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on Experimental Economics |
| By: | Dohmen, Thomas (University of Bonn); Meyer, Frauke (Eilert-Academy, Berlin, Germany); Walkowitz, Gari (Department of Business and Economics, Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg; Department of Management, Technical University of Munich) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides clear evidence that concerns for basic needs satisfaction (BNS) represent a distinct distributional motive. Using a unified theoretical and experimental framework across five dictator-game experiments in Germany and Georgia (N=446), we disentangle BNS from motives such as maximin, selfishness, efficiency, generosity, and envy. A substantial share of participants displayed BNS-driven choices and were willing to forgo income and efficiency to satisfy others’ basic needs. BNS remained robust across contexts, incentive schemes, and countries, and increased when needs satisfaction had strategic relevance. The results highlight the importance of BNS for understanding distributional preferences and policy design. |
| Keywords: | basic needs, redistribution, distributional motives, maximin, public policy, field experiment, laboratory experiment |
| JEL: | D31 D63 H23 C93 C91 D01 D91 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18409 |
| By: | Kemper, Jan (ZEW, University of Mannheim); Rostam-Afschar, Davud (University of Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | Researchers typically collect experimental data sequentially, allowing early outcome observations and adaptive treatment assignment to reduce exposure to inferior treatments. This article reviews multi-armed-bandit adaptive experimental designs that balance exploration and exploitation. Because adaptively collected experimental data through bandit algorithms violate standard asymptotics, inference is challenging. We implement an estimator that yields valid heteroskedasticity-robust confidence intervals in batched bandit designs and compare coverage in Monte Carlo simulations. We introduce bbandits for Stata, a tool for designing experiments via simulation, running interactive bandit experiments, and implementing and analyzing adaptively collected data. bbandits includes three common assignment algorithms—ε-first, ε-greedy, and Thompson sampling—and supports estimation, inference, and visualization. |
| Keywords: | randomized controlled trial, causal inference, multi-armed bandits, experimental design, machine learning |
| JEL: | C1 C11 C12 C13 C15 C18 C8 C87 C88 C9 D83 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18429 |
| By: | Gunnar P. Epping; Andrew Caplin; Erik Duhaime; William R. Holmes; Daniel Martin; Jennifer S. Trueblood |
| Abstract: | Many operational AI systems depend on large-scale human annotation to detect rare but consequential events (e.g., fraud, defects, and medical abnormalities). When positives are rare, the prevalence effect induces systematic cognitive biases that inflate misses and can propagate through the AI lifecycle via biased training labels. We analyze prior experimental evidence and run a field experiment on DiagnosUs, a medical crowdsourcing platform, in which we hold the true prevalence in the unlabeled stream fixed (20% blasts) while varying (i) the prevalence of positives in the gold-standard feedback stream (20% vs. 50%) and (ii) the response interface (binary labels vs. elicited probabilities). We then post-process probabilistic labels using a linear-in-log-odds recalibration approach at the worker and crowd levels, and train convolutional neural networks on the resulting labels. Balanced feedback and probabilistic elicitation reduce rare-event misses, and pipeline-level recalibration substantially improves both classification performance and probabilistic calibration; these gains carry through to downstream CNN reliability out of sample. |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2603.11511 |
| By: | Antonacci, Paulo; Chattha, Muhammad Khudadad; Soko, Naranggi Pramudya; Tyas, Prabaning |
| Abstract: | This study evaluates whether low-cost digital nudges delivered via WhatsApp can improve property tax compliance in Gorontalo, Indonesia. In a randomized controlled trial, individuals were as-signed to receive either (i) a soft-tone message emphasizing civic duty and public benefits, (ii) a hard-tone message highlighting penalties and consequences, or (iii) no message (control). Four findings emerge. First, although messages referenced overdue obligations, the soft-tone nudge substantially increased current-year compliance: payment of the fiscal year 2024 bill rose by 9–11 percentage points from two weeks through the payment deadline and remained 9.9 percentage points higher at six months, relative to a 38 percent control mean at the deadline. Second, the soft-tone message narrowed and statistically eliminated the compliance gap between historically high- and low-compliance groups. Third, framing mattered: the soft-tone message consistently outperformed the hard-tone message at longer horizons. Fourth, while the hard-tone message generated short-run increases in compliance, these effects dissipated over time, consistent with intertemporal substitution (treated taxpayers paying earlier rather than more). Overall, the results show that behaviorally informed messaging can meaningfully improve tax collection in low-capacity settings, especially when designed to fit local behavioral and institutional context. |
| Date: | 2026–02–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11320 |
| By: | Bart K. de Koning; Paul Muller; Michèle Belot; Yvonne Engels; Didier Fouarge; Mario Keer; Philipp Kircher; Sandra Phlippen |
| Abstract: | We design an online platform to connect unemployed job seekers with ‘buddies’: former job seekers who recently found employment. We focus on job seekers who search in occupations with poor prospects and buddies who successfully switched occupations. In a randomized controlled trial, we evaluate the impact of access to the platform on labor market outcomes. We find sizable effects. Thirteen to 18 months after getting access, initially unemployed job seekers are 6 percentage points (11%) more likely to be employed and earn e 226 more per month than those without access. The positive impact is concentrated among the long-term unemployed. |
| JEL: | C93 J62 J64 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34912 |
| By: | Brenøe, Anne (University of Zurich); Rutnam, Daphne (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | We study how adolescents’ second-order beliefs about their parents’ occupational preferences shape gendered career aspirations. In a consequential early-career choice setting, we combine a parental choice experiment with a randomized salience intervention among students. Parents give gendered recommendations, but students substantially overestimate fathers' preference for boys to choose male-dominated occupations as well as mothers' preference for girls to choose female-dominated occupations. Making the same-gender parent salient raises aspirations for gender-congruent occupations, while highlighting the opposite-gender parent and both parents has no effect. Salience does not shift perceived occupational fit, suggesting that identity-based second-order beliefs can reinforce occupational gender segregation. |
| Keywords: | gender norms, second-order beliefs, occupational aspirations, parental beliefs, identity and career choice, early-career choices, choice experiment, field experiment |
| JEL: | J16 J24 I21 C93 D91 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18431 |
| By: | Elisabeth Grewenig; Klaus Gründler; Philipp Lergetporer; Niklas Potrafke; Katharina Werner; Helen Zeidler |
| Abstract: | Public support for policy interventions depends on citizens’ beliefs about their likely ef-fects. We examine how individuals form such beliefs by studying their predictions of experimental outcomes in a policy-relevant setting, and why their predictions differ from expert benchmarks. We elicit forecasts from 127 professional economists and a repre-sentative sample of 6, 200 German households about a large-scale behavioral experi-ment on education policy (N = 3, 133). Non-experts predict both average outcomes and treatment effects far less accurately than experts. Prediction accuracy improves with calibrated priors, self-reported effort, and the use of structured reasoning, but remains well below expert levels. We show that scalable design features, including the provision of well-calibrated numerical anchors and monetary incentives to rise effort, improve non-expert predictions, with effects comparable in magnitude to tertiary education or structured reasoning. Our findings have important implications for bridging the ‘expertise gap’ in public discourse. |
| Keywords: | expert forecasts, lay predictions, belief formation, expertise gap, policy support, behavioral experiments |
| JEL: | A11 D83 H52 I22 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12522 |
| By: | Evgeny Kagan; Christian Jost; Tobias Lieberum; Sebastian Schiffels |
| Abstract: | Motivated by the widespread adoption of iterative project management techniques, we study the effects of workflow -- iterative or sequential -- on innovative behavior and performance. We conduct a series of laboratory experiments. Our first experiment shows that, in an open-ended creative challenge, iterative task completion leads to better outcomes than sequential task completion. In the second experiment we show that the advantage of iterative workflow further extends to innovation settings that do not involve idea generation. A key mechanism driving the advantage of iterative work is that it leads to frequent task switching, prompting workers to perform a broader search for the best available solution. In the third experiment we delve deeper into the search process and show that sequential work indeed leads to more myopic idea refinement behaviors, often ending in a (suboptimal) local maximum. Our results suggest that iterative workflow improves performance across multiple, structurally distinct innovation settings. We also identify three boundary conditions. First, iterative workflow helps achieve quick gains, but its performance advantage narrows over time. Therefore, workflow effects are stronger when balanced performance across project components is required, but weaker when excellence in one component can offset poor performance in others. Second, workflow has minimal effect on performance in tasks that do not require the worker to perform broad exploration. Third, workflow effects are minimal when workers complete the easier component first. |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2603.00722 |
| By: | Shinsuke ASAKAWA; Makiko NAKAMURO; Shintaro YAMAGUCHI |
| Abstract: | This study investigates why “serial order effects†—systematic distortions in judgment caused by the presentation order of candidates—arise in sequential expert evaluations, and whether such effects can be mitigated. Focusing on Japan’s largest piano competition, we combine long-term observational data from 2004–2022 with data from a cluster-randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted in 2023. The result drawn from the observational data reveals a robust serial order effect: performers who appear earlier in the sequence consistently receive lower scores. This disadvantage is particularly pronounced in competitions with fewer participants and with highly skilled performers. These patterns are difficult to reconcile with fatigue-based explanations and instead suggest a calibration mechanism, whereby judges—motivated to maintain internal consistency—avoid extreme evaluations in the early stages when the overall distribution of performance quality is still uncertain, thereby suppressing initial scores. We then run a RCT to evaluate an information treatment that explicitly informs judges about the existence and magnitude of serial order effects using historical data. The results show no strong evidence that the intervention significantly mitigates order effects overall. However, we find suggestive evidence that the serial order effect is partially mitigated for highly skilled performers. The results suggest the need for institutional or procedural solutions to address order effects in sequential evaluation settings. |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:26010 |
| By: | Ales Marsal (National Bank of Slovakia); Patryk Perkowski (Yeshiva University) |
| Abstract: | We examine how generative AI impacts productivity across the task-based framework using a field experiment at the National Bank of Slovakia. In our experiment, we randomly assign generative AI access to central bank employees completing workplace tasks that mirror the theoretical task-based framework. Our results indicate that generative AI access leads to large improvements in both quality and efficiency for the majority of participants. We find a strong complementarity between generative AI and non-routine work, both on average and for most participants. We also find some support for generative AI as both cognitive-biased and specialist-biased, though smaller in magnitude than our tests of routine-biased. While workers in routine jobs experience larger individual performance gains, generative AI is less effective for the routine task content of their work. The mismatch between generative AI’s task- versus worker-level impacts is economically large, and results from a simulation exercise suggest the organization can increase output by 7.3% by changing how workers are assigned to tasks in the presence of generative AI. Additionally, we find differences in how the benefits of generative AI relate to worker skills: low-skill workers benefitmost in terms of quality while high-skill workers benefit in terms of efficiency. Our findings provide empirical support on generative AI and task-level complementarities, with important implications for how generative AI will impact workers, organizations, and labor markets more broadly. |
| JEL: | J24 M15 E58 C93 O33 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:svk:wpaper:1128 |
| By: | Bhagya N. Gunawardena (School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT University, Australia); Lana Friesen (School of Economics, The University of Queensland, Australia); Kenan Kalayci (School of Economics, The University of Queensland, Australia) |
| Abstract: | Skill accumulation requires a periodic and persistent investment of time and effort. In contrast to financial investments, investing in skills does not allow for saving or borrowing, the maximum periodical investment is capped, and the cost of investment often decreases with the person’s cumulative past investment. In this paper, we develop a model that captures the key characteristics of a skill accumulation task where it is optimal to invest relatively high and increasing input levels in earlier periods. Using an online experiment we find that most participants invest too little compared to the rational path, and that a majority of the participants’ investments are characterized by myopic optimization. Whereas individual experience over repeated lifecycles improves investments and earnings, social information about a selected peer’s investments, earnings, or confidence levels has only a limited effect. Our results demonstrate the difficulty of investing in skill acquisition even in the absence of risk and time factors. |
| Keywords: | skill accumulation, peer information, online experiment, lifecycle optimization, myopic optimization |
| JEL: | J24 J22 D15 D83 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uq2004:670 |
| By: | Haeringer, Guillaume; Nguyen, Lan; placido, Latitia; Ravaioli, Silvio |
| Abstract: | We study how different framings of otherwise equivalent information affect school choice under uncertainty. In an online experiment, subjects repeatedly submitted rank-ordered lists of schools knowing only a probability distribution over their own score. Admission depended solely on whether the score exceeded exogenous school cutoffs. Across rounds, subjects varied in “type” (advantaged/disadvantaged score distributions) and faced one of four information treatments: a control (score distribution only), ex-ante admission probabilities, simulated ex-post composition statistics, and composition statistics based on actual choices of prior participants. We find that information framing has large and heterogeneous effects. Advantaged students react strongly to both ex-ante and ex-post information, becoming more cautious under probability information and more ambitious under composition information; disadvantaged students respond more weakly and only under specific cutoff environments. Ex-ante information significantly reduces segregation between advantaged and disadvantaged types. Our results highlight that the impact of information depends critically on student type and market competitiveness, implying that effective information policies must be carefully tailored to their intended beneficiaries. |
| Keywords: | School choice, Uncertainty, Information, Segregation |
| JEL: | C78 D78 I24 |
| Date: | 2026–01–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:127870 |
| By: | Francesco Bilotta; Christoph Carnehl; Justus Preusser |
| Abstract: | A designer relies on an experimenter to provide information to a decision maker, but the experimenter has incentives to persuade rather than merely transmit information. Anticipating this motive, the designer can restrict the set of admissible experiments, but cannot prevent the experimenter from garbling any admissible experiment. We model this situation as delegation over experiments. The optimal delegation set can be obtained by comparing maximally informative experiments among those the experimenter has no incentive to garble. When the experimenter's preferences are $S$-shaped, we fully characterize such experiments as double censorship. Relative to the full delegation outcome, upper censorship, double censorship features an intermediate pooling region, inducing a smaller pooling region for the highest states. We show that the designer strictly benefits from imposing a nontrivial delegation set to constrain the experimenter's ability to persuade while retaining valuable information provision. |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2603.10867 |
| By: | Benjamin Enke; Thomas Graeber; Ryan Oprea; Jeffrey Yang |
| Abstract: | We report the results of over 30 experiments to study the elasticity of economic decisions with respect to fundamentals. Our experiments cover a broad range of domains, from choice and valuation to belief formation, from strategic games to generic optimization problems, involving investment, savings, effort supply, product demand, taxes, externalities, fairness, beauty contests, search, policy evaluation, forecasting and inference. We identify two general patterns. First, behavioral attenuation: in 93% of our experiments, the elasticity of decisions to variation in fundamentals decreases in subjects’ cognitive uncertainty about their best decision. Second, diminishing sensitivity: the elasticity of decisions decreases in the distance of the fundamental from ‘simple points’ at which the best decision is transparent, and this decrease in elasticities is again mirrored by an increase in cognitive uncertainty. These results suggest that cognitive uncertainty systematically predicts an attenuation of economic elasticities, and that there is less (or no) uncertainty and attenuation when problems are cognitively easy. We argue that attenuation links several known decision anomalies, and study its limits. |
| Keywords: | Behavioral attenuation, diminishing sensitivity, cognitive uncertainty, experiments |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:econwp:487 |
| By: | Masaya NISHIHATA; Yohei KOBAYASHI; Takayuki ISHIKAWA |
| Abstract: | This study conducted two natural field experiments in Yokohama City, Japan, to evaluate the effectiveness of behavioral nudges in promoting automatic debit registration for property tax payments. While much of the existing literature on tax compliance focuses on reminder letters, relatively little attention has been paid to payment method choice, despite its potential to reduce administrative costs associated with reminders and enforcement. We find that a nudge flyer and the inclusion of the owner code required for the application increase the probability of applying for automatic debit by 2.7 and 2.8 percentage points, respectively. When implemented together, the combined intervention increases adoption by 8.8 percentage points, suggesting complementarities between benefit-enhancing and cost-reducing components. Despite the increase in automatic debit adoption, we find no evidence that these interventions improve on-time payment within the time frame observed in our experiments. This may reflect low baseline delinquency among new taxpayers or the possibility that the interventions primarily affect taxpayers who would have paid on time even in the absence of automatic debit. Taken together, our findings highlight both the potential and the limits of behavioral nudges in improving tax administration outcomes. |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:26023 |
| By: | Thomas Graeber; Shakked Noy; Christopher Roth |
| Abstract: | Information often spreads and influences beliefs regardless of its reliability.We show that this occurs in part because indicators of reliability are disproportionately lost in the process of word-of-mouth transmission. We conduct controlled experiments where participants listen to economic forecasts and pass them on through voice messages. Other participants listen either to original or transmitted audio recordings and report incentivized beliefs. Across various transmitter incentive schemes, a claim’s reliability is lost in transmission more than twice as much as the claim itself. Reliable and unreliable information, once filtered through transmission, impact listener beliefs similarly, substantially reducing the efficiency of downstream decisions. Mechanism experiments show that reliability is lost not because it is perceived as less relevant or harder to transmit, but because it is less likely to come to mind during transmission. Evidence from experiments, a large corpus of everyday conversations, and economic TV news demonstrate that reliability information is less likely to be cued during transmission and that attempts to retrieve it face greater interference in memory. |
| Keywords: | Information transmission, word-of-mouth, reliability, memory |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:econwp:489 |
| By: | Rachel Glennerster (University of Chicago Department of Economics and NBER); Joanna Murray (Development Media International); Victor Pouliquen (Paris Dauphine University) |
| Abstract: | This paper tests whether the arrival of mass media triggers a decline in fertility, a central prediction of modernization theory. Using a field experiment, we vary exposure to mass media and its content in a quarter of Burkina Faso. We provide radios to 1, 600 women without previous access to mass media. Half live in status quo areas and half in areas where the local radio station was randomly selected to air a science-based family planning campaign. Contrary to modernization theory and previous literature, gaining access to status quo mass media decreases contraception use by 14 percent and reinforces traditional gender norms. In contrast, receiving a radio in campaign areas boosts contraception use by 16 percent. The campaign also led to a 9 percent reduction in births and a 0.3 standard deviation increase in reported welfare. Reduced belief in misinformation rather than shifts in attitudes and preferences drives the result. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 L82 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfi:wpaper:2026-32 |
| By: | David Almog; Lucas Lippman; Daniel Martin |
| Abstract: | We use an online experiment with a real work task to study whether workers change their behavior when they know AI will be used to judge their work instead of humans. We find that individuals produce a higher quantity of output when they are assigned an AI evaluator. However, controlling for quantity, the quality of their output is lower, regardless of whether quality is measured using humans or LLM grades. We also find that workers are more likely to use external tools, including LLMs, when they know AI is used to judge their work instead of humans. However, the increase in external tool use does not appear to explain the differences in quantity or quality across treatments. |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2603.02076 |
| By: | Hübsch, Theresa (University of Bonn); Mahlstedt, Robert (University of Copenhagen); Pinger, Pia (University of Cologne); Settele, Sonja (University of Cologne); Willadsen, Helene (National Research Centre for the Working Environment) |
| Abstract: | Using surveys with Danish students transitioning to secondary education, we study mental models of how gender and parental education shape academic performance. Students hold heterogeneous beliefs about performance gaps by gender and parental background, which appear to be shaped by within-family transmission and broader social environments. Open-text responses reveal that respondents link strong performance by girls and less socioeconomically privileged students to effort, while attributing privileged students' success to external advantages. Mental models matter: beliefs about performance gaps predict enrollment in upper secondary education by gender and parental education and causally affect students’ self-assessments, intended effort, and educational aspirations, as shown in an information experiment with girls. We highlight two mechanisms: updating about the returns to effort and about gender-specific effort costs in response to observed gender performance gaps. Our findings advance the understanding of education choices and shed light on the determinants and effects of mental models in a high-stakes setting. |
| Keywords: | mental models, academic performance gaps, educational aspirations, returns to effort, gender, socioeconomic background, information experiment, secondary education |
| JEL: | D83 D84 I24 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18433 |
| By: | Thomas Graeber; Christopher Roth; Constantin Schesch |
| Abstract: | When people exchange knowledge, both truths and falsehoods can proliferate. We study the role of explanations for the spread of truths and falsehoods in 15 financial decision tasks. Participants record the reasoning behind each of their answers with incentives for accuracy of their listeners’ responses, providing over 6, 900 unique verbal explanations in total. A separate group of participants either only observe one orator’s choice or additionally listen to the corresponding explanation before making their own choice. While listening to explanations somewhat improves average accuracy, there is substantial heterogeneity: explanations enable the spread of truths, but do not curb the contagion of falsehoods. To study mechanisms, we extract every single argument provided in the explanations, alongside a large collection of speech features, revealing the nature of financial reasoning on each topic. Explanations for truths are richer and contain higher argument quality than explanations for falsehoods. These content differences in the supply of explanations for truths versus falsehoods account for 60% of their asymmetric benefit, whereas orator and receiver characteristics play a minor role. |
| Keywords: | Explanations, social learning, speech data, financial knowledge |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:econwp:490 |
| By: | David L. Dickinson |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces a novel Payoff-Trolley dilemma task, where other participantsÕ payoffs were at stake on the main or sidetrack in a trolley dilemma. Different scenarios varied the number of ÒothersÕ payoffsÓ on the sidetrack and main track in ways that helped identify more clearly immoral choices of commission and omission, and utilitarian choices. Study participants had also made hypothetical Trolley dilemma choices in a separate study 4-5 years prior, allowing for a direct comparison of hypothetical and consequential moral dilemma choices. One key finding is that past hypothetical choices are statistically significant predictors of present consequential choices in the Payoff-Trolley task. Also, we find that oneÕs degree of cognitive reflection is the most robust person-specific characteristic that predicts choicesÑhigher cognitive reflection predicts more utilitarian choices, a reduced likelihood of immoral acts of commission and omission, and it impacts oneÕs sensitivity to immoral choices for a given level of net-harm present in the scenario. These results hope to bridge a gap in our understanding of how choices in hypothetical moral dilemmas inform behaviors in consequential moral dilemmas. Key Words: Moral choice, experiments, Trolley dilemma, dark personality, cognitive reflection |
| JEL: | C9 D61 D91 I31 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:26-02 |
| By: | Dickinson, David (Appalachian State University) |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces a novel Payoff-Trolley dilemma task, where other participants’ payoffs were at stake on the main or sidetrack in a trolley dilemma. Different scenarios varied the number of “others’ payoffs†on the sidetrack and main track in ways that helped identify more clearly immoral choices of commission and omission, and utilitarian choices. Study participants had also made hypothetical Trolley dilemma choices in a separate study 4-5 years prior, allowing for a direct comparison of hypothetical and consequential moral dilemma choices. One key finding is that past hypothetical choices are statistically significant predictors of present consequential choices in the Payoff-Trolley task. Also, we find that one’s degree of cognitive reflection is the most robust person-specific characteristic that predicts choices—higher cognitive reflection predicts more utilitarian choices, a reduced likelihood of immoral acts of commission and omission, and it impacts one’s sensitivity to immoral choices for a given level of net-harm present in the scenario. These results hope to bridge a gap in our understanding of how choices in hypothetical moral dilemmas inform behaviors in consequential moral dilemmas. |
| Keywords: | moral choice, experiments, trolley dilemma, dark personality, cognitive reflection |
| JEL: | C9 D61 D91 I31 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18428 |
| By: | Fumio OHTAKE; Ayaka NAKAMURA; Takuma SUGIYAMA |
| Abstract: | Under Japan’s Infectious Diseases Control Law, physicians are required to report cases of specified infectious diseases; however, concerns remain that reporting is not conducted accurately, leading to incomplete surveillance. This study examines the actual status of case reporting and identifies bottlenecks in the reporting process through an online survey of physicians, focusing on syphilis, viral hepatitis, acute flaccid paralysis, acute encephalitis, invasive pneumococcal disease, and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. The results show that reporting rates are low, mainly due to insufficient awareness of reporting obligations and penalties. Reporting rates are significantly lower among physicians aged 50 and over and those with low awareness of reporting obligations, while they are significantly higher among physicians working at sentinel medical institutions and those using electronic medical records. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) demonstrates that nudges temporarily increase the intention to report cases, but the effect largely disappears after three months. To improve reporting rates, it is necessary to clearly state reporting obligations on laboratory test reports and to implement regular awareness-raising activities. |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:26011 |
| By: | Thomas Graeber; Christopher Roth; Marco Sammon |
| Abstract: | Most news stories contain both granular quantitative information and coarse categorizations. For instance, company earnings are reported as a dollar figure alongside categorizations, such as whether earnings beat or missed market expectations. We formalize and study the hypothesis that when a decision is harder, people rely more on easier-to-integrate signals: people still discriminate between coarse categories but distinguish less granularly within them, creating higher sensitivity around category thresholds but lower sensitivity elsewhere. Using stock market reactions to earnings announcements, we document that hard-to-value stocks are associated with a more pronounced S-shaped response pattern around category thresholds. Experiments that exogenously manipulate the problem difficulty provide supporting causal evidence in individual investor behavior. We then exploit variation in investor familiarity with earnings surprises of different sizes to show that returns exhibit greater sensitivity in regions withmore historical density. Our findings speak to the ongoing debate about why economic agents display insufficient sensitivity in some instances and excessive sensitivity in others, even within the same empirical setting. |
| Keywords: | Categorical information, numerical information, earnings surprises, cognitive constraints, behavioral finance |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:econwp:488 |
| By: | Enja Marie Herdejürgen, (Paderborn University); Sumaya Islam (Paderborn University); Martin Schneider (Paderborn University) |
| Abstract: | Young adults in Africa face a precarious labor market situation, as the demand for jobs far exceeds the supply. Previous training methods targeting formal employment have proven ineffective in this context. We propose that alternative training methods focusing on learners’ mindsets enable young adults to tackle their difficult labor market situation through entrepreneurship and self-employment. EDTECH trains young adults in Africa in a context-sensitive manner. The primary objective is not to secure formal employment for learners, but rather to promote a growth mindset among learners, enabling them to improve their economic situation. With the data provided by EDTECH, we conducted a field experiment among the participants and a control group to measure the impact of its learning and training program. Our findings show that learners address urgent community issues through problem-based and blended learning. More generally, this paper shows that this training package can act as a long-term, immersive growth mindset intervention to enable the participants to enhance either their chances of regional employability or to engage themselves in small or micro levels of entrepreneurship. Based on these results, we suggest EDTECH could serve as a role model for young adult training and education in Africa. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship Education, Growth Mindset, |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pdn:dispap:170 |
| By: | Bertermann, Alexander (Ifo Munich); Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first evidence that children’s economic preferences vary systematically with parental mental health. Using experimentally elicited measures of economic preferences from more than 4, 500 children in Bangladesh, we document that children of parents with indications of mental illness are less prosocial but more patient than their peers with mentally healthy parents. Attitudes toward risk remain unchanged. We discuss potential pathways through which parental mental health may influence the formation of children’s preferences, documenting that children of parents with indication of mental illness assume greater responsibilities within the family, experience less parental involvement, and are exposed to a more adverse home environment. |
| Keywords: | mental health, social preferences, risk preferences, patience, origins of preferences, experiments with children, Bangladesh |
| JEL: | C91 D01 D10 I10 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18406 |
| By: | El Haj, Morien (Ghent University); Moens, Eline (Ghent University); Verhofstadt, Elsy (Ghent University); Van Ootegem, Luc (Ghent University); Baert, Stijn (Ghent University) |
| 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: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18430 |
| By: | Haruvy, Ernan; Heinrich, Timo; Walker, Matthew J. |
| Abstract: | This paper studies hold-ups in markets where sellers may impose undisclosed surcharges. While prior work has examined price transparency’s role in market outcomes, the distinct effect of a transparency norm—separate from a fairness norm—remains unestablished. We formulate a simple model that separates these norms and characterizes their equilibrium implications across different market settings. The model shows that price competition yields higher buyer surplus than ultimatum bargaining and that this surplus increases with transparency concerns but decreases with fairness concerns because of softened competition. Compulsory surcharges cannot be higher in bargaining, as sellers prefer a higher price to a higher surcharge as long as it does not change the buyer’s probability of acceptance. Experimental results confirm the transparency norm’s influence: Total prices are lower with price competition, and surcharges are lower with ultimatum bargaining. Additionally, surcharges rise when pricing is outside of the seller’s control. Estimates of the behavioral parameters reveal that sellers weigh transparency at least as heavily as fairness. The results imply that firms fearing hold-ups should still procure goods and services in competitive market structures. |
| Keywords: | surcharge, transparent pricing, fairness, social norm, hold-up, procurement |
| JEL: | C91 D47 D82 L14 M55 |
| Date: | 2026–01–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:127601 |
| By: | Asako Chiba; Kazuya Haganuma; Taisuke Nakata; Thuy Linh Nguyen; Reo Takaku |
| Abstract: | We examine how information provision affects the public's perceived COVID-19 infection risk after the official end of the pandemic as a public health emergency (PHE). We conducted our survey in Japan in August 2023, a few months after the government reclassified COVID-19 from Category II to Category V and officially ended the PHE. We find that none of the information treatments affected the public's risk perceptions in a statistically significant way, in stark contrast with a similar information-provision experiment conducted right before the reclassification. Our result suggests that the official end of the PHE may influence how the public responds to news about infection. |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcr:wpaper:e224 |
| By: | Ambler, Kate; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; de Brauw, Alan; Uddin, Mohammad Riad |
| Abstract: | Credit market failures may reflect voluntary withdrawal by risk-averse borrowers in addition to supply-side constraints. We conduct a randomized trial with 1, 517 Bangladeshi households, offering cattle financing through conventional loans or profit-sharing contracts that spread risk between the farmer and the financial partner. Overall, interest in and take-up of the profit-sharing contracts were modestly higher than the conventional loans. However, conventional loan take-up was much lower among risk-averse farmers, and profit-sharing eliminated the take-up gap between risk-averse and non-risk-averse farmers. We find that it is male risk preferences that are associated with these decisions even when contracts explicitly target women. Livestock investment increases under both contracts with no evidence of moral hazard under profit-sharing. |
| Keywords: | gender; credit; financing; livestock; loans; smallholders; financial innovation; access to finance; risk; risk coping strategies; Bangladesh; Southern Asia; Asia |
| Date: | 2026–02–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:gsspwp:181679 |
| By: | Asako Chiba (The University of Tokyo); Kazuya Haganuma (Massey University); Taisuke Nakata (The University of Tokyo); Thuy Linh Nguyen (The University of Tokyo); Reo Takaku (Hitotsubashi University) |
| Abstract: | We examine how information provision affects the public’s perceived COVID-19 infection risk after the official end of the pandemic as a public health emergency (PHE). We conducted our survey in Japan in August 2023, a few months after the government reclassified COVID-19 from Category II to Category V and officially ended the PHE. We find that none of the information treatments affected the public’s risk perceptions in a statistically significant way, in stark contrast with a similar information-provision experiment conducted right before the reclassification. Our result suggests that the official end of the PHE may influence how the public responds to news about infection. |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfi:fseres:cf621 |
| By: | Maryse Kathleen Ngangoue; Andrew Schotter; Bill Wang |
| Abstract: | The Big Decisions in our lives, having a child, getting married, getting educated, etc. are transformative decisions that are hard to make. As a result, people often seek advice before making them. However, since people tend to live in homophilous social networks the advice received from their friends and neighbors may simply reinforce the decisions that people like them are already making. We investigate whether the advice offered by ChatGPT for such decisions can be useful in broadening the advice people receive and how such advice varies as we change the prompted socioeconomic backgrounds of the advisee and advisor. We find that advice tends to be confirmatory for low-income groups, in that it reinforces their established choices, while being dis-confirming for high-income groups, where it prompts reconsideration. Furthermore, even when suggesting the same choice, ChatGPT justifies that choice differently depending on who it is talking to. These findings suggest that AI-generated advice may differentially shape life’s Big Decisions across social strata. |
| Keywords: | LLM, generative AI, big decisions, transformative decisions, advice, SES |
| JEL: | O33 D83 D03 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12515 |