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on Experimental Economics |
| By: | Ali Goli; Jason Huang; David Reiley; Nickolai M. Riabov |
| Abstract: | A randomized experiment with almost 35 million Pandora listeners enables us to measure the sensitivity of consumers to advertising, an important topic of study in the era of ad-supported digital content provision. The experiment randomized listeners into nine treatment groups, each of which received a different level of audio advertising interrupting their music listening, with the highest treatment group receiving more than twice as many ads as the lowest treatment group. By maintaining consistent treatment assignment for 21 months, we measure long-run demand effects and find ad-load sensitivity three times greater than what we would have obtained from a month-long experiment. We show the negative impact on the number of hours listened, days listened, and probability of listening at all in the final month. Using an experimental design that separately varies the number of commercial interruptions per hour and the number of ads per commercial interruption, we find that listeners primarily respond to the total number of ads per hour, with a slight preference for more frequent but shorter ad breaks. Lastly, we find that increased ad load led to an increase in the number of paid ad-free subscriptions to Pandora. Importantly, we show that observational methods often lead to biased or even directionally incorrect estimates of these effects, highlighting the value of experimental data. |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2412.05516 |
| By: | Müge Süer; Nicola Cerutti; Jana Friedrichsen; Gyula Seres |
| Abstract: | Women are often perceived as more compliant than men; however, the literature provides inconclusive evidence. Using a novel experimental design comprising two complementary experiments, we test this claim in online samples representative of the German adult population. The first experiment (N=1600) features a probabilistic social dilemma game (PDG) in which participants can increase their individual payoff at the expense of exposing themselves and their group to probabilistic losses. In two treatment conditions, they receive either a recommendation on socially optimal behavior or a recommendation and information on weakly non-compliant peer behavior. We find that the recommendation strongly affects behavior but more so for women than for men. However, information on the non-compliant behavior of others does not induce significantly different responses in men and women. In the second experiment (N=522), we elicit empirical and normative expectations about behavior in the PDG with a recommendation to study the role of norms in following it. While men and women are expected to hold similar normative beliefs, men are expected to follow the recommendation less often, suggesting that compliance is a female social norm. |
| Keywords: | compliance, public good, social dilemma, gender, risk-taking, social norms |
| JEL: | J16 I12 D81 H41 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11593 |
| By: | Stefano Carattini; Anomitro Chatterjee; Todd Cherry |
| Abstract: | Biased beliefs affect real-world decisions, including political solutions to societal challenges. One crucial example is environmental policy: people tend to underestimate the incentive effect of Pigouvian policies. Addressing biased beliefs at scale is then paramount. In the days leading up to a ballot initiative in Washington state, we implemented a large-scale field experiment providing information on carbon taxes to over 285, 000 individuals. We complemented it with a survey experiment of about 1, 000 individuals, with the same treatments as in the field experiment, shedding light on social desirability bias and mechanisms around belief revision. Using data at the voting precinct level, we show that our intervention increases revealed support for carbon taxes, mainly for a treatment centered around earmarking of tax revenue, which was one of the design features of the ballot initiative. We find the effect to be stronger in precincts relatively opposed to the initiative, and less exposed to media coverage of carbon taxes, and more exposed to coverage challenging their effectiveness. |
| Keywords: | carbon taxes, voting behaviour, Facebook ads, natural field experiment |
| JEL: | C93 D72 D82 D83 H23 Q54 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11599 |
| By: | Yaroslav Rosokha; Xinxin Lyu; Denis Tverskoi; Sergey Gavrilets |
| Abstract: | We study cooperation among individuals and groups facing a dynamic social dilemma in which the benefits of cooperation are divided according to political power obtained in a contest. The main theoretical and experimental results focus on the role of the incumbency advantage. Specifically, an incumbency advantage in the political contest leads to a rapid breakdown of cooperation in the social dilemma. In addition, we investigate whether groups behave differently than individuals and provide simulations based on the individual evolutionary learning model of Arifovic and Ledyard (2012) to shed light on the difference observed in the experiment. |
| Keywords: | Dynamic Games, Cooperation, Coordination, Contest, Experiments, Group Decision Making |
| JEL: | C73 C92 D91 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pur:prukra:1350 |
| By: | Jeroen Hinloopen (Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis and Tinbergen Institute); Stephen Martin (Purdue University); Sander Onderstal (University of Amsterdam and Tinbergen Institute); Leonard Treuren (KU Leuven) |
| Abstract: | Antitrust laws prohibit private firms to coordinate their market behavior, yet many types of interfirm cooperation are legal. Using laboratory experiments, we study spillovers from legal cooperation in one market to non-competitive prices in a different market. Our theoretical framework predicts that such cooperation spillovers are most likely to occur for intermediate levels of competition. Our experimental findings support this theoretical prediction. In addition, our experimental results show that repeated interaction and communication about prices in a market are not necessary to achieve non-competitive prices in that market, as long as subjects can form binding agreements in a different market. Results from additional treatments suggest that commitment and multimarket contact are necessary for cooperation spillovers to emerge. |
| Keywords: | Cartel; Communication; Cooperation spillovers; Antitrust; Experiment |
| Date: | 2024–12–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20240078 |
| By: | Eugen Dimant; Fabio Galeotti; Marie Claire Villeval (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon - Saint-Etienne - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - EM - EMLyon Business School - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of self-selected peer information on individual behavior and social norm formation via two experiments (N=1, 945; N=2, 414) using a lying game and political identification. A self-serving bias emerges in endogenous information search, wherein lenient sources (i.e., sources containing more tolerant empirical or normative information regarding dishonesty), especially those aligned with political identification, are preferred. Selecting lenient sources about peer perception of social norms boosts dishonesty, while peer behavior information chiefly influences expectations about dishonesty, with a minor impact on own behavior. Importantly, peer approval expectations stay largely unaltered by both information types. In a follow-up experiment with exogenously assigned sources, the influence of social information on behavior and expectations is diminished. |
| Keywords: | Social Norms, Information Acquisition, Peer Effects, Group Identity, Dishonesty, Experiment Design |
| Date: | 2024–08–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04199140 |
| By: | David E. Broockman; Elizabeth Rhodes; Alexander W. Bartik; Karina Dotson; Sarah Miller; Patrick K. Krause; Eva Vivalt |
| Abstract: | We study the causal effects of income on political attitudes and behavior with a field experiment. In the experiment, a non-profit gifted 1, 000 low-income Americans $1, 000 per month for three years tax-free, and 2, 000 control participants $50 monthly. Contrary to resource models of participation, we find no effects on political participation or engagement, and rule out effects equivalent to the observational association between turnout and income. Political preferences largely do not change, with the estimates again distinguishable from the observational relationship that economic conservatism increases with income. Dispositions such as trust in government, polarization, and support for democracy also do not change. We do find effects consistent with mood misattribution: affect towards one's own racial group, other racial groups, and some politicians slightly improves. There is also some evidence that treated participants saw work as more important for individuals, society, or even as a requirement for accessing government programs; qualitative evidence illuminates potential mechanisms. Our findings contrast with findings from other economic shocks such as government-sponsored or taxable transfers—thereby helping clarify the mechanisms likely responsible for their effects—and underscore the durability of political predispositions. |
| JEL: | D72 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33214 |
| By: | Ilke Aydogan (LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Loïc Berger (CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IÉSEG School Of Management [Puteaux], EIEE - European Institute on Economics and the Environment, CMCC - Centro Euro-Mediterraneo per i Cambiamenti Climatici [Bologna]); Vincent Théroude (BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - AgroParisTech - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the validity of a double random incentive system where only a subset of subjects is paid for one of their choices. By focusing on individual decision-making under risk and ambiguity, we show that using either a standard random incentive system, where all subjects are paid, or a double random system, where only 10% of subjects are paid, yields similar preference elicitation results. These findings suggest that adopting a double random incentive system could significantly reduce experimental costs and logistic efforts, thereby facilitating the exploration of individual decision-making in larger-scale and higher-stakes experiments. |
| Keywords: | Experimental methodology, Payment method, s Incentives, Ambiguity elicitation |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04818422 |
| By: | Yaroslav Rosokha; Xinxin Lyu; Denis Tverskoi; Sergey Gavrilets |
| Abstract: | We theoretically and experimentally study an indefinite dynamic game intended to capture two main aspects of the political process – elections in which opposing factions compete by spending resources and policy-making in which those same factions are required to cooperate for the successful legislature. The main theoretical result is that limits on spending in the election contest increase cooperation. On the experimental side, we first test and confirm theoretical predictions and then explore whether such limits could arise endogenously. We find that a majority of subjects are successful in establishing a consensus on low limits, leading to higher cooperation and welfare. |
| Keywords: | Political Economy, Endogenous Institutions, Dynamic Games, Cooperation, Coordination, Contest, Experiments |
| JEL: | C73 C92 D91 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pur:prukra:1352 |
| By: | Giacomo Battiston (ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin); Lucia Corno (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Eliana La Ferrara (Università Bocconi) |
| Abstract: | Can providing information to potential migrants influence their decisions about risky and irregular migration? We conduct an experiment with over 7, 000 secondary school students in Guinea, providing information through video testimonials by migrants who settled in Europe and through aggregate statistics. We implement three treatments: (i) information about the risks of the journey; (ii) information about economic outcomes in the destination country; and (iii) a combination of both. One month after the intervention, all treatments led students to update their beliefs about the risks and the economic outcomes of migration, resulting in decreased intentions to migrate. One year later, the Risk Treatment resulted in a 51% decline in migration outside Guinea. This effect was driven by a decrease in migration without a visa (i.e., potentially risky and irregular) and was more pronounced among poorer students. These findings are consistent with the predictions of a model where individuals choose between not migrating, migrating regularly, or migrating irregularly, and where information increases the perceived cost of irregular migration, thus decreasing migration among poorer students who cannot afford regular migration. |
| Keywords: | irregular migration, trafficking, information experiment, Guinea |
| JEL: | F22 O15 J61 D8 C93 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:2434 |
| By: | Katharina Laske; Nathalie Römer; Marina Schröder |
| Abstract: | We introduce the word illustration task (WIT), a novel experimental task to quantify performance in an idea generation context. Between treatments, we vary whether or not piece-rate (PR) incentives are implemented and the degree to which these incentives are aligned with the desirable outcome. We show that PR incentives have a positive impact on the number of innovative ideas, i.e., the number of ideas that are of high quality and original. We find that unweighted PR incentives (PR provided for any idea) perform at least as well as more aligned weighted PR incentives that are additionally contingent on the quality and/or originality of ideas. Our results suggest that when it comes to fostering idea generation, it is sufficient to incentivize trying instead of incentivizing succeeding. |
| Keywords: | idea generation, real-effort experiment, incentives, creativity |
| JEL: | C90 J33 M52 O31 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11594 |
| By: | Eduardo Nakasone; Máximo Torero; Angelino Viceisza |
| Abstract: | Migrant remittances are significant but remain relatively costly to send. Policymakers have argued that fintech, specifically, comparison websites like kayak.com but for sending money, can boost financial inclusion and reduce remittance prices. Yet, little is known about how migrants with limited education and trust in digital methods interact with fintech. We conduct a field experiment on a comparison website and vary remittance-company attributes shown to migrants, specifically, the time for delivery and customer reviews. We use visual attention data to explore search. We find that (1) while 10-28 percent of migrants exhibit some type of remittance habit, more than half experiment with companies once provided with fintech information; (2) while migrant response to information is rational and search seems targeted, there is considerable heterogeneity—those with low prior awareness of comparison sites, financial literacy, or information-processing capability are less responsive to fintech; and (3) when presented with fintech information, migrants are 44 percent more likely to behave counter to the preferences over attributes they exhibit outside of the study. As such, they pay 20-30 percent more despite typically shopping around for the cheapest company. The findings suggest a nuanced potential for fintech to improve financial inclusion and consumer welfare. |
| JEL: | C93 D87 F22 F24 G2 G53 O12 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33183 |
| By: | Gilles Grolleau (ESSCA - ESSCA – École supérieure des sciences commerciales d'Angers = ESSCA Business School); Naoufel Mzoughi (ECODEVELOPPEMENT - Ecodéveloppement - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Laura Solaroli (ISARA, LER - Laboratoire d'Études Rurales - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - ISARA) |
| Abstract: | While individuals are expected to perceive similarly identical quantities, regardless of the used units (e.g., 1 ton or 1000 kg), several scholars suggest that consumers over-infer quantities when they are presented in bigger and phonetically-longer numbers. In two experimental studies, we examine this numerosity bias in the context of household food waste. Unlike previous scholars, manipulating numerosity revealed no effect: perceptions of food waste volume and likelihood to reduce it are not influenced by the used numeric value (2500 g vs. 2.5 kg; Study 1) nor the number of syllables (two kilos eight hundred seventy-five grams vs. three kilograms; Study 2). |
| Keywords: | food waste, numerosity bias, survey experiment |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04805001 |
| By: | Neil K. R. Sehgal; Dan Svirsky |
| Abstract: | We present the results of an experiment documenting racial bias on Meta's Advertising Platform in Brazil and the United States. We find that darker skin complexions are penalized, leading to real economic consequences. For every \$1, 000 an advertiser spends on ads with models with light-skin complexions, that advertiser would have to spend \$1, 159 to achieve the same level of engagement using photos of darker skin complexion models. Meta's budget optimization tool reinforces these viewer biases. When pictures of models with light and dark complexions are allocated a shared budget, Meta funnels roughly 64\% of the budget towards photos featuring lighter skin complexions. |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2412.14307 |
| By: | Marcos Cardozo; Yaroslav Rosokha; Cathy Zhang |
| Abstract: | We integrate theory and experimental evidence to study the emergence of different international monetary arrangements based on the circulation of two intrinsically worthless fiat currencies as media of exchange. Our framework is based on a two-country, two-currency search model where the value of each currency is jointly determined by private agents’ decisions and monetary policy formalized as changes in a country’s money growth rate. Results from the experiments indicate subjects coordinate on a regime where both currencies are accepted even when other regimes are theoretically possible. At the same time, we find the acceptance of foreign currency depends on relative inflation rates where sellers tend to reject payment with a more inflationary foreign currency. We also document the presence of learning in shaping acceptance patterns over time. |
| Keywords: | international currency, monetary policy, inflation, experimental macroeconomics |
| JEL: | C92 D83 E40 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pur:prukra:1351 |
| By: | Lauren F. Bergquist; Craig McIntosh; Meredith Startz |
| Abstract: | We study the large-scale experimental rollout of a platform that reduced search and matching frictions in Ugandan agricultural markets by connecting buyers and sellers. Market integration improved substantially: trade increased and price gaps fell. Interpreting the experiment through a trade model, we estimate treatment effects accounting for equilibrium changes that impact control markets. The intervention reduced fixed trade costs by 21% and increased trade flows between treated markets by 6% and across all markets by 1%. Scale economies shaped engagement: few farmers used the platform, but equilibrium price convergence from improved arbitrage by larger traders passed through to farm revenue. |
| JEL: | F10 O10 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33221 |
| By: | Marina Agranov; Polina Detkova |
| Abstract: | We study how people think others update their beliefs upon encountering new evidence. We find that when two individuals share the same prior, one believes that new evidence cannot systematically shift the other’s beliefs in either direction (Martingale property). When the two have different priors, people think that any information brings others’ expected posteriors closer to their own prior, but this adjustment is less responsive to information quality than theory predicts. We identify the primary cause of this insensitivity and discuss the implications of our findings for strategic games with asymmetric information, information design, and, more broadly, for understanding societal polarization. |
| JEL: | D03 D83 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33261 |
| By: | Neil Christy; Amanda Ellen Kowalski |
| Abstract: | We present a design-based model of a randomized experiment in which the observed outcomes are informative about the joint distribution of potential outcomes within the experimental sample. We derive a likelihood function that maintains curvature with respect to the joint distribution of potential outcomes, even when holding the marginal distributions of potential outcomes constant -- curvature that is not maintained in a sampling-based likelihood that imposes a large sample assumption. Our proposed decision rule guesses the joint distribution of potential outcomes in the sample as the distribution that maximizes the likelihood. We show that this decision rule is Bayes optimal under a uniform prior. Our optimal decision rule differs from and significantly outperforms a ``monotonicity'' decision rule that assumes no defiers or no compliers. In sample sizes ranging from 2 to 40, we show that the Bayes expected utility of the optimal rule increases relative to the monotonicity rule as the sample size increases. In two experiments in health care, we show that the joint distribution of potential outcomes that maximizes the likelihood need not include compliers even when the average outcome in the intervention group exceeds the average outcome in the control group, and that the maximizer of the likelihood may include both compliers and defiers, even when the average intervention effect is large and statistically significant. |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2412.16352 |
| By: | Pol Campos-Mercade (Department of Economics, Lund University); Armando N. Meier (Department of Economics, University of Basel); Stephan Meier (Columbia Business School, Columbia University); Devin Pope (Booth School of Business, University of Chicago); Florian H. Schneider (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen); Erik Wengstroem (Department of Economics, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | Whether monetary incentives to change behavior work and how they should be structured are fundamental economic questions. We overcome typical data limitations in a large-scale field experiment on vaccination (N = 5; 324) with a unique combination of administrative and survey data. We find that guaranteed incentives of $20 increase uptake by 13 percentage points in the short run and 9 in the long run. Guaranteed incentives are more e ective than lottery-based, prosocial, or individually-targeted incentives, though all boost vaccinations. There are no unintended consequences on future vaccination or heterogeneities based on vaccination attitudes and incentivized economic preferences. Further, administrative data on relatives shows substantial positive spillovers. Our findings demonstrate the great potential of incentives for improving public health and provide guidance on their design. |
| Keywords: | incentives, health behavior, social preferences, prosociality, risk preferences, vaccination |
| JEL: | C93 D01 D62 I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2025–01–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kucebi:2415 |
| By: | John List |
| Abstract: | In 2019, I put together a summary of data from my field experiments website that pertained to artefactual field experiments. Several people have asked me if I have an update. In this document I update all figures and numbers to show the details for the year 2024. I also include the description from the 2019 paper below. The definition of artefactual field experiments comes originally from Harrison and List (2004) and is advanced in List (2006; 2024, 2025). |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feb:artefa:00803 |
| By: | Yoram Halevy; Johannes C. Hoelzemann; Terri Kneeland |
| Abstract: | In the leading model of bounded rationality in games, each player best-responds to their belief that the other players reason to some finite level. This paper investigates a novel behavior that could reveal if the player’s belief lies outside the iterative reasoning model. This encompasses a situation where a player believes that their opponent can reason to a higher level than they do. We propose an identification strategy for such behavior, and evaluate it experimentally. |
| Keywords: | Bounded rationality, higher-order rationality, level-k, cognitive-hierarchy, game theory, equilibrium, rationalizability, preference elicitation, lab experiment |
| JEL: | C72 C92 D91 |
| Date: | 2025–01–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-789 |
| By: | Valentin Guigon (ISC-MJ - Institut des sciences cognitives Marc Jeannerod - Centre de neuroscience cognitive - UMR5229 - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Marie Claire Villeval (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon - Saint-Etienne - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - EM - EMLyon Business School - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Jean-Claude Dreher (ISC-MJ - Institut des sciences cognitives Marc Jeannerod - Centre de neuroscience cognitive - UMR5229 - UCBL - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 - Université de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Abstract How do we assess the veracity of ambiguous news, and does metacognition guide our decisions to seek further information? In a controlled experiment, participants evaluated the veracity of ambiguous news and decided whether to seek extra information. Confidence in their veracity judgments did not predict accuracy, showing limited metacognitive ability when facing ambiguous news. Despite this, confidence in one's judgment was the primary driver of the demand for additional information about the news. Lower confidence predicted a stronger desire for extra information, regardless of the veracity judgment. Two key news characteristics led individuals to confidently misinterpret both true and fake news. News imprecision and news tendency to polarize opinions increased the likelihood of misjudgment, highlighting individuals' vulnerability to ambiguity. Structural equation modeling revealed that the demand for disambiguating information, driven by uncalibrated metacognition, became increasingly ineffective as individuals are drawn in by the ambiguity of the news. Our results underscore the importance of metacognitive abilities in mediating the relationship between assessing ambiguous information and the decision to seek or avoid more information. |
| Date: | 2024–12–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04848999 |
| By: | Masahiro Kato |
| Abstract: | This study investigates an asymptotically minimax optimal algorithm in the two-armed fixed-budget best-arm identification (BAI) problem. Given two treatment arms, the objective is to identify the arm with the highest expected outcome through an adaptive experiment. We focus on the Neyman allocation, where treatment arms are allocated following the ratio of their outcome standard deviations. Our primary contribution is to prove the minimax optimality of the Neyman allocation for the simple regret, defined as the difference between the expected outcomes of the true best arm and the estimated best arm. Specifically, we first derive a minimax lower bound for the expected simple regret, which characterizes the worst-case performance achievable under the location-shift distributions, including Gaussian distributions. We then show that the simple regret of the Neyman allocation asymptotically matches this lower bound, including the constant term, not just the rate in terms of the sample size, under the worst-case distribution. Notably, our optimality result holds without imposing locality restrictions on the distribution, such as the local asymptotic normality. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the Neyman allocation reduces to the uniform allocation, i.e., the standard randomized controlled trial, under Bernoulli distributions. |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2412.17753 |
| By: | Kenneth Chan; Gary Charness; Chetan Dave; J. Lucas Reddinger |
| Abstract: | We investigate the difference between confidence in a belief distribution versus confidence over multiple priors using a lab experiment. Theory predicts that the average Bayesian posterior is affected by the former but is unaffected by the latter. We manipulate confidence over multiple priors by varying the time subjects view a black-and-white grid, of which the relative composition represents the prior. We find that when subjects view the grid for a longer duration, they have more confidence, under-update more, placing more weight on priors and less weight on signals when updating. Confidence within a belief distribution is varied by changing the prior beliefs; subjects are insensitive to this notion of confidence. Overall we find that confidence over multiple priors matters when it should not and confidence in prior beliefs does not matter when it should. |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2412.10662 |
| By: | Thomas Epper (LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Ernst Fehr (UCPH - University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet); Claus Thustrup Kreiner (UCPH - University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet); Søren Leth-Petersen (UCPH - University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet); Isabel Skak Olufsen (UCPH - University of Copenhagen = Københavns Universitet); Peer Ebbesen Skov (AUT - Auckland University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | Rising inequality has brought redistribution back on the political agenda. In theory, inequality aversion drives people's support for redistribution. People can dislike both advantageous inequality (comparison relative to those worse off) and disadvantageous inequality (comparison relative to those better off). Existing experimental evidence reveals substantial variation across people in these preferences. However, evidence is scarce on the broader role of these two distinct forms of inequality aversion for redistribution in society. We provide evidence by exploiting a unique combination of data. We use an incentivized experiment to measure inequality aversion in a large population sample (≈9, 000 among 20- to 64-y-old Danes). We link the elicited inequality aversion to survey information on individuals' support for public redistribution (policies that reduce income differences) and administrative records revealing their private redistribution (real-life donations to charity). In addition, the link to administrative data enables us to include a large battery of controls in the empirical analysis. Theory predicts that support for public redistribution increases with both types of inequality aversion, while private redistribution should increase with advantageous inequality aversion, but decrease with disadvantageous inequality aversion. A strong dislike for disadvantageous inequality makes people willing to sacrifice own income to reduce the income of people who are better off, thereby reducing the distance to people with more income than themselves. Public redistribution schemes achieve this but private donations to charity do not. Our empirical results provide strong support for these predictions and with quantitatively large effects compared to other predictors. |
| Date: | 2024–09–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04816620 |
| By: | Jeanne Hagenbach (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPR - Center for Economic Policy Research, WZB - Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung); Charlotte Saucet (UP1 UFR02 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - École d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | We experimentally study how individuals read strategically transmitted information when they have preferences over what they will learn. Subjects play disclosure games in which Receivers should interpret messages skeptically. We vary whether the state that Senders communicate about is ego-relevant or neutral for Receivers, and whether skeptical beliefs are aligned or not with what Receivers prefer believing. Compared to neutral settings, skepticism is significantly lower when it is self-threatening, and not enhanced when it is self-serving. These results shed light on a new channel that individuals can use to protect their beliefs in communication situations: they exercise skepticism in a motivated way, that is, in a way that depends on the desirability of the conclusions that skeptical inferences lead to. We propose two behavioural models that can generate motivated skepticism. In one model, the Receiver freely manipulates his beliefs after having made skeptical inferences. In the other, the Receiver reasons about evidence in steps and the depth of his reasoning is motivated. |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04821601 |
| By: | Sofia Amaral; Aixa Garcia-Ramos; Selim Gulesci; Alejandra Ramos; Sarita P. Ore-Quispe; Maria Micaela Sviatschi |
| Abstract: | Gender-based violence (GBV) at schools is a pervasive problem that affects millions of adolescent girls worldwide. In partnership with the Ministry of Education in Mozambique, we developed an intervention to increase the capacity of key school personnel to address GBV and to improve students’ awareness as well as proactive behaviors. To understand the role of GBV on girls’ education, we randomized not only exposure to the intervention but also whether the student component was targeted to girls only, boys only, or both. Our findings indicate a reduction in sexual violence by teachers and school staff against girls, regardless of the targeted gender group, providing evidence of the role of improving the capacity of key school personnel to deter perpetrators. Using administrative records, we also find that in schools where the intervention encouraged proactive behavior by girls, there was an increase in their school enrollment, largely due to an increased propensity for GBV reporting by victims. Our findings suggest that effectively mitigating violence to improve girls’ schooling requires a dual approach: deterring potential perpetrators and fostering a proactive stance among victims, such as increased reporting. |
| JEL: | I25 O10 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33203 |
| By: | Marie Claire Villeval (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon - Saint-Etienne - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - EM - EMLyon Business School - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Keywords: | Peer effects, Conformity, Experimental economics, Behavioral economics |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04794581 |
| By: | Xinyi Zhang; Chenshuo Sun; Renyu Zhang; Khim-Yong Goh |
| Abstract: | AI-generated content (AIGC), such as advertisement copy, product descriptions, and social media posts, is becoming ubiquitous in business practices. However, the value of AI-generated metadata, such as titles, remains unclear on user-generated content (UGC) platforms. To address this gap, we conducted a large-scale field experiment on a leading short-video platform in Asia to provide about 1 million users access to AI-generated titles for their uploaded videos. Our findings show that the provision of AI-generated titles significantly boosted content consumption, increasing valid watches by 1.6% and watch duration by 0.9%. When producers adopted these titles, these increases jumped to 7.1% and 4.1%, respectively. This viewership-boost effect was largely attributed to the use of this generative AI (GAI) tool increasing the likelihood of videos having a title by 41.4%. The effect was more pronounced for groups more affected by metadata sparsity. Mechanism analysis revealed that AI-generated metadata improved user-video matching accuracy in the platform's recommender system. Interestingly, for a video for which the producer would have posted a title anyway, adopting the AI-generated title decreased its viewership on average, implying that AI-generated titles may be of lower quality than human-generated ones. However, when producers chose to co-create with GAI and significantly revised the AI-generated titles, the videos outperformed their counterparts with either fully AI-generated or human-generated titles, showcasing the benefits of human-AI co-creation. This study highlights the value of AI-generated metadata and human-AI metadata co-creation in enhancing user-content matching and content consumption for UGC platforms. |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2412.18337 |
| By: | Clémentine Bouleau (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Nicolas Jacquemet (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Maël Lebreton (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, UNIGE - Université de Genève = University of Geneva) |
| Abstract: | Whether individuals feel confident about their own actions, choices, or statements being correct, and how these confidence levels differ between individuals are two key primitives for countless behavioral theories and phenomena. In cognitive tasks, individual confidence is typically measured as the average of reports about choice accuracy, but how reliable is the resulting characterization of within-and between-individual confidence remains surprisingly undocumented. Here, we perform a large-scale resampling exercise in the Confidence Database to investigate the reliability of individual confidence estimates, and of comparisons across individuals' confidence levels. Our results show that confidence estimates are more stable than their choice-accuracy counterpart, reaching a reliability plateau after roughly 50 trials, regardless of a number of task design characteristics. While constituting a reliability upper-bound for task-based confidence measures, and thereby leaving open the question of the reliability of the construct itself, these results characterize the robustness of past and future task designs. |
| Keywords: | Confidence, Accuracy, Reliability, Design of experiments, Multiple trials |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-04893009 |
| By: | Dean Karlan; Monica P. Lambon-Quayefio; Utsav Manjeer; Christopher R. Udry |
| Abstract: | Digital finance in agriculture is a nascent technology which could help improve rural financial inclusion. In an experimental evaluation of a digital lending product for farmers in Southern Ghana, credit increases farm investments but has few statistically significant average effects on downstream outcomes. However, logistical challenges generated imperfect compliance with the treatment assignment, with some loans delivered in a timely fashion for agricultural investments and others coming later. We cautiously exploit this unplanned non-experimental implementation heterogeneity and conclude that agriculturally-focused digital credit platforms have potential to tackle persistent rural financial market imperfections, but the timing seems critical and deserves further study. |
| JEL: | Q14 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33271 |
| By: | Anna Gunnthorsdottir; Palmar Thorsteinsson |
| Abstract: | Social stratification, segregation and inequity invite concerns about fairness and social harmony. Our game-theoretic and experimental results indicate that they can also be detrimental to productivity, efficiency, and welfare. Class is defined by players’ resources, incentives to make a public contribution, and social mobility. We discuss the model’s real-world applications, and ways to increase efficiency and welfare through increased equity, mobility, or competition. We also describe how the model can be adapted to represent and experimentally test different class structures, the interaction between demographic characteristics and class, and the effectiveness of policies that modify incentives. We experimentally test a two-class model. The poorer L-class are socially mobile: for them, effort is linked to social positioning and earnings akin to what is often referred to as a Middle-Class mindset. The productive L-players support a relatively efficient equilibrium that encompasses both classes. Upper-class H-players, notwithstanding their guaranteed privilege and superior resources, are relatively unproductive and display behavior akin to class-consciousness by contributing only what is necessary to remain above the L-class. The experimental results confirm that humans respond swiftly to incentives associated with their material status and economic opportunities and suggest that policies aimed at increasing welfare through incentive modification can be successful. |
| JEL: | Z13 Z18 C72 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ice:wpaper:wp98 |
| By: | James Bland; Yaroslav Rosokha |
| Abstract: | Estimation of belief learning models relies on several important assumptions regarding measurement errors. Whereas existing work has focused on classical measurement errors, the current paper is the first to investigate the impact of a non-classical, behavioral measurement error—rounding bias. In particular, we design and carry out a novel economics experiment in conjunction with simulations and a meta-study of existing papers to show a strong impact of rounding bias on belief updating. In addition, we propose an econometric technique to aid researchers in overcoming challenges posed by the rounded responses in belief elicitation questions. |
| Keywords: | Rounding Bias, Measurement Errors, Bayesian Updating, Belief Updating, Learning, Conservatism, Base-Rate Neglect, Econometrics, Hierarchical Bayesian Models |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pur:prukra:1353 |
| By: | Sidhya Balakrishnan; Sewin Chan; Sara Constantino; Johannes Haushofer; Jonathan Morduch |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of a two-year unconditional cash transfer program for lowincome households in Compton, California between 2021 and 2023. 695 households were randomly assigned to receive transfers averaging about $500 per month over a two year period, with 1, 402 households randomly assigned to a control group. To measure the impact of transfer frequency, half of the recipients were paid twice per month and the other half received quarterly transfers. We surveyed 1, 074 respondents 18 months after the beginning of transfers. Receiving guaranteed income had no impact on the labor supply of full-time workers, but part-time workers (at baseline) had lower labor market participation by 13 percentage points. Income (excluding the transfer) was reduced by $333 per month on average relative to control households, and expenditures were reduced by $302 per month. At the same time, average non-housing debt balances declined by $2, 190 over 18 months relative to the control group, although the drop is not statistically significant. We find a significant improvement in housing security, but no overall effects on indices of psychological and financial well-being. The recipients of twice-monthly transfers were more likely to own a car, had lower credit card debt and greater food security than recipients of quarterly transfers, but otherwise transfer frequency had little impact. Compared to male recipients, female recipients reported a greater increase in financial security, and a smaller reduction in earned income and expenditures. |
| JEL: | D12 I38 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33209 |
| By: | Marie-Claire Villeval (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon - Saint-Etienne - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - EM - EMLyon Business School - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Keywords: | Honesty, Lie aversion, Cheating |
| Date: | 2025–01–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04794573 |
| By: | Hirotaka Imada (Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London); Yukako Inoue (Department of Social Psychology, Yasuda Women’s University); Alice Yamamoto-Wilson (Independent Researcher, Tokyo, Japan); Tatsuyoshi Saijo (Kyoto University of Advanced Science); Nobuhiro Mifune (Research Institute for Future Design, Kochi University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | Issues related to sustainability (e.g., climate change and over-fishing) manifest themselves as intergenerational social dilemmas, and people are constantly faced with a choice between self-serving unsustainable behavior and sustainable, personally costly behavior. Extending the previous literature on intergroup (non-international) cooperation, we tested whether group membership of the future generations influences sustainable decision making. Two preregistered studies focusing on the minimal group (N = 1393) and the natural group (Japan vs. China, N = 1781), we revealed future ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation; individuals are more and less likely to make a sustainable decision when they believe that their current behavior benefits future ingroup and outgroup members, respectively. Future ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation were primarily driven by the increased felt responsibility for future generations and the reduced sense of reputational concern. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational decision-making, intergenerational cooperation, future generation, sustainability, ingroup favoritism |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kch:wpaper:sdes-2025-1 |
| By: | Arun G. Chandrasekhar; Vasu Chaudhary; Benjamin Golub; Matthew O. Jackson |
| Abstract: | Social and economic networks are often multiplexed, meaning that people are connected by different types of relationships -- such as borrowing goods and giving advice. We make three contributions to the study of multiplexing. First, we document empirical multiplexing patterns in Indian village data: relationships such as socializing, advising, helping, and lending are correlated but distinct, while commonly used proxies for networks based on ethnicity and geography are nearly uncorrelated with actual relationships. Second, we examine how these layers and their overlap affect information diffusion in a field experiment. The advice network is the best predictor of diffusion, but combining layers improves predictions further. Villages with greater overlap between layers (more multiplexing) experience less overall diffusion. This leads to our third contribution: developing a model and theoretical results about diffusion in multiplex networks. Multiplexing slows the spread of simple contagions, such as diseases or basic information, but can either impede or enhance the spread of complex contagions, such as new technologies, depending on their virality. Finally, we identify differences in multiplexing by gender and connectedness. These have implications for inequality in diffusion-mediated outcomes such as access to information and adherence to norms. |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2412.11957 |
| By: | Mengsi Gao |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the identification and inference of treatment effects in randomized controlled trials with social interactions. Two key network features characterize the setting and introduce endogeneity: (1) latent variables may affect both network formation and outcomes, and (2) the intervention may alter network structure, mediating treatment effects. I make three contributions. First, I define parameters within a post-treatment network framework, distinguishing direct effects of treatment from indirect effects mediated through changes in network structure. I provide a causal interpretation of the coefficients in a linear outcome model. For estimation and inference, I focus on a specific form of peer effects, represented by the fraction of treated friends. Second, in the absence of endogeneity, I establish the consistency and asymptotic normality of ordinary least squares estimators. Third, if endogeneity is present, I propose addressing it through shift-share instrumental variables, demonstrating the consistency and asymptotic normality of instrumental variable estimators in relatively sparse networks. For denser networks, I propose a denoised estimator based on eigendecomposition to restore consistency. Finally, I revisit Prina (2015) as an empirical illustration, demonstrating that treatment can influence outcomes both directly and through network structure changes. |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2412.02183 |
| By: | M. Keith Chen; Katherine Feinerman; Kareem Haggag |
| Abstract: | Modern tech platforms provide workers real-time control over when they work, and increasingly, flexible pay: the option to be paid immediately after work. We investigate the labor supply effects of pay flexibility and the implications of present-biased preferences among gig-economy workers. Using granular data from a nationwide randomized controlled trial at Uber, we estimate the effects of switching from a fixed weekly pay schedule to Instant Pay, a system that allows on-demand, within-day withdrawals. We find that flexible pay substantially increased drivers’ work time. Furthermore, consistent with present bias, the response is significantly higher when drivers are further away from the end of their counterfactual weekly pay cycle. We discuss welfare and broader implications in contexts in which workers have the ability to flexibly supply labor. |
| JEL: | J0 J20 J3 R4 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33177 |
| By: | Christopher R. Knittel; Donald MacKenzie; Michiko Namazu; Bora Ozaltun; Dan Svirsky; Stephen Zoepf |
| Abstract: | We test whether more information about customers decreases racial bias. Our setting is the market for shared mobility services. Prior work by Ge et al. (2020) found that Uber drivers are two times more likely to cancel a ride if the passenger’s name is one used predominantly by African Americans. In a randomized control trial, we test whether two alterations to the Uber platform app reduce racial discrimination. Within the standard Uber app, drivers see only the passenger’s rating before accepting a ride. Once they accept the ride, they see the name of the passenger. In the first intervention, we increased the size of the font of the rating to draw attention to the quality of the passenger. In the second intervention, the passenger’s name appears from the beginning. Using the control group observations, we confirmed that the more likely African Americans were to use a name, the more likely a driver cancels the ride. However, increasing the font size of the passenger’s rating eliminates this racial bias. In contrast, we do not find much evidence that showing the name on the initial screen reduces or increases cancellation rates. |
| JEL: | D83 J71 L92 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33118 |
| By: | Thomas F Epper (LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IÉSEG School Of Management [Puteaux]); Helga Fehr-Duda (UZH - Universität Zürich [Zürich] = University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | Standard economic models view risk taking and time discounting as two independent dimensions of decision making. However, mounting experimental evidence demonstrates striking parallels in patterns of risk taking and time discounting behavior and systematic interaction effects, which suggests that there may be common underlying forces driving these interactions. Here we show that the inherent uncertainty associated with future prospects together with individuals' proneness to probability weighting generates a unifying framework for explaining a large number of puzzling behavioral regularities: delay-dependent risk tolerance, aversion to sequential resolution of uncertainty, preferences for the timing of the resolution of uncertainty, the differential discounting of risky and certain outcomes, hyperbolic discounting, subadditive discounting, and the order dependence of prospect valuation. Furthermore, all these phenomena can be predicted simultaneously with the same set of preference parameters. |
| Keywords: | risk preferences, time preferences, preference interaction, increasing risk tolerance |
| Date: | 2024–02–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03473431 |
| By: | Goutier, Marc; Diebel, Christopher; Adam, Martin; Benlian, Alexander |
| Date: | 2025–01–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dar:wpaper:151910 |
| By: | Khatun Asma (Research Institute for Future Design, Kochi University of Technology, Japan); Moinul Islam (Research Institute for Future Design, Kochi University of Technology); Tatsuyoshi Saijo (Institute for International Academic Research, Kyoto University of Advanced Science, Japan); Koji Kotani (Research Institute for Future Design, Kochi University of Technology, Japan) |
| Abstract: | Sustainable agricultural production (SAP) is essential to make food systems sustainable through increasing crop yields and reducing environmental hazards in the long run. However, little research has been conducted on policies or futures-studies approaches for a persistent change in food production towards SAP. This study utilizes a future design (FD) approach where people are asked to think of a vision, a mission and a strategy for problem solving through taking a perspective of future generations, investigating a research question “how does FD affect fertilizer practices for food production?, †and the hypothesis “FD induces a persistent change in farmers’ productions towards SAP.†We design a double-round social experiment with four treatments of “baseline, †“visioning, †“one-person FD (OFD)†and “group FD (GFD), †collecting data on organic and inorganic fertilizer practices from 400 family farms in Bangladesh over five months. Family farms in baseline report fertilizer practices. In visioning, they additionally deliberate with their family members to have a vision, a mission and a strategy. In OFD and GFD, they additionally take each perspective of past, present and future generations in a person and in a group of family farm’s members, respectively, then deliberating and thinking of the same issues. The results demonstrate that GFD induces family farmers to a more sustained increase (decrease) organic (inorganic) fertilizer practices than do any other treatment, and the magnitude under GFD is almost twice as much as those under visioning or OFD. Thus, it is advisable that applying FD to a group of people is the most effective for sustained changes of farming productions towards SAP, potentially due to sympathy, empathy and peer effects among group members sharing the same vision, mission and strategy. |
| Keywords: | Future design, visioning, organic & inorganic fertilizer, social experiment, Bangladesh |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kch:wpaper:sdes-2025-3 |
| By: | Kenju Kamei; Louis Putterman; Katy Tabero; Jean-Robert Tyran |
| Abstract: | Corruption is the great disease of government. It undermines the efficiency of the public sector in many countries around the world. We experimentally study civic engagement (CE) as a constraint on corruption when incentives are stacked against providing CE. We show that CE is powerful in curbing corruption when citizens can encourage each other to provide CE through social approval. Social approval induces strategic complementarity among conditional cooperators which counteracts the strategic substitutability (which tends to limit beneficial effects of CE) built into our design. We also show that civic engagement in the lab is correlated with civic engagement in the field, and that the effects of social approval are surprisingly robust to framing in our setting. |
| Keywords: | corruption, civic engagement, public sector, public goods, social approval |
| JEL: | C92 D73 D91 H41 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11597 |
| By: | Mojtaba Madadi Asl; Kamal Hajian; Rouzbeh Torabi; Mehdi Sadeghi |
| Abstract: | Choice overload occurs when individuals feel overwhelmed by an excessive number of options. Experimental evidence suggests that a larger selection can complicate the decision-making process. Consequently, choice satisfaction may diminish when the costs of making a choice outweigh its benefits, indicating that satisfaction follows an inverted U-shaped relationship with the size of the choice set. However, the theoretical underpinnings of this phenomenon remain underexplored. Here, we present a theoretical framework based on relative entropy and effective information to elucidate the inverted U-shaped relationship between satisfaction and choice set size. We begin by positing that individuals assign a probability distribution to a choice set based on their preferences, characterized by an observed Shannon entropy. We then define a maximum entropy that corresponds to a worst-case scenario where individuals are indifferent among options, leading to equal probabilities for all alternatives. We hypothesized that satisfaction is related to the probability of identifying an ideal choice within the set. By comparing observed entropy to maximum entropy, we derive the effective information of choice probabilities, demonstrating that this metric reflects satisfaction with the options available. For smaller choice sets, individuals can more easily identify their best option, resulting in a sharper probability distribution around the preferred choice and, consequently, minimum entropy, which signifies maximum information and satisfaction. Conversely, in larger choice sets, individuals struggle to compare and evaluate all alternatives, leading to missed opportunities and increased entropy. This smooth probability distribution ultimately reduces choice satisfaction, thereby producing the observed inverted U-shaped trend. |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2412.12721 |