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on Experimental Economics |
| By: | Kramer, Berber; Trachtman, Carly; Miguel, Jeremy do Nascimento |
| Keywords: | International Development |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:361021 |
| By: | Duhalde Juan Cruz; Gomez Gonzalez Carlos; Clochard Gwen-Jiro; Dietl Helmut |
| Abstract: | This paper considers two types of statistical discrimination: individual (productivity) and collecetive (team fit). We conduct a large-scale correspondence study in 15 Latin American countries in the context of sports to test their influence on individual behavior. We send over 10, 000 applications to male amateur soccer clubs and ask them to participate in a practice session. Each club receives one application, randomly varying the applicant’s origin and signals about individual and collective productivity. We find no evidence of discrimination against immigrants overall, but we observe heterogeneity that is consistent with individual statistical discrimination. Productivity signals have no significant influence. |
| JEL: | C92 J15 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aep:anales:4796 |
| By: | Masahiro Kato |
| Abstract: | We consider an adaptive experiment for treatment choice and design a minimax and Bayes optimal adaptive experiment with respect to regret. Given binary treatments, the experimenter's goal is to choose the treatment with the highest expected outcome through an adaptive experiment, in order to maximize welfare. We consider adaptive experiments that consist of two phases, the treatment allocation phase and the treatment choice phase. The experiment starts with the treatment allocation phase, where the experimenter allocates treatments to experimental subjects to gather observations. During this phase, the experimenter can adaptively update the allocation probabilities using the observations obtained in the experiment. After the allocation phase, the experimenter proceeds to the treatment choice phase, where one of the treatments is selected as the best. For this adaptive experimental procedure, we propose an adaptive experiment that splits the treatment allocation phase into two stages, where we first estimate the standard deviations and then allocate each treatment proportionally to its standard deviation. We show that this experiment, often referred to as Neyman allocation, is minimax and Bayes optimal in the sense that its regret upper bounds exactly match the lower bounds that we derive. To show this optimality, we derive minimax and Bayes lower bounds for the regret using change-of-measure arguments. Then, we evaluate the corresponding upper bounds using the central limit theorem and large deviation bounds. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2512.08513 |
| By: | Torbjorn Hanson; Ashild Johnsen; Andreas Kotsadam; Alberto Prati |
| Abstract: | We report the results from a large field experiment that tests if happiness spreads within an organizational setting, as predicted by the emotional contagion hypothesis. Although some studies have supported this hypothesis, no well-powered randomized controlled trial has ever tested it in the field. In collaboration with the Norwegian Armed Forces, we randomly assign over 1, 500 recruits to rooms during eight-week boot camps. Some recruits live with relatively happier peers while others live with relatively unhappier ones. We find no evidence of happiness convergence at the room level and reject even small contagion effects. We show that this result is not because happiness is overly stable and that peer effects do emerge for some attitudes in non-emotional domains. These results call for a reconsideration of the presumed ubiquity of happiness spillovers, with subsequent implications for well-being models and policies. |
| Keywords: | happiness, subjective wellbeing, emotional contagion, field experiment, RCT |
| Date: | 2026–01–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp2144 |
| By: | Larissa Fuchs; Matthias Heinz; Pia Pinger; Max Thon |
| Abstract: | We conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a leading technology firm to study how highlighting flexibility and career advancement in job advertisements causally affects the applicant pool. Highlighting career advancement increases the number of applications from men for entry-level positions and attracts additional applicants with strong qualifications and a good fit, which in turn leads to more interview invitations. By contrast, highlighting flexibility increases applications from both women and men at the entry level but provides limited evidence of attracting higher-quality or better-fit applicants. A complementary survey experiment among STEM students shows how job advertisements shape beliefs about the firm’s job characteristics and work environment. Overall, our results show that the amenities firms choose to highlight can powerfully influence both the size and characteristics of their applicant pool. |
| Keywords: | hiring, field experiments, job advertisements, gender |
| JEL: | M51 M52 D22 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_683v2 |
| By: | Pawe{\l} Niszczota; Cassandra Gr\"utzner |
| Abstract: | The rapid spread of large language models (LLMs) has raised concerns about the social reactions they provoke. Prior research documents negative attitudes toward AI users, but it remains unclear whether such disapproval translates into costly action. We address this question in a two-phase online experiment (N = 491 Phase II participants; Phase I provided targets) where participants could spend part of their own endowment to reduce the earnings of peers who had previously completed a real-effort task with or without LLM support. On average, participants destroyed 36% of the earnings of those who relied exclusively on the model, with punishment increasing monotonically with actual LLM use. Disclosure about LLM use created a credibility gap: self-reported null use was punished more harshly than actual null use, suggesting that declarations of "no use" are treated with suspicion. Conversely, at high levels of use, actual reliance on the model was punished more strongly than self-reported reliance. Taken together, these findings provide the first behavioral evidence that the efficiency gains of LLMs come at the cost of social sanctions. |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2601.09772 |
| By: | Bin Khaled, Muhammad Nahian; Maredia, Mywish; Narayanan, Sudha; Belton, Ben; Kabir, Razin |
| Keywords: | International Development |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:361006 |
| By: | Park, Sihyun; Liu, Mohan; Vecchi, Martina; Liu, Yizao; Jaenicke, Edward C.; Fan, Linlin |
| Keywords: | Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360910 |
| By: | Fischer, Mira; Rau, Holger A.; Rilke, Rainer Michael |
| Abstract: | We study how AI tutoring affects learning in higher education through a randomized experiment with 334 university students preparing for an incentivized exam. Students either received only textbook material, restricted access to an AI tutor requiring initial independent reading, or unrestricted access throughout the study period. AI tutor access raises test performance by 0.23 standard deviations relative to control. Surprisingly, unrestricted access significantly outperforms restricted access by 0.21 standard deviations, contradicting concerns about premature AI reliance. Behavioral analysis reveals that unrestricted access fosters gradual integration of AI support, while restricted access induces intensive bursts of prompting that disrupt learning flow. Benefits are heterogeneous: AI tutors prove most effective for students with lower baseline knowledge and stronger self-regulation skills, suggesting that seamless AI integration enhances learning when students can strategically combine independent study with targeted support. |
| Keywords: | AI Tutors, Large Language Models, Self-regulated Learning, Higher Education |
| JEL: | C91 I21 D83 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbmbh:335027 |
| By: | Michela Chessa (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur); Nobuyuki Hanaki (Osaka University [Osaka]); Aymeric Lardon (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); Takashi Yamada (Yamaguchi University [Yamaguchi]) |
| Abstract: | While market design advocates for the importance of good design to achieve desirable properties, experiments on coalition formation theory have shown fragility in proposed mechanisms to do so. We experimentally investigate the effectiveness of "structured" mechanisms that implement the Shapley value as an ex ante equilibrium outcome with those of corresponding "semi-structured" bargaining procedures. We find a significantly higher frequency of grand coalition formation and higher efficiency in the semi-structured than in the structured procedures regardless of whether they are demand-based or offer-based. While significant differences in the resulting allocations are observed between the two structured procedures, little difference is observed between the two semi-structured procedures. Finally, the possibility of free-form chat induces an equal division more frequently than occurs without it. Our results suggest that when it comes to bargaining and coalition formation, not having various restrictions imposed by different mechanisms may lead to more desirable outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Shapley value, Nash program, Bargaining procedures |
| Date: | 2025–10–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05441314 |
| By: | Felix Chopra (Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, CESifo); Ingar Haaland (NHH Norwegian School of Economics, FAIR, CEPR, NTNU); Nicolas Roever (University of Cologne); Christopher Roth (University of Cologne and ECONtribute, Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics, CEPR, NHH) |
| Abstract: | We test the effectiveness of different AI-delivered conversation protocols to increase people’ motivation for change. In a large-scale experiment with 2, 719 social media users, we randomly assign participants to a control conversation or one of three treatment arms: two Motivational Interviewing protocols promoting self-persuasion (change focus or decisional balance) and a direct persuasion protocol providing unsolicited advice and information. All conversations are led by an AI interviewer, enabling standardized delivery of each protocol at scale. Our results show that all three interventions significantly increase motivation for change and the perceived costs of social media use, with change-focused self-persuasion yielding the largest effects. These effects persist and translate into self-reported reductions in social media use more than two weeks after the intervention. Our findings illustrate how AI-led conversations can serve as a scalable platform both for delivering behavioral interventions and for testing what makes them effective by systematically varying how conversations are conducted. |
| Keywords: | AI interviews, Scaling, Motivation, Persuasion, Social Media, Beliefs |
| JEL: | C90 D83 D91 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:385 |
| By: | Hagerty, Nick; Zucker, Ariel |
| Abstract: | Groundwater is a vital input to agricultural production worldwide, but a widespread lack of effective regulation leads to overconsumption and depletion. We evaluate a program of price incentives for voluntary groundwater conservation among smallholder farmers in Gujarat, India, where water (and the electricity used to pump it) is scarce and unregulated. To do so, we install meters and offer payments for reduced groundwater pumping in a randomized controlled trial. Price incentives work: The program reduced hours of irrigation by 24 percent. Most of the conservation is achieved by a price within a realistic policy range; doubling the price has little additional effect. Payment expenditures per unit energy conserved are near the cost of expanding electricity supply, suggesting that payments for groundwater conservation may be a cost-effective policy tool where pricing is politically infeasible. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural Finance |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:361141 |
| By: | Silke Anger; Bernhard Christoph; Agata Galkiewicz; Shushanik Margaryan; Malte Sandner; Thomas Siedler |
| Abstract: | Tutoring programs for low-performing students, delivered in-person or online, effectively enhance school performance, yet their medium- and longer-term impacts on labor market outcomes remain less understood. To address this gap, we conduct a randomized controlled trial with 839 secondary school students in Germany to examine the effects of an online tutoring program for low-performing students on academic performance and school-to-work transitions. The online tutoring program had a non significant intention to-treat effect of 0.06 standard deviations on math grades six months after program start. However, among students who had not received other tutoring services prior to the intervention, the program significantly improved math grades by 0.14 standard deviations. Moreover, students in non-academic school tracks experienced smoother school-to-work transitions, with vocational training take-up 18 months later being 5 percentage points higher—an effect that was even larger (12 percentage points) among those without prior tutoring. Overall, the results indicate that tutoring can generate lasting benefits for low-performing students that extend beyond school performance. |
| Keywords: | online tutoring, randomized controlled trial, disadvantaged youth, school grades, school-to-work transition |
| JEL: | C93 I20 I24 |
| Date: | 2025–12–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdp:dpaper:0084 |
| By: | Robert D. Metcalfe; Andrew Schein; Cohen R. Simpson; Yixin Sun |
| Abstract: | One of the promising opportunities offered by AI to support the decarbonization of electricity grids is to align demand with low-carbon supply. We evaluated the effects of one of the world’s largest AI managed EV charging tariffs (a retail electricity pricing plan) using a large-scale natural field experiment. The tariff dynamically controlled vehicle charging to follow real-time wholesale electricity prices and coordinate and optimize charging for the grid and the consumer through AI. We randomized financial incentives to encourage enrollment onto the tariff. Over more than a year, we found that the tariff led to a 42% reduction in household electricity demand during peak hours, with 100% of this demand shifted to lower-cost and lower-carbon-intensity periods. The tariff generated substantial consumer savings, while demonstrating potential to lower producer costs, energy system costs, and carbon emissions through significant load shifting. Overrides of the AI algorithm were low, suggesting that this tariff was likely more efficient than a real-time-pricing tariff without AI, given our theoretical framework. We found similar plug-in and override behavior in several markets, including the UK, US, Germany, and Spain, implying the potential for comparable demand and welfare effects. Our findings highlight the potential for scalable AI managed charging and its substantial welfare gains for the electricity system and society. We also show that experimental estimates differed meaningfully from those obtained via non-randomized difference-in-differences analysis, due to differences in the samples in the two evaluation strategies, although we can reconcile the estimates with observables. |
| JEL: | Q4 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34709 |
| By: | James Alm (Tulane University); Patrick Button (Tulane University); Christine P. Smith (Tulane University); Toni Weiss (Tulane University) |
| Abstract: | Many colleges have attempted to deal with student cheating by using "academic honesty statements, " or statements that students must read and acknowledge that they will follow. In this paper, we conduct a randomized controlled experiment that investigates the impact of academic honesty statements on college student examination performance, using an objective measure of student examination performance as a proxy for student cheating. Overall, we find no statistically significant differences in the test performance of students who are given the academic honesty statements and students who are not given these statements. These results indicate that academic honesty statements do not affect student performance in a significant way, so that their use is unlikely to be a reliable tool in reducing cheating. However, other explanations are possible. |
| Keywords: | Student cheating; academic misconduct; academic integrity; nudges; priming; randomized control trial |
| JEL: | A22 I21 C93 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tul:wpaper:2510 |
| By: | Yifan Dai; Drew Fudenberg; Harry Pei |
| Abstract: | A sender first publicly commits to an experiment and then can privately run additional experiments and selectively disclose their outcomes to a receiver. The sender has private information about the maximal number of additional experiments they can perform (i.e., their type). We show that the sender cannot attain their commitment payoff in any equilibrium if (i) the receiver is sufficiently uncertain about their type and (ii) the sender could benefit from selective disclosure after conducting their full-commitment optimal experiment. Otherwise, there can be equilibria where the sender obtains their commitment payoff. |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2601.05914 |
| By: | Grilli, Gianluca; Notaro. Sandra; Raffaelli, Roberta |
| Abstract: | Using a sample of respondents interviewed face-to-face while accessing a natural park in Sardinia (Italy), we conduct a Discrete Choice Experiment to assess respondents’ willingness to pay for improved environmental quality of the site. We assess the impact of four different strategies to mitigate hypothetical bias (soft cheap talk, honesty priming, consequentiality scripts, and solemn oath) and two elicitation methods (direct and inferred evaluation methods). Results indicate that none of the strategies were significantly effective in reducing HB. Conversely, inferred valuation led to significantly lower WTP estimates. The effect was especially large for attributes of pure public nature, while attributes that include utility from indirect use are less affected by elicitation method. Overall, the study suggests that inferred valuation is more effective than other strategy in removing social desirability of respondents. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360726 |
| By: | Hu, Chenxi; Gao, Zhifeng; Jing, Yifan; Zhao, Xin; Sims, Charles A. |
| Keywords: | Marketing |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360854 |
| By: | Louise Devos; Kristen du Bois; Stijn Baert; Louis Lippens (-) |
| Abstract: | Hiring discrimination against candidates from ethnocultural minority groups is a persistent concern in contemporary labour markets. This study examines how professional recruiters evaluate fictitious job applicants with profiles that systematically vary in signals that form ethnocultural identity rather than isolated minority markers. Using a preregistered factorial survey experiment true to recruiters’ organisational context, we assess how greater perceived distance from the ethnocultural majority is associated with hiring intentions. Structural equation modelling shows that lower perceived ethnocultural alignment is strongly and negatively associated with the likelihood of a candidate being considered for a job interview. This bias is also reflected in the extent to which recruiters identify with a candidate, as well as in taste-based expectations and competence assessments related to communication, efficiency, and leadership. Methodologically, we reinforce the credibility of the experimental findings by explicitly addressing socially desirable responses using three complementary approaches. First, we used a validated scale that captures socially desirable response tendencies, excluding respondents with a strong tendency to such responding. Second, we implemented the nominative technique, reducing the normative pressure to report personal views. Third, we employed the Bayesian truth serum, weighting responses based on their informativeness and honesty. Across all specifications, perceived alignment with the ethnocultural majority emerges as a robust and consistent correlate of hiring intentions. |
| Keywords: | factorial survey experiment, social desirability, identity, hiring, discrimination |
| JEL: | C83 J61 J71 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:26/1131 |
| By: | Meixner, Oliver; Haas, Rainer |
| Abstract: | The study combines different theoretical approaches in the field of conjoint analysis to estimate the im-portance of product related attributes. This is of major importance in food marketing, where we still try to find a valid answer, in particular, how to measure the real willingness to pay (WTP) for specific product specifica-tions. Based on a comprehensive literature analysis, a common method was used to approximate the im-portance of several product attributes. As usually suggested in literature, we used discrete choice modeling and developed a choice based experimental design considering selected product attributes. The study object was frozen pizza, a convenience good frequently bought by most households. Up to this point, there is nothing special about the choice based experiment in comparison to direct measure-ment of the importance of product attributes. However, one of the core problems of discrete choice modeling – the approximation of individual utility functions – was then addressed by transforming the choices of con-sumers into scores. With these scores traditional conjoint measurement can be used to approximate individual utilities even in choice based experiments. The individual part-worth utilities will be compared with a usual but very complex approach to approximate individual part-worth utilities, the hierarchical Bayes method. Our ap-proach addresses methodological considerations concerning the restrictions of discrete choice modeling, namely the complexity of approximating individual utilities which is of huge importance in particular for market segmentation. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness, Consumer/Household Economics, Marketing |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ief017:258142 |
| By: | Xin, Mucong; Tang, Jianjun; Hua, Jingyi |
| Keywords: | Research Methods/Statistical Methods |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360822 |
| By: | Ahumada Bea |
| Abstract: | This study explores how, when income inequality is perceived to arise from both effort and luck, excuses (self-serving belief distortions) can influence acceptance of inequality. In a controlled laboratory setting involving a real-effort task, participants make redistribution decisions between themselves and a partner. The study varied the degree of uncertainty about the role of effort and luck in determining initial earnings endowments. Belief elicitations indicate that increased uncertainty caused participants to be more likely to attribute their partner's success to luck. Furthermore, the use of excuses (attributing others' outcomes to luck) was found to reduce willingness to redistribute earnings to their partners. These findings highlight how excuses about the role of luck versus effort may contribute to the persistence of inequality even if many individuals have meritocratic principles, and how variation in the degree of uncertainty about the causes of inequality, across individuals or societies, may contribute to different degrees of biased beliefs and inequality. The paper also shows evidence of excuses in another sense: According to a structural model of fairness views, individuals tend to adopt a fairness view -- egalitarian, meritocratic, or libertarian -- to justify an allocation that benefits themselves. |
| JEL: | C9 D8 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aep:anales:4776 |
| By: | Ciril Bosch-Rosa; Muhammed Bulutay; Bernhard Kassner |
| Abstract: | This paper integrates overprecision—a form of overconfidence where individuals overestimate the accuracy of their beliefs—into a canonical rational inattention model. We show that overprecision distorts belief updating directly by biasing the perceived value of new information and indirectly by amplifying the impact of attention costs. We test the model’s predictions in a pre-registered 2 x 2 belief-updating experiment that manipulates overprecision and information costs. The results confirm that overprecision reduces updating and that higher information costs lead to lower responsiveness to signals. While our pre-registered analysis finds no support for the predicted interaction between overprecision and attention costs, a more granular specification shows that the effect of information costs on belief updating is stronger for overprecise participants. These findings suggest that what appears as rational inattention partly reflects irrational inattention arising from misperceived prior accuracy, underscoring the need to distinguish informational frictions from cognitive biases when modeling attention. |
| Keywords: | Overconfidence, Rational inattention, Belief updating, Overprecision |
| JEL: | C83 D91 G41 |
| Date: | 2026–01–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdp:dpaper:0086 |
| By: | Ye, Ziwei; Hennessy, David A.; Wu, Felicia; Krupke, Christian H. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360791 |
| By: | Seth Gordon Benzell; Kyle R. Myers |
| Abstract: | Many experiments study the productivity effects of automation technologies such as generative algorithms. A key test in these experiments relates to inequality: does the technology increase output more for high- or low-skill workers? However, the theoretical content of this empirical test has been unclear. Here, we formalize a theory that describes the experimental effect of automation technologies on worker-level output and, therefore, inequality. Worker-level output depends on a task-level production function, and workers are heterogeneous in their task-level skills. Workers perform a task themselves or delegate it to the automation technology. The inequality effect of improved automation depends on the interaction of two factors: (i) the correlation in task-level skills across workers, and (ii) workers' skills relative to the technology's effective skill. In many cases we study, the inequality effect is non-monotonic --- as technologies improve, inequality decreases then increases. The model and descriptive statistics of skill correlations generally suggest that the diversity of automation technologies will play an important role in the evolution of inequality. |
| JEL: | D20 D31 J24 O33 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34668 |
| By: | Steffen Altmann (University of Würzburg, University of Copenhagen); Robert Mahlstedt (University of Copenhagen); Malte Jacob Rattenborg (University of Copenhagen); Alexander Sebald (Copenhagen Business School); Sonja Settele (University of Cologne, ECONtribute, Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics & CEBI); Johannes Wohlfart (University of Cologne, ECONtribute, Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics & CEBI) |
| Abstract: | In a field experiment with 9, 000 Danish job seekers, we study how unemployed workers’ wage expectations affect job search and re-employment. In our survey, we generate exogenous variation in respondents’ wage expectations by informing a random half of them about re-employment wages of comparable workers. The intervention increases job-finding as measured in administrative data for both initially optimistic and initially pessimistic respondents, but through different channels: initial optimists lower their reservation wages and intensify search, while pessimists raise reservation wages and redirect applications toward local vacancies. Consistent with spatial search frictions, narrowing the geographic scope accelerates job finding among pessimists. |
| Keywords: | Expectations, job search |
| JEL: | D83 D84 J64 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:386 |
| By: | Fergusson Leopoldo (Universidad de los Andes); Natalia Garbiras-Díaz (Harvard University); Michael Weintraub (Universidad de los Andes) |
| Abstract: | Do accents—the way that language is pronounced—shape social and economic interactions? We answer this question using an experiment embedded in an online survey of 6, 000 Colombian adults. Respondents evaluated paired profiles in which audio introductions were randomly assigned to feature either a high- or low-class accent, while income, education, and other attributes were independently randomized. We find a sizable accent premium: speakers with high-class accents are 5–16 percentage points more likely to be chosen as friends, business partners, colleagues, or bosses. This premium is significantly larger among respondents with high socioeconomic status, consistent with an in-group favoritism capable of reproducing inequality. By varying the information we present to respondents, our experiment allows us to conclude that the premium cannot be attributed solely to inferences about income or education. We further show that the premium vanishes for high-class foreign accents, suggesting that class cues are culturally specific and difficult for outsiders to detect. Finally, we document that respondents systematically associate high-class accents with multiple proxies of social status and that they elicit more deferential treatment. Overall, our findings reveal that accents function as a form of capital: culturally specific linguistic signals that reproduce social hierarchies, with implications for labor markets and efforts to promote mobility and integration. |
| Keywords: | Accents; Class-based Discrimination; Social Capital; Cultural Capital; Inequality. |
| JEL: | C90 D63 J15 Z13 O15 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:022044 |
| By: | Jiang, Qi; Vassalos, Michael; Nian, Yefan; Thayer, Anastasia; Silva, Felipe |
| Keywords: | Institutional and Behavioral Economics |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360818 |
| By: | Tomova, Georgia D; Silverwood, Richard J.; Wright, Liam |
| Abstract: | Survey data are increasingly collected using mixed-mode designs. However, the measurement of survey items may differ across modes, introducing ‘mode effects’, a type of systematic measurement error which can bias analyses of mixed-mode data. While the theoretical mechanisms giving rise to mode effects have been discussed in detail, the empirical evidence on their occurrence and size is fragmented. In addition, while many existing statistical approaches for handling mode effects require unrealistic assumptions, other more suitable approaches remain underutilised due to the need for external evidence on the magnitude of mode effects. To address this, we conducted a systematic review of the experimental literature on mode effects. We searched multiple bibliographic databases, grey literature sources, and implemented backwards and forwards citation screening. Studies eligible for inclusion were (quasi-)experimental, sampled from the general population (or age-, sex-, region-specific strata), and reported mode effect estimates on item measurement. We extracted comprehensive information relating to the study design, sampling, mode effect estimates, and reporting. Ninety experimental studies published between 1967 and 2024 met the inclusion criteria, which included 4, 113 mode effect estimates for 3, 545 unique variables in total. Mode effects were generally small, typically below 0.2 SD. However, larger mode effects were more commonly observed when modes differed by interviewer involvement or by question delivery (visual vs aural), as well as for sensitive items (e.g., sexual behaviour, social life), which aligns with pre-existing theory on the causes of mode effects. Generally, where mode effects occur, they are item-, mode-, and population-specific. Reporting quality varied substantially and insufficient details regarding randomisation compliance, non- response, and uncertainty of estimates were common. We collated all mode effect estimates into a free online database and provide a set of recommendations to improve the reporting of future studies. |
| Date: | 2026–01–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:bc7qn_v1 |
| By: | Roost, Stefanie Cipriano |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how citizens in a large middle-income country evaluate the design of cash transfer programmes, and whether these preferences shift when vulnerability is framed as climate-induced. Using a pre-registered online survey in Brazil, we combined a multi-attribute conjoint experiment with a climate information treatment. Respondents evaluated programmes varying in benefit level, eligibility, conditionalities, implementing actor, payment schedule and financing. Support depends strongly on perceived fairness and financing choices. Expanding eligibility from extreme poverty to poverty substantially increases approval, while further expansion yields no additional gains. Conditionalities (in particular, empowering ones, such as financial training or health check-ups) raise support, whereas work requirements have heterogeneous effects across different social groups. Financing through personal income tax or cuts to existing programmes enjoys lower levels of approval, while corporate taxation and subsidy reductions are more acceptable. Climate information modestly increases solidaristic attitudes but does not eliminate underlying ideological divides. This study highlights how citizens update not only the extent but also the preferred form of redistribution under climate stress. |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:diedps:335010 |
| By: | Frederico Finan; Demian Pouzo |
| Abstract: | We establish concentration rates for estimation of treatment effects in experiments that incorporate prior sources of information -- such as past pilots, related studies, or expert assessments -- whose external validity is uncertain. Each source is modeled as a Gaussian prior with its own mean and precision, and sources are combined using Bayesian model averaging (BMA), allowing data from the new experiment to update posterior weights. To capture empirically relevant settings in which prior studies may be as informative as the current experiment, we introduce a nonstandard asymptotic framework in which prior precisions grow with the experiment's sample size. In this regime, posterior weights are governed by an external-validity index that depends jointly on a source's bias and information content: biased sources are exponentially downweighted, while unbiased sources dominate. When at least one source is unbiased, our procedure concentrates on the unbiased set and achieves faster convergence than relying on new data alone. When all sources are biased, including a deliberately conservative (diffuse) prior guarantees robustness and recovers the standard convergence rate. |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2601.09888 |
| By: | Schewe, Marc; Bahník, Štěpán |
| Abstract: | Recommender systems play a crucial role in e-commerce by simplifying consumer searches, improving decision making, and increasing user satisfaction, ultimately boosting e-vendors’ revenues. Their effectiveness depends on the trust of the users and the availability of data to generate accurate recommendations. Using an online experiment, we examined the effect of privacy policies and the amount of requested information on trust in recommender systems and willingness to share data. The results showed that a long privacy policy reduced trust compared to a short or absent policy. The presentation of a privacy policy and the request for more data decreased participants’ willingness to share data with the system, but a long policy did not further decrease the sharing beyond the effect of a short policy. To maintain trust and encourage data sharing, e-vendors may benefit from offering privacy policies upon request, keeping them concise, and minimizing data requests. |
| Keywords: | recommender systems, privacy policies, trust, data sharing, e-commerce |
| JEL: | M31 L81 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:335109 |
| By: | Philip Oreopoulos; Oliver Keyes-Krysakowski; Deepak Agarwal |
| Abstract: | Computer-assisted learning (CAL) platforms frequently underperform at scale not because the technology is ineffective, but because schools face substantial implementation frictions: teachers and administrators must overcome initial technical hurdles, reorganize instructional routines, manage competing scheduling pressures, and do so while uncertain about the technology’s effectiveness—conditions that often lead to low and unproductive student engagement. This study explores whether strengthening implementation structure can raise both the quantity and quality of CAL usage in 83 residential government middle schools in Uttar Pradesh, India and, in turn, learning gains. All schools had access to Khan Academy, but randomly selected treatment schools received on-the-ground lab-in-charges whose sole responsibility was to ensure high-fidelity implementation by securing reliable connectivity, simplifying student rostering, protecting weekly practice time, supervising in-class use, coordinating content with teachers, and monitoring progress. The intervention increased platform usage from 7.2 to 47.4 minutes per week. Mathematics achievement rose by almost half a standard deviation over 31 weeks, with gains broad-based across achievement levels and question difficulty. These results show that the central constraint on effective and scalable CAL is not technology or content, but the presence of organizational structures that ensure sustained, productive instructional use. |
| JEL: | I2 I25 I3 O2 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34683 |
| By: | Baral, Suraksha; Neubig, Christina M. |
| Keywords: | Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360913 |
| By: | Lee, Seungki; Won, Sunjae; Yu, Jisang |
| Abstract: | Prevented planting (PP) provision of the US Federal Crop Insurance Program (FCIP) indemnifies when the adverse weather or field condition prevents the insured from planting. We explore empirical relationships between weather and PP using two different datasets, observational and experimental, to assess whether moral hazard behavior exists in PP provision in the US FCIP. Overall, we find that observed PP is more sensitive to weather than PP occurrence in experimental data. Our finding implies that producers with crop insurance and PP provision tend to react more responsively to adverse weather than they would otherwise, indicating a form of moral hazard behavior. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:361185 |
| By: | Jason Abaluck; Robert Pless; Nirmal Ravi; Anja Sautmann; Aaron Schwartz |
| Abstract: | We deployed large language model (LLM) decision support for health workers at two outpatient clinics in Nigeria. For each patient, health workers drafted care plans that were optionally revised after LLM feedback. We compared unassisted and assisted plans using blinded randomized assessments by on-site physicians who evaluated and treated the same patients, as well as results from laboratory tests for common conditions. Academic physicians performed blinded retrospective reviews of a subset of notes. In response to LLM feedback, health workers changed their prescribing for more than half of the patients and reported high satisfaction with the recommendations, and retrospective academic reviewers rated LLM-assisted plans more favorably. However, on-site physicians observed little to no improvement in diagnostic alignment or treatment decisions. Laboratory testing showed mixed effects of LLM-assistance, which removed negative tests for malaria but added them for urinary tract infection and anemia, with no significant increase in the detection rates for the tested conditions. |
| JEL: | I10 I15 I18 O15 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34660 |
| By: | Essakkat, Kaouter; Wu, Linghui; Atallah, Shady S.; Khanna, Madhu |
| Keywords: | Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:361092 |
| By: | Augustin Landier; Parinitha R. Sastry; David Thesmar |
| Abstract: | Do investors care about why a firm behaves responsibly, over and above what the firm does and how much cash it earns? In our main experiment, participants value shares in companies that reduce pollution relative to peers, while CEOs articulate the company’s intentions: prosocial or for-profit. Investors are willing to pay more for shares in a company that takes a given prosocial action if it is motivated by social concern rather than profit maximization. This "intention premium" is distinct from the valuation effects of cash flows and environmental externalities. Respondents who are deontological, politically liberal, female, or less individualistic value the company’s intent the most. Additionally, and somewhat surprisingly, respondents view favorably firms that embrace both profit and social objectives, without ranking them. Overall, our findings temper claims that when there is no financial trade-off between doing good and doing well, shareholder value and stakeholder value maximization are equivalent. |
| JEL: | D90 G3 G41 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34676 |
| By: | Doruska, Molly |
| Abstract: | Rapid urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa is increasing exposure to and damage from flooding. Many firms located in flood prone areas suffer yearly losses, but they face limitations in their ability to make defensive investments. In a randomized experiment with small firms in Dakar, Senegal, I decreased the cost of investment through vouchers for either cement or wooden pallets. Some firms made their voucher choice in a group setting to highlight potential spillovers from investments. Firms who received vouchers made defensive investments at higher rates. However, only firms who got vouchers in a group setting experienced less flood losses and were less likely to close due to a flood. Furthermore, firms located downhill of other firms who got vouchers individually were more likely to close due to a flood. These results suggest that coordination matters for defensive investments as individuals investments can create negative externalities for those nearby. |
| Keywords: | International Development |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360980 |
| By: | Feucht, Yvonne; Zander, Katrin |
| Abstract: | Since food consumption contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions it is important field of action for consumer engagement. In this context, the present article looks into the question if carbon footprint labels are a suitable mean to foster climate-friendly food purchase behavior. By means of a mixed methods approach comprising choice experiments and qualitative face-to-face interviews European consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay for carbon footprint labels compared to other sustainability labels as well as socio-psychological barriers for climate-friendly consumption are explored. The results reveal that consumers are prepared to pay a price premium for carbon footprint labels but that label skepticism and fatigue as well as a lack in awareness about the impact of food production and consumption on climate change are major barriers for climate-friendly purchase behavior. Information provision in form of carbon footprint labels can only be one part of the solution. Political engagement and engagement by the retail are incremental for success. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ief017:258179 |
| By: | Haley, Nicholas; Savchenko, Olesya; Palm-Forster, Leah; Landry, Craig |
| Abstract: | One of the strongest long-term strategies to address rising flooding vulnerability is voluntary buyouts, or the purchasing and removal of property located in a floodplain. The additional parcels of open space provide natural flood protection and positive amenity value for residents. However, participation in voluntary buyouts has been limited due to homeowners’ concerns about finding comparable property and high transaction costs. Using a choice experiment, we estimate preferences for different incentives in a locally implemented voluntary buyout program designed to address these concerns. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360732 |
| By: | Bhandari, Humnath; Chakravorty, Ujjayant; Habib, Muhammad Ashraful; Emerick, Kyle |
| Abstract: | Groundwater depletion threatens long-term food security in developing countries. Moreover, groundwater pumping contributes to climate change. We evaluate the effect of targeted subsidies for technology to use groundwater more efficiently in agriculture. Using a randomized controlled trial across 360 villages in Bangladesh, we show that subsidies reduce electricity used for pumping by 38 percent, but only when targeted to water sellers. Subsidizing technology to individual farmers has smaller effects. Features of the groundwater market can explain this result. Natural monopolist water sellers charge fixed fees to farmers, but maintain a role in irrigation planning, incentivizing them to adopt conservation practices. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural Finance |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:361140 |
| By: | Secor, William G.; Britton, Logan L. |
| Abstract: | This study examines U.S. consumer preferences for automation in fast-food services using data from a national online survey of 1, 273 adults. The instrument collected demographic and behavioral information, followed by a discrete choice experiment varying price, speed, accuracy, and task-specific automation. Respondents also rated perceived benefits, risks, and trust in food automation. Conditional logit models and latent class segmentation were estimated. Results show strong preferences for high accuracy and faster service, with mixed acceptance of automation across tasks. Segmentation reveals three consumer types shaped by technology use and education, offering insights into targeted strategies for foodservice automation adoption. |
| Keywords: | Marketing |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360832 |
| By: | Langen, Nina; Rhozyel, Mounaim; Göbel, Christine; Speck, Melanie; Engelmann, Tobias; Rohn, Holger; Teitscheid, Petra |
| Abstract: | Food labels are able to support consumers in making more sustainable food choices in out-of-home consumption situations. Thereby, the effect of changing consumption behaviour depends on the format of food labels and on the information it provides. In order to assess the importance of the amount of information as well as the design of food labels displaying sustainability aspects, we test different formats of food labels using a best-worst choice design. So far, no research tested a variation of information depth while keeping label designs fixed. We find clear preferences across both dimensions. Results indicate that consumers regard labels with a higher information depth as more helpful in order to choose a sustainable meal. For the label design it became obvious that the slider-design is preferred over footprints and traffic light label design. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ief017:258178 |
| By: | Phillips, Owen R.; Bastian, Christopher T.; Cook, Benjamin R.; Menkhaus, Dale J.; Gao, Shen |
| Abstract: | We analyze behavior and market outcomes when agents face an endogenous choice of trading in either English auction or private negotiation. We develop a theoretical model to illustrate agent value for a trading institution. We then conduct market experiments with stable supply and demand conditions and sequentially linked English auction then negotiation (or auction then negotiation) institutions, allowing agents transaction institution choice. Linked prices converge to levels between those observed in auction or negotiation alone. Quantities sold and total welfare increases in these linked markets. Our results extend the literature and offer insights for both fed and feeder cattle markets. |
| Keywords: | Marketing |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360827 |
| By: | Zhang, Jingyuan; Melo, Grace |
| Abstract: | This study examines pecuniary (e.g., labor cost savings) and non-pecuniary (e.g., improved flexibility) labor benefits in technology adoption through a discrete choice experiment involving 212 dairy farmers in the U.S. Midwest focusing on automatic milking systems. Results reveal that farmers value flexible time 2.17 times more than hired labor savings, suggesting practitioners differentiate non-pecuniary benefit from pecuniary ones and utilize multiple methods to assess preference heterogeneity for robustness: we consistently found that farmers experienced labor difficulties favor hired labor savings, whereas those with secondary income value both benefits less. For other characteristics (e.g., herd size), preference heterogeneity is ambiguous. |
| Keywords: | Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360617 |
| By: | Morien El Haj; Eline Moens; Elsy Verhofstadt; Luc Van Ootegem; Stijn Baert (-) |
| Abstract: | In tight labour markets, where employers compete not only on wages but also on amenities such as job family friendliness, employer-provided childcare arrangements serve as a powerful tool to attract and retain working parents. Yet little causal evidence exists on how employees evaluate such benefits. Therefore, this study uses a scenario experiment among working parents of young children to examine how job attractiveness is shaped by variations in employer-provided childcare arrangements – in terms of location, opening hours, and price – along with the possibility of teleworking. Our results show that all forms of employer-provided childcare increase job attractiveness, with childcare facilities operating on schedules explicitly aligned with employees’ working hours having the strongest effects. Working parents are willing to forego a 20% wage increase in a new job to obtain this latter amenity. They expect such amenity to improve their job satisfaction, performance, stress management, and work–family balance. Our results imply that the policy offers mutual gains for both employees and employers. |
| Keywords: | Childcare, Telework, Job attractiveness, Willingness to pay, Factorial survey experiment |
| JEL: | C91 J13 J16 J24 J81 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:26/1132 |
| By: | Paul R. Hindsley; Owen A. Morgan; John C. Whitehead |
| Abstract: | Stated preference methods are often used to estimate benefits and costs for environmental and natural resource policy analysis, commonly relying on choice experiment questions in which respondents evaluate hypothetical scenarios with varying attributes. These applications generally assume that respondents pay attention to all attributes when making choices. However, attribute non-attendance, in which individuals ignore one or more attributes, may affect model estimates and willingness to pay. This paper critically examines the current state of research on attribute non-attendance in stated preference studies. We review the recent stated preference research to document when and how attribute non-attendance is incorporated in empirical applications. We then illustrate the implications of attribute non-attendance using marine resource choice experiment data in two case studies. We find differences in willingness to pay estimates between na•ve and attribute non-attendance models in both. Key Words: Attribute non-attendance, stated preferences, willingness to pay |
| JEL: | Q51 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:26-01 |
| By: | Bojidara Doseva; Catherine Dehon; Antonio Estache |
| Abstract: | The paper reports the results of an experiment designed to compare the impact on financial literacy skills of primary school students of a switch from a traditional pedagogical approach supported by textbooks to one relying on AI-supported methods favouring the gamification of the learning process. The study focuses on 152 students aged 8 to 11 distributed across six classes in a Bulgarian public school. The results show an important statistically significant literacy improvement for the treatment group. It also discusses the contextual dimensions accounted for in control variables that may lead to outcome differences according to the families’ socio-economic background. |
| Keywords: | Artificial Intelligence; Education and Training; Financial Markets; Household Finance |
| Date: | 2025–09–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/401374 |
| By: | Kaminski, Danielle M.; Nayga, Jr., Rodolfo M.; Yang, Wei |
| Abstract: | An ongoing debate is whether plant-based beverages should be allowed to use the term “milk” on their packaging. The primary reasons advocates object to the use of “milk” for plant-based beverages is that such use of the term “milk” would confuse the public into 5 thinking that (1) plant-based beverages contain animal lactation and/or (2) plant-based beverages are as healthy as cows’ milk. This study used a best-worst scale experiment to reveal consumers’ beliefs about the healthiness of associated cows’ milk and plant-based milk products based on their nutrition panels, and on purchase intent based on nutrition panels. We find there is heterogeneity in health perceptions, consistent with the scientific literature. These results question to what degree healthiness can be used to compare animal-based and plant-based milk products to inform labeling conventions. |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:361272 |
| By: | Manshu Khanna; Ziyi Wang; Lijia Wei; Lian Xue |
| Abstract: | We document a fundamental paradox in AI transparency: explanations improve decisions when algorithms are correct but systematically worsen them when algorithms err. In an experiment with 257 medical students making 3, 855 diagnostic decisions, we find explanations increase accuracy by 6.3 percentage points when AI is correct (73% of cases) but decrease it by 4.9 points when incorrect (27% of cases). This asymmetry arises because modern AI systems generate equally persuasive explanations regardless of recommendation quality-physicians cannot distinguish helpful from misleading guidance. We show physicians treat explained AI as 15.2 percentage points more accurate than reality, with over-reliance persisting even for erroneous recommendations. Competent physicians with appropriate uncertainty suffer most from the AI transparency paradox (-12.4pp when AI errs), while overconfident novices benefit most (+9.9pp net). Welfare analysis reveals that selective transparency generates \$2.59 billion in annual healthcare value, 43% more than the \$1.82 billion from mandated universal transparency. |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2512.08424 |
| By: | Penn, Jerrod; Jiang, Qi; Hu, Wuyang |
| Abstract: | Hypothetical Bias is the difference between hypothetical and real behaviors, a central issue of convergent validity in stated preference methods. Numerous methods have been developed to mitigate hypothetical bias. We test seven such ex-ante, simul, and ex-post methods: Honest priming, cheap talk, oath, repeated opt-out reminder, default, unsure, and certainty follow-up and compare these outcomes to a hypothetical-control and incentivized treatment. We find that certainty follow-up successfully eliminates hypothetical bias. Default shows some success in reducing HB though does not eliminate it. All other methods show much more limited success at reducing HB. |
| Keywords: | Institutional and Behavioral Economics |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea25:360817 |