivity. In this study we confirm that there are default effects when such conditional fair-ness preferences are measured using the “inequality acceptance” method. Depending on the default, implemented inequality decreases by over 65% and cross-country differences are not observed. To organize the data, we develop a simple framework in which agents form a reference point based on a combination of their conditional distributional preferences and the default. We use this framework to illustrate that choice data from different defaults is needed to separately identify distributional preferences and default effects, and discuss best practices for measuring fairness preferences. |
| Keywords: | inequality, fairness, inequality acceptance, distributional preferences, default effects, experiment |
| JEL: | C91 D63 J16 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11288 |
| By: | Abril, Veronica; Perez-Vincent, Santiago; Tobon, Santiago (Universidad EAFIT); Vanegas-Arias, Martin |
| Abstract: | This study explores whether procedurally just interactions between police and citizens enhance perceptions of police legitimacy in high-crime environments. We conducted a representative in-person survey across five major Colombian cities, covering about 7 million residents. The survey included a vignette experiment presenting respondents with one of four scenarios that varied police officer respectfulness—characterized by clear communication of intentions—and neutrality. Our findings reveal that respectful behavior from officers significantly boosts citizens' perceptions of police legitimacy. In contrast, neutrality alone, or even combined with respect, does not affect these perceptions. This suggests that respect is an important component of procedural justice in fostering police legitimacy, while the standalone importance of neutrality is questionable. Policymakers should note that emphasizing respectful interactions in police training can foster greater trust and cooperation within communities, aiding effective crime prevention and community policing efforts. Conversely, focusing solely on neutrality without ensuring respect may be insufficient, possibly due to citizens' biases toward specific stereotypes. |
| Date: | 2024–10–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:67urc |
| By: | Zhou, Alex (Department of Economics, University of Warwick,); Mahadeshwar, Ruchi (Department of Economics, Brown University,) |
| Abstract: | Despite its recognized inefficiency, the persistence of income hiding between spouses remains largely unaddressed in the literature. Our study suggests that one cause of persistency is that this behavior may provide strategic benefits, particularly by affecting labor supply decisions and overall household income. Using a field experiment involving low-income workers in Southeast Asia, we estimate the effects of randomly disclosing spousal income on productivity in a standardized work task. Our findings indicate that income disclosure significantly affects labor productivity compared to a nondisclosure scenario, in which spouses can conceal any income generated. The effects exhibit notable gender differences: when income is disclosed to their spouses, women decrease productivity, while men increase productivity. We introduce a two-stage game model and further empirical tests to demonstrate that these gender differences arise from disparities in bargaining power, with men holding significantly more bargaining power than women. Overall, this study sheds light on the unintended consequences of financial inclusion or pay transparency policies on both productivity and household inequality. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1525 |
| By: | Gerard J. van den Berg; Sarah Bernhard; Gesine Stephan; Arne Uhlendorff (CREST, Palaiseau, France) |
| Abstract: | Integration agreements (IA) outline the efforts the jobseeker should undertake to find employment and specify the services that the caseworker would provide to assist them in their job search. The agreements include a declaration of legal consequences, and punitive benefit sanctions could be imposed based on this declaration. Recent evidence has shown that these IAs are effective for recipients of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. Using a randomized controlled trial, this paper investigates whether IAs support the integration of welfare benefit recipients into the labor market. This integration is of utmost importance from a policy and societal point of view. Newly registered recipients of means-tested benefits were randomly assigned to one of three groups, receiving either a) a standard integration agreement with the accompanying declaration of legal consequences at the beginning of the welfare spell, or b) an integration agreement without such a declaration, or c) no integration agreement within the first six months of the benefit receipt. Findings indicate that, on average, group assignment has no effect on the transition out of welfare or entry into employment. Based on a Random Forest analysis to capture heterogeneity, we find no effect by the degree of labor market prospects either. |
| Keywords: | Social assistance, unemployment, active labor market policy, field experiment |
| JEL: | J68 J64 I38 |
| Date: | 2024–11–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crs:wpaper:2024-12 |
| By: | Ana Costa-Ramón; Ursina Schaede; Michaela Slotwinski; Anne Ardila Brenoe |
| Abstract: | The “child penalty” significantly reduces women’s lifetime earnings and pension savings, but it remains unclear whether these gaps are the deliberate result of forward-looking decisions. This paper provides novel evidence on the role of information constraints in mothers’ labor supply decisions. We first document descriptively that mothers are largely inattentive to the long-term financial consequences of reduced hours. In a large-scale field experiment that combines rich survey and administrative data, we then provide mothers with objective, individualized information about the long-run costs of reduced labor supply. The treatment increases demand for financial information and future labor supply plans, in particular among women who underestimate the long-term costs. Leveraging linked employer administrative data one year post-intervention, we observe that mothers who underestimate the long-term costs increase their labor supply by 6 percent over the mean. |
| JEL: | J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11359 |
| By: | Ahmed, Akhter U.; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Hoddinott, John; Roy, Shalini |
| Abstract: | Evidence shows that cash and in-kind transfer programs increase food security while interventions are ongoing, including during or immediately after shocks. But less is known about whether receipt of these programs can have protective effects for household food security against shocks that occur several years after interventions end. We study the effects of a transfer program implemented as a cluster-randomized control trial in rural Bangladesh from 2012-2014 – the Transfer Modality Research Initiative (TMRI) – on food security in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We assess TMRI’s impacts at three post-program time points: before the shock (2018), amidst the shock (2021), and after the immediate effects of the shock (2022). We find that TMRI showed protective effects on household food security during and after the pandemic, but program design features “mattered†; positive impacts were only seen in the treatment arm that combined cash transfers with nutrition behavior change communication (Cash+BCC). Other treatment arms – cash only, and food only – showed no significant sustained effects on our household food security measures after the intervention ended, nor did they show protective effects during the pandemic. A plausible mechanism is that investments made by Cash+BCC households in productive assets – specifically livestock – increased their pre-shock resilience capacity. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19; resilience; shock; social protection; Asia; Southern Asia; Bangladesh |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2282 |
| By: | Matias Giaccobasso (VATT Institute for Economic Research); Brad Nathan (Rutgers University); Ricardo Perez-Truglia (University of California, Los Angeles); Alejandro Zentner (University of Texas at Dallas) |
| Abstract: | Do perceptions about government spending affect willingness to pay taxes? We test this hypothesis with a natural field experiment that focuses on the allocation of property taxes to public schools. Our results show that taxpayers often misperceive the destination of their tax dollars. By introducing shocks to households’ perceptions via an information-provision experiment, we find that perceptions of how tax dollars are used significantly affect the probability of filing a tax appeal. Moreover, the effects are consistent with reciprocal motivations: individuals are more willing to pay taxes if they believe that the government services funded by those taxes will provide greater personal benefit. |
| Keywords: | taxes, protest, public services, education, redistribution |
| JEL: | C93 H26 I22 K34 K42 Z13 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fit:wpaper:28 |
| By: | Jian-Qiao Zhu; Joshua C. Peterson; Benjamin Enke; Thomas L. Griffiths |
| Abstract: | Understanding how people behave in strategic settings–where they make decisions based on their expectations about the behavior of others–is a longstanding problem in the behavioral sciences. We conduct the largest study to date of strategic decision-making in the context of initial play in two-player matrix games, analyzing over 90, 000 human decisions across more than 2, 400 procedurally generated games that span a much wider space than previous datasets. We show that a deep neural network trained on these data predicts people’s choices better than leading theories of strategic behavior, indicating that there is systematic variation that is not explained by those theories. We then modify the network to produce a new, interpretable behavioural model, revealing what the original network learned about people: their ability to optimally respond and their capacity to reason about others are dependent on the complexity of individual games. This context-dependence is critical in explaining deviations from the rational Nash equilibrium, response times, and uncertainty in strategic decisions. More broadly, our results demonstrate how machine learning can be applied beyond prediction to further help generate novel explanations of complex human behavior. |
| Keywords: | behavioural game theory, large scale experiment, machine learning, behavioral economics, complexity |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11296 |
| By: | Rumpf, Matthias; Haliassos, Michael; Kosyakova, Tetyana; Otter, Thomas |
| Abstract: | We conduct a web-based experiment in which we elicit the recommendations of professional and lay advisors on the risky portfolio share of randomly assigned vignettes of investors. Both professionals and lay advisors respond to investor characteristics broadly in agreement with portfolio theory, but they are also influenced by their own characteristics and portfolios. Professionals tend to respond more than lay advisors to investor characteristics, but also to their own risk aversion and income. Allowing for unobserved heterogeneity and estimating the distribution of advice through Bayesian methods, we find that professionals tend to recommend more limited risk exposure to older college educated groups compared to their peers, while they recommend young, lower-educated individuals to include more stocks than what their peers and elders would recommend. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:imfswp:305256 |
| By: | Horton, John J.; Johari, Ramesh; Kircher, Philipp (Université catholique de Louvain, LIDAM/CORE, Belgium) |
| Abstract: | In a labor market model with cheap talk, employers can send messages about their will- ingness 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. |
| Date: | 2024–06–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cor:louvco:2024013 |
| By: | Laura Breitkopf; Shyamal Chowdhury; Shambhavi Priyam; Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch; Matthias Sutter |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between parenting style and a broad range of children’s skills and outcomes. Based on survey and experimental data from 5, 580 children and their parents, we find that children exposed to positive parenting have higher IQs, are more altruistic, open to new experiences, conscientious, and agreeable, have a higher locus of control, self-control, and self-esteem, perform better in scholarly achievement tests, behave more prosocially in everyday life, and are more satisfied with their life. Positive parenting is negatively associated with children’s neuroticism, patience, engagement in risky behaviors, and their emotional and behavioral problems. |
| Keywords: | parenting style, child outcomes, economic preferences, personality traits, IQ |
| JEL: | C91 D01 D10 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11391 |
| By: | Sandoval, Héctor; Hancevic, Pedro; Bejarano, Hernán |
| Abstract: | We conducted an audit experiment in which fictional households requested quotes for the purchase, installation, and interconnection of solar photovoltaic systems in four cities across Mexico. This allowed us to identify whether there was opportunistic behavior among local sellers and to quantify the extent of discrimination based on characteristics of residential users, such as gender, socioeconomic status, product knowledge, and access to external financing sources. The main findings indicate that women and customers with higher socioeconomic status not only face price discrimination but are also offered oversized systems. There is no evidence of such practices towards customers with prior product information or those who have secured external financing for the purchase. |
| Keywords: | Energía, Equidad e inclusión social, Finanzas, Integración, |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbl:dblwop:2186 |
| By: | Susan Athey; Juan Camilo Castillo; Bharat Chandar |
| Abstract: | Online marketplaces have adopted new quality control mechanisms that can accommodate a flexible pool of providers. In the context of ride-hailing, we measure the effectiveness of these mechanisms, which include ratings, incentives, and behavioral nudges. Using telemetry data as an objective measure of quality, we find that drivers not only respond to user preferences but also improve their behavior after receiving warnings about their low ratings. Furthermore, we use data from a randomized experiment to show that informing drivers about their past behavior improves quality, especially for low-performing drivers. Lastly, we find that UberX drivers exhibit behavior comparable to that of UberTaxi drivers, suggesting that Uber’s new quality control mechanisms successfully maintain a high level of service quality. |
| JEL: | J28 J48 L50 L91 R41 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33087 |
| By: | Somers, Melline (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, ROA / Health, skills and inequality); Stolp, Tom (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, ROA / Education and transition to work); Burato, Francesca; van Merode, Frits (Faculteit FHML Centraal, RS: CAPHRI - R2 - Creating Value-Based Health Care); Vooren, Melvin |
| Abstract: | The healthcare and education sectors suffer from shortages of nurses and teachers. Extending their working hours has often been proposed as a solution to this. In this study, we conduct a discrete choice experiment (DCE) in the Netherlands to elicit nurses’ and teachers’ preferences for different jobs and working conditions. We present both nurses and teachers with nine hypothetical choice sets, each consisting of two jobs that differ in seven observable job attributes. From the DCE, we infer workers’ willingness to pay for these different job characteristics. Moreover, we calculate how many additional hours workers would be willing to work if a specific workplace condition were met. We find that both nurses and teachers most negatively value high work pressure. Spending a lot of time on patient-related tasks is highly valued by nurses, followed by having more control over working hours. Next to work pressure, teachers place significant importance on receiving social support from both colleagues and managers. Nurses and teachers who work part-time require higher incentives to work additional hours compared to full-time workers. |
| JEL: | J45 J81 |
| Date: | 2024–10–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umaror:2024005e |
| By: | F. Charton-Vachet (Audencia Business School); D. Louis; C. Lombart (Audencia Business School) |
| Abstract: | Abstract Purpose The objective of this exploratory study was to investigate the communication themes that retailers should prioritise to convey terroir store brands' (TSBs) authenticity and the impact of their authenticity on several variables (i.e. value, attitude, trust, intentions and effective purchases). TSBs combine a variety of products that adhere to stringent standards associated with a terroir. Charters et al. (2017) referred to a terroir as ‘a resource based on unique physical origins and shared cultural personification that shape a product's benefits into a meaningful value proposition' (p. 755). Three communication themes were studied: the ingredients' origin, traditional local recipes and the producer's history in a region (terroir). Design/methodology/approach An experiment was conducted in a store laboratory. A total of 420 consumers representative of the French population were randomly assigned to four independent groups in a between-subjects study design. They shopped in the store laboratory with a section dedicated to a TSB. Each of the independent samples in this experiment was exposed to posters in the store laboratory related to the three communication themes studied. The control group did not see any posters. Findings The study showed that the level of TSB authenticity was highest for the communication theme related to the traditional local recipes of the culinary dishes offered by the TSB. Next came the theme related to the ingredients' origin, followed by the producer's history in the terroir. Moreover, for the communication theme related to the traditional local recipes, TSB authenticity had a direct impact on value, trust and intentions. Moreover, the link between intentions and effective purchases of TSB products has only been established for this specific communication theme. Originality/value First, this study adds to the limited research on TSBs' authenticity and identifies the communication themes retailers should use to promote such brands. It also proposes an integrative model of the consequences of TSBs' authenticity in the retailing field that highlights the direct and indirect links (through value, attitude, trust and intentions) between authenticity and consumers' effective purchases. Finally, it indicates the kind of discourse on TSBs that conveys their authenticity. |
| Keywords: | Store brand, terroir, authenticity, brand communication |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04740676 |
| By: | Yulin Hswen (UC San Francisco - University of California [San Francisco] - UC - University of California, AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Ismaël Rafaï (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Antoine Lacombe (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Bérengère Davin-Casalena (ORS PACA - Observatoire régional de la santé Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur [Marseille]); Dimitri Dubois (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier, UM - Université de Montpellier, CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Thierry Blayac (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier); Bruno Ventelou (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI)-based diagnostic alternatives compared to traditional biological testing through a randomized scenario experiment in the domain of neurodegenerative diseases (NDs). A total of 3225 pairwise choices of ND risk-prediction tools were offered to participants, with 1482 choices comparing AI with the biological saliva test and 1743 comparing AI+ with the saliva test (with AI+ using digital consumer data, in addition to electronic medical data). Overall, only 36.68% of responses showed preferences for AI/AI+ alternatives. Stratified by AI sensitivity levels, acceptance rates for AI/AI+ were 35.04% at 60% sensitivity and 31.63% at 70% sensitivity, and increased markedly to 48.68% at 95% sensitivity (p <0.01). Similarly, acceptance rates by specificity were 29.68%, 28.18%, and 44.24% at 60%, 70%, and 95% specificity, respectively (P < 0.01). Notably, AI consistently garnered higher acceptance rates (45.82%) than AI+ (28.92%) at comparable sensitivity and specificity levels, except at 60% sensitivity, where no significant difference was observed. These results highlight the nuanced preferences for AI diagnostics, with higher sensitivity and specificity significantly driving acceptance of AI diagnostics. |
| Keywords: | Artificial intelligence, AI diagnostics, Neurodegenerative diseases, Machine learning |
| Date: | 2024–10–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04746007 |
| By: | Lakemann, Tabea; Beber, Bernd; Lay, Jann; Priebe, Jan |
| Abstract: | In many developing countries, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) employ more people than any other type of firm, so identifying ways to raise productivity, improve employment conditions, and formalize labor in these settings is of prime policy importance. However, due to the small number of workers per firm and the possibly long results chain linking management to employment, few MSME-targeted interventions and evaluations address job-related outcomes directly. We do so in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a support program for MSMEs in Côte d'Ivoire that included financial management and human resources (HR) components. Six and 18 months after the end of the program, we find muted impacts on business practices, access to finance, and firm performance. On the employment side we find positive and significant impacts on job quality, driven by the share of employees receiving at least the minimum wage and the share with written contracts. We find no significant effect on the number of staff. Taken together, our results underscore the difficulty of boosting firm performance and creating jobs with a low-intensity intervention on the one hand, and the feasibility and importance of improvements in employment quality in MSMEs in developing countries on the other. |
| Keywords: | Côte d'Ivoire, MSME support, employment quality, firm performance, randomized controlled trial |
| JEL: | O12 L26 M10 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:gigawp:305255 |
| By: | Timothy N. Cason; Alex Tabarrok; Robertas Zubrickas |
| Abstract: | Crowdfunding can suffer from information asymmetry, leaving some investors disappointed with low-quality projects while other high-quality projects remain unfunded. We show that refund bonuses, which provide investors a payment if a fundraising campaign is unsuccessful, can signal project quality and help overcome the market failure in crowdfunding. Because strong projects have a lower risk of bonus payout, entrepreneurs with strong projects are more likely to offer bonuses. This signals high quality to investors, and due to their updated beliefs this drives investment toward such projects. An experiment provides supporting empirical evidence for the benefits of this signaling solution to the problems of information asymmetry in crowdfunding. |
| Keywords: | Crowdfunding; threshold implementation; adverse selection; experiments |
| JEL: | C72 C90 D82 G23 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pur:prukra:1339 |
| By: | Brice Magdalou (CNRS, AMSE, France); Gaëlle Aymeric (CEE-M, University of Montpellier, France) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents findings from a web-experiment on a representative sample of the French population. It examines the acceptability of the Pigou-Dalton principle of transfers, which posits that transferring income from an individual to a relatively poorer one, reduces overall inequality. While up to 60% of respondents reject standard transfers, the three alternative transfers we test receive more approval, especially those promoting solidarity among lower-income recipients. The study then models respondents’ preferences with two types of social welfare functions, utilitarian and Extended Gini. The Extended Gini model aligns better with individual preferences. Nevertheless, Extended Gini-type social welfare functions that adhere to the principle of transfers (including the one underlying the Gini index) poorly capture preferences of each individual. However, quite surprisingly, the preferences of the median individual align almost perfectly with the Gini-based function, using either parametric or non-parametric estimates. |
| Keywords: | Gini Index, Web Experiment, Progressive Transfers, Social Welfare Functions, Inequality, Utilitarianism, Extended Gini, Ethical Preferences |
| JEL: | C51 C99 D31 D63 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2024-678 |
| By: | Silvia Albrizio; Hippolyte W. Balima; Bertrand Gruss; Eric Huang; Colombe Ladreit |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates public attitudes toward product market regulation (PMR) reforms aimed at fostering private participation and competition in two network sectors—electricity and telecommunications. Despite the benefits of such reforms, including enhanced productivity and lower prices, they often face significant public resistance. We conduct large-scale surveys of 6, 300 individuals in three emerging market and developing economies (Mexico, Morocco, and South Africa) to analyze the role of socioeconomic characteristics, beliefs, and perceptions in shaping support for PMR reforms. Our findings reveal that individual beliefs and perceptions, particularly those related to how policies work and market economy views, are major predictors of reform support. Randomized information treatments show that raising awareness about the costs of the status quo and the benefits of PMR reforms significantly increases public support. Among initially skeptical individuals, societal concerns play a larger role in respondents’ reasons for nonsupport, consistent with models of social preferences. However, offering tailored complementary and compensatory measures can further enhance support among those skeptical individuals. |
| Keywords: | Product market reforms; political economy; perceptions; survey; experiment; PMR reform; reform support; market economy view; policy support; market economy; Electricity; Competition; Commodity markets; Emerging and frontier financial markets; Africa |
| Date: | 2024–10–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2024/216 |
| By: | Rafael Wilms; Nicolas Bastardoz; Clara Seif El Dahan; Philippe Jacquart (EM - EMLyon Business School) |
| Abstract: | In the emergence of the charismatic effect, the leader–follower value congruence assumption posits that the charisma signal creates a charismatic effect for followers who have congruent values with the leader but may repel followers with incongruent values. Whereas this assumption is a central pillar of charisma signaling, it has not been causally tested. We theorize the charisma signal, leader–follower value congruence, and their interaction as predictors of the charismatic effect (i.e., perceived leader charisma, prototypicality, and effectiveness). In three preregistered experiments, we manipulate the charisma signal and communicated leader values by relying on video-recorded speeches and measure follower values beforehand. We operationalize leader–follower value congruence as the degree to which communicated leader values and measured follower values match. Study 1 showed mixed results for the leader–follower value congruence assumption, whereas Studies 2 and 3 – using polarized rhetoric – fully support it. We found some evidence that value congruence moderates the charisma signal–charismatic effect relationship, such that the relationship becomes stronger (weaker) with more value congruence (incongruence) in Studies 1 and 3 (but not in Study 2). Theoretical and practical implications as well as limitations are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Perceived leader charisma, Leader prototypicality, Leader effectiveness, Leader-follower value congruence, Charisma signaling |
| Date: | 2024–10–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04742810 |
| By: | Apoorva Lal; Alexander Fischer; Matthew Wardrop |
| Abstract: | Large-scale randomized experiments are seldom analyzed using panel regression methods because of computational challenges arising from the presence of millions of nuisance parameters. We leverage Mundlak's insight that unit intercepts can be eliminated by using carefully chosen averages of the regressors to rewrite several common estimators in a form that is amenable to weighted-least squares estimation with frequency weights. This renders regressions involving arbitrary strata intercepts tractable with very large datasets, optionally with the key compression step computed out-of-memory in SQL. We demonstrate that these methods yield more precise estimates than other commonly used estimators, and also find that the compression strategy greatly increases computational efficiency. We provide in-memory (pyfixest) and out-of-memory (duckreg) python libraries to implement these estimators. |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2410.09952 |