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on Experimental Economics |
| By: | Jack Fitzgerald (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Tinbergen Institute) |
| Abstract: | Recent studies showing that some outcome variables do not statistically significantly differ between real-stakes and hypothetical-stakes conditions have raised methodological challenges to experimental economics' disciplinary norm that experimental choices should be incentivized with real stakes. I show that the hypothetical bias measures estimated in these studies do not econometrically identify the hypothetical biases that matter in most modern experiments. Specifically, traditional hypothetical bias measures are fully informative in 'elicitation experiments' where the researcher is uninterested in treatment effects (TEs). However, in 'intervention experiments' where TEs are of interest, traditional hypothetical bias measures are uninformative; real stakes matter if and only if TEs differ between stakes conditions. I demonstrate that traditional hypothetical bias measures are often misleading estimates of hypothetical bias for intervention experiments, both econometrically and through re-analyses of three recent hypothetical bias experiments. The fact that a given experimental outcome does not statistically significantly differ on average between stakes conditions does not imply that all TEs on that outcome are unaffected by hypothetical stakes. Therefore, the recent hypothetical bias literature does not justify abandoning real stakes in most modern experiments. Maintaining norms that favor completely or probabilistically providing real stakes for experimental choices is useful for ensuring externally valid TEs in experimental economics. |
| Keywords: | Interaction effects, meta-analysis, generalizability, bootstrap |
| JEL: | C18 C90 D91 |
| Date: | 2024–11–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20240070 |
| By: | Diego Marino Fages (Durham University) |
| Abstract: | The growing political polarization may influence a critical input for policymaking: people’s economic expectations. This study examines whether political preferences shape individuals’ forecasts for key economic indicators (using a preregistered online experiment in the context of Argentina’s 2023 election). The experiment (N=1, 162) exogenously manipulates (a) the incentives to report accurate forecasts and, (b) the information about current indicators. The results show that providing incentives for accuracy reduces the gap between subjects’ forecasts regarding different candidates’ performance. Providing information regarding the current economic indicators reduces the variance of the forecasts but not the gaps. These findings are relevant for survey design. |
| Keywords: | motivated reasoning; forecasts; prediction; expectations; survey experiment |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notcdx:2024-08 |
| By: | Armando Holzknecht; Jürgen Huber; Michael Kirchler; Tibor Neugebauer |
| Abstract: | In a pre-registered laboratory asset market study, we investigate dynamics of asset markets with zero (or close to zero) fundamental values. We introduce the “greater fool asset market game” with a zero-value token, whose price doubles in each period. We design several treatments, which differ in terms of whether the fundamental value is zero for sure, and whether the rather low probability of non-zero fundamentals is known (Risk) or not (Ambiguity). We find that prices in markets with zero fundamental value are clearly above zero. Furthermore, we report that prices in treatment Ambiguity are substantially higher than those in the baseline and in treatment Risk. Finally, we show that beliefs regarding the asset’s value and others’ participation explain individual market participation. |
| Keywords: | speculative bubbles, greater fool, behavioral economics, experimental finance |
| JEL: | C91 C92 G12 G41 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2024-09 |
| By: | Alexander M. Danzer; Helen Zeidler |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates time inconsistencies in food consumption based on a field experiment at a college canteen where participants repeatedly select and con- sume lunch menus. The design features a convex non-monetary budget in a natu- ral environment and satisfies the consume-on-receipt assumption. Leveraging 3, 666 choices of different food healthiness, we find no time inconsistency at the meal level. Utility weight estimates at the dish level reveal that consumers balance healthiness between food categories. Individuals who exert self-control take up a commitment device as soon as available, while non-committers are present-biased. Dynamic inconsistencies in food and money choices are independent. |
| Keywords: | Field Experiment, Dynamic Inconsistency, Commitment, Food Consumption |
| JEL: | D12 D01 C93 D91 I12 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bav:wpaper:239_danzer_zeidler.rdf |
| By: | Burgstaller, Lilith; Pfeil, Katharina |
| Abstract: | Does whistleblowing deter rule violations when such violations are believed to be common? We examine this question in an online experiment about collaborative tax evasion. We vary whether subjects can blow the whistle on their partner in crime and introduce a high-evasion environment by framing the social norm such that evasion is expected to be common. Our findings show that giving partners in crime the option to blow the whistle on their partner does not significantly deter collaborative tax evasion. Collaborative tax evasion significantly increases in a high-evasion environment compared to an unspecified norm environment, even when whistleblowing is possible. This finding underlines that the norm environment is crucial for evasion and corroborates that whistleblowing is ineffective when both partners benefit from collaborative evasion. We offer several explanations for these findings. |
| Keywords: | Collaborative Tax Evasion, Social Norm, Peer Reporting, Whistleblowing, Online Experiment |
| JEL: | H26 E26 O17 D91 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:aluord:305289 |
| By: | Ahomäki, Iiro (University of Jyväskylä); Böckerman, Petri (University of Jyväskylä); Pehkonen, Jaakko (Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics); Saastamoinen, Leena (Finnish Medicines Agency) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of an information intervention on opioid prescribing using a preregistered research design and comprehensive nationwide register data. The intervention involved a personal letter sent to all Finnish physicians who had prescribed oxycodone or fentanyl to a patient who had purchased at least three months' supply of these medications in the previous year. These physicians were randomized into the treatment and control groups. The letter was sent to physicians in the treatment group in May 2019, and the control group received the same letter six months later. The intervention letter contained information about opioid use and proper pain treatment using opioids based on national clinical guidelines. While the intervention showed no significant effects in the whole study population, we detected heterogeneity in effect with respect to preregistered physician characteristics. We observed a 22% reduction in fentanyl and oxycodone prescriptions to new patients among physicians receiving their first information letter, a 4.8% reduction in any opioid prescriptions among high-volume prescribers as well as an increase of 7% in nonopioid analgesic prescribing among low-volume prescribers. These results highlight the challenges policymakers encounter when attempting to sustainably reduce opioid prescriptions and mitigate harmful clinical practices through repeated information-based interventions. |
| Keywords: | opioid prescribing, information intervention, randomized experiment |
| JEL: | I10 I12 I19 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17416 |
| By: | Loukas Balafoutas; Esther Blanco; Raphael Epperson |
| Abstract: | Technological progress offers new and promising ways to provide targeted information to consumers and facilitate behavioral change. We conduct a randomized controlled trial with a global supermarket chain and food producer to evaluate the effectiveness of a targeted information intervention that offers consumers individualized feedback about the sustainability of purchased products and close substitutes. We find that the majority of consumers access the information, independently of whether they have bought sustainable or unsustainable products in the past. Yet, providing the targeted information has no significant impact on consumption choices, which is neither driven by inattention to information nor price differentials. |
| Keywords: | Information provision, pro-environmental behavior, sustainability, label credence goods, randomized controlled trial |
| JEL: | D12 D82 Q53 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2024-10 |
| By: | Sharma, Karmini (Imperial College London Business School) |
| Abstract: | Sexual harassment awareness training is a key tool to combat sexual harassment, which affects nearly 205 million people in the workplace (ILO, 2022). This paper provides the first randomized evaluation of such training in collaboration with colleges in Delhi, India, to study its impact on sexual harassment. I randomly assigned men to receive this training, with empathy-building, and collected reports of sexual harassment from women in their classes. The training significantly reduced sexual harassment for up to 3 years and altered men's perceptions of social disapproval more than their intrinsic attitudes. It also led to a long-lasting reduction in classroom romantic relationships. A mechanism experiment suggests this is due to women finding it difficult to judge men's quality when social disapproval generates a pooling equilibrium. A similar intervention for women had no detectable effects. Finally, men's training increased women's labor market engagement without affecting their mental well-being or test scores. |
| Keywords: | Gender, sexual harassment, deterrence, beliefs JEL Classification: D91, J16, J28, K42, O12 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:728 |
| By: | Brian Jabarian; Elia Sartori |
| Abstract: | We argue that storytelling contexts – the way information is communicated through varying credibility sources, visual designs, writing styles, and content delivery – impact the effectiveness of surveys and elections in eliciting preferences formed through critical thinking (reasoned preferences). Through an artefactual field experiment with a US sample (N = 725), incentivized by an (LLM), we find that intermediate storytelling contexts prompt critical thinking more effectively than basic or sophisticated ones. Sensitivity to these contexts is linked to individual cognitive traits, and participants with a high need for cognition are particularly responsive to intermediate contexts. In a conceptual framework, we explore how critical thinkers impact the efficiency of elections and polls in aggregating reasoned preferences. Storytelling contexts that effectively prompt critical thinking improve election efficiency. However, the in-decisiveness of critical thinkers can have ambiguous effects on election bias, potentially posing challenges for principals who are required to act on these election outcomes. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11282 |
| By: | Anup Malani (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Cynthia Kinnan (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Gabriella Conti (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Kosuke Imai (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Morgen Miller (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Shailender Swaminathan (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Alessandra Voena (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Bartosz Woda (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Date: | 2024–07–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:24/33 |
| By: | Anna Esslinger; Katharina Pfeil; Lars P. Feld |
| Abstract: | Are the effects of tax aversion on labor supply symmetric? In a real-effort online experiment, participants are exposed to manipulated wages and taxes after first experiencing the same reference wage. More participants change their labor supply when encountering a tax increase than when experiencing an equivalent wage decrease. However, there is no significant difference in labor supply change between the groups that received tax decreases and wage increases. Tax averse behavior existing only in the presence of net wage decreases implies asymmetric labor supply responses to taxation. |
| Keywords: | tax aversion, loss aversion, labor supply asymmetry, online experiment |
| JEL: | H20 H30 D91 J22 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11317 |
| By: | Anne Brockmeyer; Francisco Garfias; Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato |
| Abstract: | Can the provision of public goods strengthen the fiscal capacity of governments in developing countries and move them toward an equilibrium of widespread tax compliance? We present evidence of the impact of local public infrastructure on tax compliance, leveraging a large public investment experiment and individual property tax records from Mexico City. Despite the salience and large effects of these investments on access to infrastructure, property values, and local economic development, we find no changes in property tax compliance and can rule out even small increases. These null effects persist even when taxpayers are reminded about the tax-benefit link. |
| Keywords: | tax compliance, public goods, infrastructure, development |
| JEL: | H71 O23 H41 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11270 |
| By: | Raquel Bernal (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Michele Giannola (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Milagros Nores (National Institute for Early Education Research) |
| Date: | 2024–10–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:24/43 |
| By: | Claudio Schilter; Samuel Lüthi; Stefan C. Wolter |
| Abstract: | We merge experimental data on competitiveness of a large sample of students with their complete educational history for up to ten years after the initial assessment. Exploiting quasi-random class assignments, we find that having competitive peers as classmates makes students choose and secure positions in higher-paying occupations. These occupations are also more challenging and more popular. On the cost side, competitive peers do not lead to a lower probability of graduating from the subsequent job-specific education, but they significantly increase the probability of requiring extra time to do so. |
| Keywords: | peer effects, competitiveness, occupational choice |
| JEL: | C93 D91 J24 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11342 |
| By: | Daehyun Kim; Ichiro Obara |
| Abstract: | We introduce and develop an information order for experiments based on a generalized notion of garbling called weighted garbling. An experiment is more informative than another in this order if the latter experiment is obtained by a weighted garbling of the former. This notion can be shown to be equivalent to a regular garbling conditional on some event for the former experiment. We also characterize this order in terms of posterior beliefs and show that it only depends on the support of posterior beliefs, not their distribution. Our main results are two characterizations of the weighted-garbling order based on some decision problems. For static Bayesian decision problems, one experiment is more informative than another in the weighted-garbling order if and only if a decision maker's value of information (i.e., the difference in the optimal expected payoffs with and without an experiment) from the former is guaranteed to be some fraction of the value of information from the latter for any decision problem. When the weighted garbling is a regular garbling, this lower bound reduces to the value of information itself as the fraction becomes one, thus generalizing the result in Blackwell (1951, 1953). We also consider a class of stopping time problems where the state of nature changes over time according to a hidden Markov process, and a patient decision maker can conduct the same experiment as many times as she wants without any cost before making a one-time decision. We show that an experiment is more informative than another in the weighted-garbling order if and only if the decision maker achieves a weakly higher expected payoff for any problem with a regular prior belief in this class. |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2410.21694 |
| By: | Wendt, Charlotte; Kosin, Dominick; Adam, Martin; Benlian, Alexander |
| Abstract: | The growing adoption of smart meters enables the measurement of households' energy consumption, influenced not solely by building characteristics such as thermal insulation but also by residents' behavioural patterns, such as heating and ventilation practices. To motivate residents to adopt more sustainable behaviours, user interfaces on smartphones and laptops are increasingly using consumption data from households' smart meters to enable effective goal‐setting. In contrast to previous research largely focusing on goal‐setting in isolation, this study examines the role of specific social comparison‐related design features that future research and practitioners can consider along with goal‐setting to stimulate sustainable behaviours. Specifically, we look into the influence of residents' perception of their relative performance (i.e., whether their behaviour was better or worse than a reference group) on their ambition to act (i.e., targeted improvement goal) and their actual energy consumption behaviour. Moreover, we investigate the influence of a goal's evaluative standard (i.e., whether the goal refers to one's own or other's performance) on the relationship between relative performance, ambition to act, and energy consumption behaviour. Drawing on social comparison theory, we conducted a framed field experiment with 152 households. We find that a goal's evaluative standard influences residents' awareness of their relative performance, affecting their ambition to act and, ultimately, their energy consumption behaviour. More specifically, we find that whereas other‐ (vs. self‐) referencing goals encourage residents from worse‐than‐average performing households more strongly to improve their energy consumption behaviour, they discourage better‐than‐average ones. Overall, our study provides novel insights into the interplay between relative performance and evaluative standards as a means of fostering social comparison in smart meter‐facilitated goal‐setting, highlighting their crucial role in effectively supporting sustainable behaviours. |
| Date: | 2024–11–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dar:wpaper:150428 |
| By: | Jana Freundt; Holger Herz |
| Abstract: | We study how individuals’ willingness to delegate choice is affected by heterogeneity in identity between the delegee and the delegate. While it is straightforward that such heterogeneity can affect delegation for instrumental reasons, we show experimentally that divergent identity also causes delegation aversion through purely intrinsic channels. More specifically, we demonstrate that Republicans (Democrats) are intrinsically less averse to delegate decisions over their own outcomes when the delegate also identifies as a Republican (Democrat), compared to when the delegate identifies as a Democrat (Republican). By design, beliefs about the actions of the delegate cannot explain the observed treatment effect. Our finding suggests that contrasting identities impede the creation — or the continuation — of shared institutions that rely on centralization of control beyond what can be explained by purely instrumental reasons. |
| Keywords: | identity, autonomy, experiments |
| JEL: | D02 D91 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11304 |
| By: | Andrea Fazio (Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy. GLO, Essen, Germany); Tommaso Reggiani (Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom; Masaryk University, MUEEL lab, Brno, Czechia; IZA, Bonn, Germany); Paolo Santori (Department of Philosophy, Tilburg University, The Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically tests Max Weber’s thesis on how religious narratives, particularly the Protestant Ethic, influence attitudes toward wealth redistribution. Weber suggested that the Protestant Reformation, led to the belief that economic success was a sign of divine favor, legitimizing wealth inequality. Using a variation of the dictator game with "blessed" framing, we measure how participants’ redistribution behaviors change when primed with this narrative. Our results show that low-income Protestants exposed to the "blessed" narrative are less likely to redistribute wealth compared to Catholics, supporting Weber’s idea that Protestants justify inequality through divine providence. Furthermore, a narrative analysis reveals that Protestants interpret “blessing” as divine election, while Catholics focus more on well-being. These findings suggest that religious narratives significantly shape economic behaviors and preferences for redistribution, providing empirical support for Weber’s thesis. |
| Keywords: | dictator game; Max Weber; pro-social behaviour; redistribution |
| JEL: | J14 J15 Z12 Z1 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mub:wpaper:2024-06 |
| By: | Poutvaara, Panu (University of Munich); Graefe, Andreas (Macromedia University of Applied Sciences) |
| Abstract: | Women are severely underrepresented in American politics, especially among Republicans. This underrepresentation may result from women being less willing to run for office, from voter bias against women, or from political structures that make it more difficult for women to compete. Here we show how support for female candidates varies by voters' party affiliation and gender. We conducted experimental elections in which participants made their vote choices based solely on politicians' faces. When choosing between female and male candidates, Democrats, and especially Democratic women, preferred female candidates, while Republicans were equally likely to choose female and male candidates. These patterns held after controlling for respondents' education, age, and political knowledge, and for candidates' age, attractiveness, and perceived conservatism. Our findings suggest that voter bias against women cannot explain women's underrepresentation. On the contrary, American voters appear ready to further narrow the gender gap in politics. |
| Keywords: | gender, elections, gender discrimination, political candidates, redistribution |
| JEL: | D72 J16 H23 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17376 |
| By: | Xavier Gabaix; Thomas Graeber |
| Abstract: | We propose a theory of the complexity of economic decisions. Leveraging a macroeconomic framework of production functions, we conceptualize the mind as a cognitive economy, where a task's complexity is determined by its composition of cognitive operations. Complexity emerges as the inverse of the total factor productivity of thinking about a task. It increases in the number of importance-weighted components and decreases in the degree to which the effect of one or few components on the optimal action dominates. Higher complexity generates larger decision errors and behavioral attenuation to variation in problem parameters. The model applies both to continuous and discrete choice. We develop a theory-guided experimental methodology for measuring subjective perceptions of complexity that is simple and portable. A series of experiments test and confirm the central predictions of our model for perceptions of complexity, behavioral attenuation, and decision errors. We provide a template for applying the framework to core economic decision domains, and then develop several applications including the complexity of static consumption choice with one or several interacting goods, consumption over time, the tax system, forecasting, and discrete choice between goods. |
| JEL: | C91 D03 D11 D14 D90 E03 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33109 |
| By: | Thimo De Schouwer; Iris Kesternich |
| Abstract: | We study heterogeneity in the prevalence of and preferences for workplace flexibility and work meaning. We show that, internationally, women and parents value flexibility more but do not work more flexible jobs. The gender dimension of this flexibility puzzle is related to differences in meaningful work, which women value higher and sort into, at a significant price corresponding to 20 to 70% less flexibility. The parental dimension is connected to preferences for meaning and flexibility diverging after childbirth. We show through counterfactuals that making meaningful jobs more flexible reduces the gender gap in total compensation by almost a quarter. |
| Keywords: | work meaning, workplace flexibility, gender, inequality, choice experiment |
| JEL: | D91 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11300 |
| By: | Ji Ma |
| Abstract: | As Large Language Model (LLM)-based agents increasingly undertake real-world tasks and engage with human society, how well do we understand their behaviors? This study (1) investigates how LLM agents' prosocial behaviors -- a fundamental social norm -- can be induced by different personas and benchmarked against human behaviors; and (2) introduces a behavioral approach to evaluate the performance of LLM agents in complex decision-making scenarios. We explored how different personas and experimental framings affect these AI agents' altruistic behavior in dictator games and compared their behaviors within the same LLM family, across various families, and with human behaviors. Our findings reveal substantial variations and inconsistencies among LLMs and notable differences compared to human behaviors. Merely assigning a human-like identity to LLMs does not produce human-like behaviors. Despite being trained on extensive human-generated data, these AI agents cannot accurately predict human decisions. LLM agents are not able to capture the internal processes of human decision-making, and their alignment with human behavior is highly variable and dependent on specific model architectures and prompt formulations; even worse, such dependence does not follow a clear pattern. |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2410.21359 |
| By: | Koen Ponse; Aske Plaat; Niki van Stein; Thomas M. Moerland |
| Abstract: | Accurate economic simulations often require many experimental runs, particularly when combined with reinforcement learning. Unfortunately, training reinforcement learning agents in multi-agent economic environments can be slow. This paper introduces EconoJax, a fast simulated economy, based on the AI economist. EconoJax, and its training pipeline, are completely written in JAX. This allows EconoJax to scale to large population sizes and perform large experiments, while keeping training times within minutes. Through experiments with populations of 100 agents, we show how real-world economic behavior emerges through training within 15 minutes, in contrast to previous work that required several days. To aid and inspire researchers to build more rich and dynamic economic simulations, we open-source EconoJax on Github at: https://github.com/ponseko/econojax. |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2410.22165 |
| By: | Cavapozzi, Danilo (Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia); Francesconi, Marco (University of Essex); Nicoletti, Cheti (University of York) |
| Abstract: | Using UK longitudinal data on dual-earner couples, this paper estimates a model of intrahousehold housework decisions, which combines a randomized experimental framework eliciting counterfactual choices with gender norms differences across ethnicities and cohorts to identify the impacts of individual preferences and gender identity norms. Equal sharing of tasks yields greater utility for both men and women, with women disliking domestic chores as much as men. Although couples would want to use housework arrangements to compensate for differentials in labor market involvement, women end up performing a substantially larger share of housework. This is not due to specialization, rather social norms play a key role. Exposure to more egalitarian gender attitudes significantly increases the probability of choosing an equal share of housework. Were attitudes evened up to the most progressive levels observed in the sample, women doing more housework than their partners would stop to be the norm already among present-day households, except for households with children. |
| Keywords: | intrahousehold allocation of chores, labor supply, vignettes, gender identity norms, gender gaps |
| JEL: | C25 C26 D13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17370 |
| By: | Bartos, Vojtech (University of Milan); Bauer, Michal (Charles University, Prague); Cahlíková, Jana (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Chytilová, Julie (Charles University, Prague) |
| Abstract: | Preferences and beliefs about different age groups shape social, political, and economic outcomes. This paper provides strong evidence of "youngism", which refers to systematic bias in social preferences and unfavorable stereotypes against young adults. Among nationally representative samples from the United States and Czechia, we show that participants in both countries are substantially less pro-social in controlled allocation tasks towards young adults relative to other age groups. This preference bias is widespread, similar in size to discrimination against immigrants, and increases with age. Next, we show that young adults are perceived as more immoral, less helpful, less responsible, less hard-working, and enjoying easier lives than other age groups. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence that these unfavorable stereotypes about young adults feed into the preference bias. |
| Keywords: | inter-generational conflict, social preferences, discrimination, stereotypes, youngism |
| JEL: | C93 D64 D91 J14 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17384 |
| By: | Vojtĕch Bartoš; Michal Bauer; Jana Cahlíková; Julie Chytilová; Vojtech Bartos |
| Abstract: | Preferences and beliefs about different age groups shape social, political, and economic outcomes. This paper provides strong evidence of “youngism”, which refers to systematic bias in social preferences and unfavorable stereotypes against young adults. Among nationally representative samples from the United States and Czechia, we show that participants in both countries are substantially less pro-social in controlled allocation tasks towards young adults relative to other age groups. This preference bias is widespread, similar in size to discrimination against immigrants, and increases with age. Next, we show that young adults are perceived as more immoral, less helpful, less responsible, less hard-working, and enjoying easier lives than other age groups. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence that these unfavorable stereotypes about young adults feed into the preference bias. |
| Keywords: | inter-generational conflict, social preferences, discrimination, stereotypes, youngism |
| JEL: | C93 D64 D91 J14 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11421 |
| By: | Emir Kamenica; Xiao Lin |
| Abstract: | When does a Sender, in a Sender-Receiver game, strictly value commitment? In a setting with finite actions and finite states, we establish that, generically, Sender values commitment if and only if he values randomization. In other words, commitment has no value if and only if a partitional experiment is optimal under commitment. Moreover, if Sender's preferred cheap-talk equilibrium necessarily involves randomization, then Sender values commitment. We also ask: how often (i.e., for what share of preference profiles) does commitment have no value? For any prior, any independent, atomless distribution of preferences, and any state space: if there are $\left|A\right|$ actions, the likelihood that commitment has no value is at least $\frac{1}{\left|A\right|^{\left|A\right|}}$. As the number of states grows large, this likelihood converges precisely to $\frac{1}{\left|A\right|^{\left|A\right| }}$. |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2410.17503 |
| By: | Diego A. Martin (Harvard's Growth Lab) |
| Abstract: | Do women apply more for jobs when they know the hiring probability of female job seekers directly from employers? I implemented a randomized control trial and a double-incentivized resume rating to elicit the preferences of employers and job seekers for candidates and vacancies in Iraq. The treatment reveals the job offer rate for women, calculated using the employers’ selection of women divided by the total number of female candidates. After revealing the treatment, the women applied for jobs by three more percentage points than the men in the control group. This paper highlights the value of revealing employers’ preferences to improve the match between female candidates and employers when women underestimate the chances of finding a job. |
| Keywords: | Iraq, Application for jobs, Information treatment, Labor market matching, Gender difference |
| JEL: | J61 J64 J70 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:glh:wpfacu:226 |
| By: | Michalis Drouvelis; Nobuyuki Hanaki; Yuta Shimodaira |
| Abstract: | Extending the power-to-take game, we explore the impact of two forces that may shape retaliation. In our 2x2 design, i) in addition to taking, the proposers can give part of their endowment to the responders, and ii) in addition to destroying their own endowment in retaliation, the responders can destroy the proposer’s endowment. Although these added options lead the responders to retaliate more severely, they do not significantly influence the proposers’ behavior. It is only when the proposers can give, and the responders can concurrently destroy the endowment of the proposers that the proposers take significantly less from the responders. |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:1262 |
| By: | Sverdrup, Erik (Monash U); Wu, Han (Two Sigma); Athey, Susan (Stanford U); Wager, Stefan (Stanford U) |
| Abstract: | Qini curves have emerged as an attractive and popular approach for evaluating the benefit of data-driven targeting rules for treatment allocation. We propose a generalization of the Qini curve to multiple costly treatment arms that quantifies the value of optimally selecting among both units and treatment arms at different budget levels. We develop an efficient algorithm for computing these curves and propose bootstrap-based confidence intervals that are exact in large samples for any point on the curve. These confidence intervals can be used to conduct hypothesis tests comparing the value of treatment targeting using an optimal combination of arms with using just a subset of arms, or with a non-targeting assignment rule ignoring covariates, at different budget levels. We demonstrate the statistical performance in a simulation experiment and an application to treatment targeting for election turnout. |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:stabus:4216 |
| By: | Papadopoulos, Georgios; Karatzas, Antonios; Martin, Thomas |
| Abstract: | Zhang (2023) used an online, pre-registered, large-scale controlled experiment to test the effect of an endorsement of Joe Biden by the scientific journal Nature on several perceptual and behavioural outcomes. The main results of the paper were the following: the endorsement of Biden caused a large reduction in Trump supporters' trust in Nature and a considerably smaller reduction in their 'trust in US scientists'. The estimated effects are larger for individuals who, prior to the treatment, believed that Nature was unlikely to have endorsed a presidential candidate. The endorsement also made Trump supporters less likely to request COVID and vaccine related information from the endorsing journal. For Biden supporters, the respective estimated effects were generally positive, but small and insignificant. In his abstract, the author summarizes his key causal claim as follows: "political endorsement by scientific journals can undermine and polarize public confidence in the endorsing journals and the scientific community" (p.696). In this replication study, we computationally reproduced all results, with few and trivial exceptions. We then tested the robustness of those results that gave rise to Zhang's (2023) main causal claim. These tests include an alternative estimation method, an alternative way to capture support for the candidates, and a series of heterogeneity analyses by demographics. All test results support the author's findings but add interesting nuance. Some of our tests exploit variables from the raw data that were not included in the clean, published dataset, but the author willingly provided: a post-treatment 'manipulation check' that asked respondents to indicate the candidate that Nature actually endorsed, and data on requests for COVID related articles from other outlets besides Nature. We used these variables to conduct an Instrumental Variables (IV) procedure and test a 'causal mediation' model. Overall, and for Trump supporters in particular, our report corroborates the author's main finding of a strong negative effect of the endorsement on the overall perception of the endorser (Nature). However, the additional analysis provides weaker evidence for a reduction in trust in the scientific community more generally. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:i4rdps:175 |