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on Experimental Economics |
| By: | Olle Folke; Torbjørn Hanson; Åshild A. Johnsen; Andreas Kotsadam; Johanna Rickne |
| Abstract: | We develop an information-based intervention against sexual harassment and test it in a randomized control trial across small groups of military recruits in the boot camp of the Norwegian military. The intervention seeks to bridge two knowledge gaps with implications for sexual harassment prevalence. We tell some recruits about their peers' beliefs that "telling sexualized jokes can be labeled sexual harassment" and about women soldiers' equal performance on military skill tests. This treatment gives lasting improvements in knowledge about what sexual harassment is and about women's job performance. The impact on sexual harassment prevalence is directionally negative but statistically insignificant. We discuss measurement error and use survey responses about a harassment scenario to argue that the intervention likely affected behavior. Our study provides the first field experiment to evaluate whether a prevention method against sexual harassment reduces prevalence in a work setting. We use insights from our research process to identify methodological pitfalls and provide guidance for future field experiments in this area. |
| Keywords: | Sexual harassment, Randomized controlled trial, Information provision experiment |
| JEL: | J16 C93 M54 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26138 |
| By: | Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hirvonen, Kalle; Leight, Jessica; Mesfin, Hiwot; Mulford, Michael; Tesfaye, Haleluya |
| Abstract: | This brief reports on a three-arm cluster randomized controlled trial of 3, 015 households evaluating the effectiveness of SPIR II, a nutrition-sensitive graduation model implemented in Ethiopia. The full treatment package—combining nutrition-focused behavior change communication (BCC), village economics and savings associations, monthly maternal cash transfers of US$20, and a one-time livelihood grant of US$300—generates large, sustained improvements in child diet quality, household consumption, livestock holdings, and formal savings. A substantial reduction in childhood stunting (7 percentage points) is observed in the same sub-arm; BCC alone improves caregiver nutrition knowledge but does not lead to improved child feeding or growth. The benefit-cost ratio is nearly two, suggesting the program more than pays for itself. |
| Keywords: | impact; nutrition; child nutrition; modelling; randomized controlled trials; benefit-cost ratio; Ethiopia; Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa; Eastern Africa |
| Date: | 2026–05–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:prnote:182850 |
| By: | Maja Adena (WZB Berlin, TU Berlin); Patrycja Janowska-Widomska (University of Warsaw); Julian Harke (WZB Berlin) |
| Abstract: | An increasing number of individuals worldwide are participating in crowdwork and tele-work. They often perform tasks such as AI training and content moderation. While these tasks are typically conducted in large quantities and often involve routine elements, their nature makes them inherently demanding. They require high levels of engagement or creativity and produce outputs of subjective quality that are difficult to measure. In a preregistered field experiment involving over 5, 500 crowdworkers, we examined the impact of automated recognition and work-appreciation phrases and payment framing on motivation, performance, and job satisfaction. The results indicate that recognition—automated phrases: Great work! You did a good job! Nice job! Well done!—positively influences subjective job satisfaction, and that loss-framed payment is somewhat more effective than gain framing. Overall, the treatments have little effect on objective and subjective performance and moti-vation. |
| Keywords: | crowdworkers; complex tasks; routine; automated motivation; nonmonetary incentives; recognition and appreciation; loss and gain framework; experiment; |
| JEL: | J33 J24 M54 M52 D83 C93 |
| Date: | 2026–06–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:576 |
| By: | Yuriy Gorodnichenko; Ilona Sologoub; Yuriy Fedyk |
| Abstract: | Using a representative sample of more than 7, 000 Ukrainians, we study how information treatments affect corruption perceptions and prosocial behavior. We document a large gap between perceived and experienced corruption: while most respondents view corruption as widespread and a major national problem, far fewer report direct exposure. Through a randomized controlled trial, we find that informing citizens about successful prosecutions raises perceived government willingness to fight corruption but does not reduce overall corruption perceptions. Communicating the scale of corruption alone generates no significant effects. Information treatments have little effect on hypothetical or actual donations and volunteering, suggesting a limited pass-through from changed beliefs to prosocial action. Thus, while information interventions can strengthen institutional credibility, they alone are not enough to tangibly improve civic engagement or reduce perceptions of corruption. |
| JEL: | D73 O17 O52 P2 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35251 |
| By: | C. Palomino, Juan; Sebastian, Raquel |
| Abstract: | We study perceptions of wealth inequality and preferences over the design of a wealth tax through representative online survey experiments in the United Kingdom and Spain (2023). After eliciting prior beliefs about the wealth distribution, we randomly expose respondents to true distributional statistics and measure the effects on support for a wealth tax and on its preferred design: threshold, rate and asset base. Baseline support is high and stable (over 80% in both countries), the modal preferred threshold is £/€1 million or more, a low (0.5%) rate is more acceptable than a high (1.5%) one, and respondents protect primary residences in both countries and pension wealth in the UK. The average treatment effect on support, threshold and rate is close to zero in both countries, reflecting a high-support ceiling and a weak link between perceived inequality and tax preferences. On average, respondents who correct their misperceptions update their view of inequality but not their support, a clear belief-to-preference dissociation. Information campaigns may shift beliefs about inequality but appear unlikely to broaden an already high overall support for wealth taxation. An analysis of subgroups by world-views reveals that information can move preferences about the exemption threshold -where the ceiling does not bind- and only in some Spanish groups: supporters who regard inequality as unfair and trust that taxation is useful and well spent. |
| Keywords: | wealth tax, tax threshold, redistribution preferences, information experiment, misperceptions, United Kingdom, Spain |
| JEL: | H24 D31 D83 C93 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amz:wpaper:2026-16 |
| By: | O'Leary, Ethan (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | Trust, the belief in another individual or organisation’s intent to act in good faith, is a cornerstone of social prosperity. However, cultural norms significantly influence trust levels within and between groups, often leading to discriminatory behaviours that undermine cooperation. This paper investigates the impact of culture on trust using a novel experimental approach that isolates trust from confounding factors such as risk preferences and distributional concerns. The setting of the experiment is England, a culturally and economically divided nation. Focusing on self-identified Southerners and Northerners, I find evidence of a cultural trust gap. Specifically, while Southerners exhibit equal trust towards both groups, Northerners trust Southerners significantly less than their own group. By decomposing trust into its conditional and unconditional components, I show that this disparity is driven by unconditional trust: Northerners perceive Southerners as more selfish than their own culture. |
| Keywords: | Trust; Culture; Beliefs; Spectator Design |
| JEL: | C90 D01 D83 D91 R11 |
| Date: | 2026–06–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2026_008 |
| By: | Paolo Pin; Roberto Rozzi; Alessandro Stringhi |
| Abstract: | Museums can serve as policy tools when their content is purposefully curated. We designed a framed field experiment at the Santa Maria della Scala museum in Siena that leveraged the site's historical role offering care and hospitality.Student visitors randomly assigned to a tour emphasizing this function later donated more to an NGO supporting refugee than those who followed a standard artistic itinerary, with effects concentrated among female participants. These results show that thematically targeted museum experiences can measurably boost charitable behavior toward vulnerable groups, underscoring the untapped potential of cultural institutions in behavioral public policy. |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2606.07109 |
| By: | Yoshio Kamijo (Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University); Daiki Kishishita (Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University); Satoru Shimokawa (Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University) |
| Abstract: | This paper identifies a fundamental expert communication dilemma: citizens distrust consistent advice as a signal of bias, yet distrust revision as indicating limited knowledge. We formalize this in a repeated cheap-talk model with bias uncertainty and gradually accumulating evidence. Theoretically, perfect compliance obtains without private information but collapses otherwise. Experiments reveal the dilemma is more severe than predicted, emerging even without private information. Importantly, private signals do not reduce welfare but instead filter incorrect advice. Finally, compliance substantially recovers with algorithmic advisors, suggesting automated advice mitigates communication failures in controversial policy environments. |
| Keywords: | Reputational cheap talk; Expert advice; Informed receiver; Algorithmic advice; Experiment |
| JEL: | D83 C92 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wap:wpaper:2532 |
| By: | Mohammad Salahshour; Fjolle Shabani; Urs Fischbacher; Iain D. Couzin |
| Abstract: | Collective action often requires institutions that make cooperation individually worthwhile. We ask whether democratic allocation of public-good return can transform a repeated public good into a self-sustaining cooperative institution, and how participation costs reshape that process. A simple evolutionary model shows that voted redistribution can support a prosocial allocation order, but can also sustain an antisocial allocation order or democratic free riding, in which individuals benefit from an institution maintained by others while avoiding the cost of participation. The model predicts competing effects of voting cost. Cost can suppress use of the institution to reward low contributors under strong selection, but can also thin the active electorate and erode contributor-rewarding support. We test these predictions in a preregistered online experiment with \NIncludedGroupsVone{} five-person groups. Endogenous democratic redistribution increased contributions relative to an equal-share public-goods control, with zero-cost voting producing the strongest temporal improvement. Voting costs did not mainly turn active voters toward low-contributor-rewarding allocation. Instead, they shifted behavior toward abstention and democratic free riding, made abstention locally rewarding, and widened the gap between post-task perceptions of democratic participation and the behavioral record. Democratic allocation can therefore stabilize cooperation, but participation costs can reduce the number of people actively sustaining the institution and can make that erosion less visible to participants themselves. |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2605.30566 |
| By: | Alex Chan |
| Abstract: | Participants acted as loan officers deciding whether to approve real $10, 000-loans issued by a private U.S. lender using an AI’s default-risk predictions. When explanations revealed that the AI penalized non-White or female borrowers, participants were more likely to override the AI’s profit-maximizing recommendation. When their bonuses depended on repayment, however, they sought predictions but avoided explanations, consistent with willful ignorance; this effect faded when explanations were framed as purely financial or demographics were hidden. A secondary experiment reveals a novel bias: participants failed to reason contingently and undervalued explanations even when these complemented private information and improved decision accuracy. |
| JEL: | B4 C1 C91 C92 D12 D14 D81 G21 G41 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35240 |
| By: | David Arbour; Eli Ben-Michael; Avi Feller; Apoorva Lal; Lo-Hua Yuan |
| Abstract: | Generative AI and large language models can produce realistic predictions of human behavior from rich, unstructured inputs with little to no task-specific training data. Recent work uses these ``digital twin'' predictions to supplement human responses in surveys and experiments. We study the special case of using AI-generated predictions to reduce variance in randomized experiments. We argue that doing so requires no new estimators and that researchers can simply include AI predictions as covariates in standard regression adjustment, analogous to adjusting for a prognostic score. A benefit of this approach is a ``do no harm'' property whereby the adjusted estimator reverts to the unadjusted difference in means when predictions are uninformative. Other methods, such as variants of prediction-powered inference, do not have this guarantee. We provide implementation guidance, including how to obtain continuous scores from discrete LLM outputs and how to use LLMs to featurize unstructured inputs as auxiliary covariates. We demonstrate these ideas in simulations and three empirical applications: a survey mega-study, an email marketing A/B test, and a large-scale technology platform experiment. Overall, efficiency gains are real if modest, with greater benefits in studies that contain substantial text and other unstructured data. We also confirm the do no harm property empirically. Given these gains and limited costs, we recommend adjusting for AI-generated predictions as a regular empirical practice. |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2606.08853 |
| By: | Baumann, Ursel; Faia, Ester; Ferrando, Annalisa; Rariga, Judit; Cullen, Zoe; Perez-Truglia, Ricardo |
| Abstract: | How well does innovation diffuse across geographic boundaries? To shed light on this question, we present a large-scale field experiment involving 3, 300 firms across twelve European Union countries. We elicit firms’ perceptions of the share of similar firms in their own country that had invested in artificial intelligence (AI), as well as the corresponding share among similar firms in Germany, France, and Italy. We randomly provide half of the sample with accurate information about both domestic and foreign AI investment. We show that firms substantially underestimate competitors’ current AI investment, both domestically and abroad, and that they update their expectations about competitors’ future AI investment in response to the information treatment. The treatment also causes a statistically significant increase in firms’ own expected AI investment rate. We find strong strategic complementarities within borders: a 1 pp increase in the expected share of domestic peers investing in AI raises a firm’s own expected AI investment rate by 0.570 pp. These complementarities are absent across borders: the effect of an increase in the expected share of foreign peers investing in AI on a firm’s own expected AI investment rate is statistically insignificant. Overall, our evidence shows that innovation diffusion and strategic complementarities in AI investment are much stronger domestically than internationally. JEL Classification: O33, D22, C93, L21 |
| Keywords: | artificial intelligence, field experiment, innovation diffusion, survey data |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20263246 |
| By: | Naoki Chihara; Tatsushi Oka; Yasuko Matsubara; Yasushi Sakurai; Shota Yasui |
| Abstract: | We present a regression-adjustment framework designed for the estimation of longitudinal treatment effects in randomized experiments under static regimes. While regression-adjustment methods are useful for variance reduction in randomized experiments by using pre-treatment covariates, they usually focus only on average effects, from which we cannot obtain valuable insights into when the effects appear and how long they continue. To address this issue, we consider intermediate outcomes and evolving post-treatment covariates over time, and we represent such dynamic trajectories using transition kernels. Furthermore, we establish the asymptotic normality and the semiparametric efficiency bound for our estimator, enabling more powerful statistical inference. Simulation studies and empirical analysis using A/B test data from a streaming platform in Japan show the practical advantages of our method. |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2605.31443 |
| By: | Pierre-Alexandre Mahieu (LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - Nantes Univ - IAE Nantes - Nantes Université - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises - Nantes - Nantes Université - pôle Sociétés - Nantes Univ - Nantes Université); Klaus Glenk (SRUC - Scotland's Rural College); Jürgen Meyerhoff (TUB - Technical University of Berlin / Technische Universität Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Nearly all discrete choice experiments in environmental valuation have a cost attribute to estimate willingness to pay for the goods and services in question. The composition of the cost vector, however, has received little attention in the literature so far. This paper focuses on whether or not the cost vector should include "prominent amounts" (e.g., €1, €2, €5, €10, €20, €50). On the one hand, these amounts are familiar to participants as they are used in everyday life (e.g., coins or banknotes). On the other hand, respondents may not consider the amounts to reflect the cost of environmental programs, affecting credibility. In a review of published discrete choice experiment articles on wind energy, we find little information on how the levels of the cost attribute vectors were chosen and why prominent amounts are (not) included, reflecting the lack of guidance in the literature. In a split-sample survey on renewable energy, we find that the composition of the cost vector does not affect choice frequencies or the perceived difficulty of the task. However, we observe that the cost vector impacts credibility, suggesting that it may impact the validity of the welfare estimates. |
| Keywords: | Prominent numbers, Discrete choice experiment, Cost vector, Payment consequentiality, Renewable energy |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05626914 |
| By: | Jun Takahashi; Yoshiyuki Nakazono; Kento Tango |
| Abstract: | Complex tax incentives, such as means-tested tax transfers, are known to distort labor supply decisions (Chetty and Saez, 2013). This study conducts a randomized experiment to examine whether providing information about income taxation induces individuals to change their labor supply. The results show that tax information provision increases stated annual earnings by an average of 0.9%, and raises the probability of planning to earn above the threshold by 4.3%. However, this increase in stated intentions does not translate into actual labor supply, as revealed by the end-of-year follow-up survey. The findings suggest that while information can correct misconceptions and shift intentions, entrenched behavioral norms tied to institutional thresholds, together with psychological frictions, may limit the effectiveness of such interventions in changing actual behavior. |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:toh:tupdaa:86 |
| By: | Mikołaj Czajkowski (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences); Wojciech Zawadzki (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences); Katarzyna Skrzypek (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences); Wiktor Budziński (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences); Milan Scasny (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences; Charles University, The Environment Center) |
| Abstract: | Coastal bathing delivers large welfare benefits but exposes recreationists to low-probability, high-salience microbial risks that are likely to become more frequent under climate change. Because these risks are largely invisible, behaviour and welfare depend on beliefs and the effectiveness of risk communication. We provide causal evidence on how pathogen-risk information affects preferences and recreation demand using a three-wave panel survey of users of the Gulf of Gdańsk and the Vistula Lagoon (Poland). A stratified national sample identified 3, 312 active coastal users in Wave 1 (spring 2024); 2, 588 respondents returned in Wave 2 (summer 2024), where they were randomly assigned to receive either minimal information or increasingly detailed pathogen-risk scripts, and then completed a repeated beach-site discrete choice experiment. Approximately one year later (spring 2025), 1, 507 users completed a policy-referendum discrete choice experiment on programs combining water-quality improvements, monitoring frequency, and household costs, alongside a repeated travel-cost module capturing multi-day trips and beach outings. Information treatments significantly increased objective and self-assessed knowledge and selectively raised willingness to travel/pay for risk-relevant attributes – especially frequent water-quality monitoring and water-quality improvements – while leaving unrelated attributes largely unchanged. Travel-cost models indicate that information affects trip-taking behaviour, yet the marginal travel-cost sensitivity remains stable, consistent with a demand shift rather than a change in the “price” slope. The results imply that welfare estimates are information-dependent and that credible risk communication can function as a scalable, low-cost complement to traditional coastal health-risk management. |
| Keywords: | Bathing water quality, Pathogens, Microbial contamination, Risk communication, Information treatments, Discrete choice experiment (DCE), Travel cost method (TCM), Recreation demand, Welfare measurement, Consumer surplus, Climate adaptation, Coastal health risks, Baltic Sea, Poland |
| JEL: | C93 C35 Q26 Q51 Q53 D91 I18 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2026-22 |
| By: | Domenico Di Prisco (IÉSEG School Of Management [Puteaux]); Silvia Dello Russo (LUISS - Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli [Roma], LUISS Business School, Università LUISS Guido Carli, Rome, Italy.) |
| Abstract: | Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies promise to transform how people perform tasks and make decisions within organizations. Yet, their impact on human reasoning processes remains poorly understood. When encountering an unexpected AI suggestion, individuals may either attempt to understand the reasoning behind it or blindly accept or reject it. What drives these different reactions, however, remains unexplored. Unpacking these factors is essential to advance our understanding of augmentation and prevent major decision-making failures. This study addresses this gap through three experimental studies. In study 1 we find that, when performing a task, the unexpected failure of one's own frames increases the likelihood of individuals blindly accepting AI suggestions and effortfully trying to explain them. In study 2 we shed light on the underlying reasons for the results, by analyzing qualitative insights. We find that the unexpected failure of frames promotes "problematization pivoting", a phenomenon wherein individuals anchor their reasoning to opaque AI suggestions ignoring other available cues. In study 3, we add evidence of potential negative performance implications associated with effects documented before. Overall, these findings contribute to the literature on human-AI augmentation and sensemaking theory, while also alerting managers and policymakers on the perils associated with AI use. |
| Keywords: | Artificial intelligence Experiment AI opacity Sensemaking theory Human-AI interaction Augmentation |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05622528 |
| By: | Bernd Irlenbusch (University of Cologne) |
| Abstract: | Artificial intelligence increasingly shapes economic decisions, yet its value depends on whether humans rely on it appropriately. This survey selectively reviews experimental economic evidence (2020 – 2026) on trust in AI, with a focus on privacy, transparency, accountability, fairness, and efficiency. The evidence challenges simple accounts of algorithm aversion or algorithm appreciation. Individuals may underuse beneficial AI because of opacity, autonomy concerns, or institutional distrust, but may also over-rely on deficient systems, disclose excessive data, or delegate responsibility strategically. The survey suggests that trust in AI is best understood as calibrated reliance under informational and institutional constraints. Effective governance should structure informational and institutional environments that help humans calibrate reliance on AI to its actual capabilities, limitations, and social consequences. |
| Keywords: | Trust in AI, calibrated reliance, algorithm aversion, algorithm appreciation, privacy, transparency, accountability, fairness, efficiency |
| JEL: | C90 C91 C92 C93 O33 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:417 |
| By: | abe housh, Najm |
| Abstract: | Decision biases are commonly interpreted as systematic deviations from rational evaluation, arising from distorted preferences, heuristics, or computational limitations. This article challenges that assumption by proposing that many biases are not errors, but outcomes of a structured process of evaluative selection operating under constraint. Within this framework, decision-making is modeled as a dynamic process in which alternatives are evaluated through the interaction of symbolic value, functional return, and constraint structures, modulated by context-sensitive reweighting. Crucially, evaluation does not operate over a fixed set of representations. Instead, the evaluative field is selectively constructed through memory activation, such that only a subset of representations becomes available for comparison at any given moment. Biases are therefore redefined as selection outcomes produced under asymmetric weighting and constrained evaluative access. This account explains why behavioral regularities such as loss aversion, present bias, cognitive dissonance, and status quo preference can appear both stable and context-dependent, without invoking systematic irrationality. The article further develops the empirical implications of this framework by proposing experimental designs that manipulate not only outcome structure but also representational access and weighting conditions. It predicts that biases can be attenuated, amplified, or reversed through controlled variation in memory activation, contextual framing, and threshold conditions governing selection. By shifting the focus from deviation to structure, the framework provides a unified account linking conceptual analysis, decision dynamics, and experimental design, offering a foundation for a selection-based theory of decision-making. |
| Keywords: | Decision Biases Evaluative Selection Dynamic Reweighting Memory Activation Bounded Rationality Behavioral Economics Loss Aversion Present Bias Status Quo Bias Cognitive Dissonance Symbolic-Functional Framework Decision Making Dynamics Experimental Design |
| JEL: | B41 C91 D03 D83 |
| Date: | 2026–04–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:129175 |
| By: | Yoshdia, Ken |
| Abstract: | Students' engagement with a course is often measured through grades and attendance, yet much of what happens in a classroom is voluntary. This article studies one visible feature of teaching practice--instructor attire--and asks whether it changes that voluntary margin. The evidence comes from six first-year ``Information (Data Science)'' sections at Chiba University of Commerce. The same instructor taught all sections, using a common syllabus, schedule, and grading scheme; three sections were randomly assigned to formal attire and three to casual attire. The course is not an economics course, but the design speaks to a question familiar in economics education: whether observable teaching practices affect forms of student engagement that standard outcome measures miss. Formal attire is not associated with higher attendance or final exam scores. The participation margin looks different. Students in formal-attire sections submitted fewer ungraded reaction papers and wrote fewer words per submitted reaction paper. Exact randomization inference and wild-cluster bootstrap checks point in the same direction, while also showing how much uncertainty remains with only six randomized sections. A supplementary sentiment measure, coded from the original Japanese reactions, is too imprecise to support a separate conclusion. The main lesson is therefore about measurement as much as attire: voluntary-effort outcomes can reveal classroom responses that are not visible in grades or attendance alone. |
| Keywords: | instructor attire; voluntary participation; economics education; higher education; field experiment. |
| JEL: | C93 D91 I21 I23 |
| Date: | 2026–03–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:129095 |
| By: | t'Serstevens, François; Oschatz, Corinna; , Abdul.Sittar; Trilling, Damian; Guček, Alenka |
| Abstract: | Online social networks have become a central arena for political and social discourse, yet interactions on these platforms are frequently characterized by hostile interactions. While disagreement is a normal and required feature of democratic debate, research suggests that disrespectful communication discourages users from engaging in political discussions and may negatively affect both participants and the broader audience exposed to such interactions. In response, previous interventions have attempted to improve online discourse through behavioral nudges and interface design changes, though their effectiveness has often been limited. This study examines whether AI-mediated paraphrasing interventions can reduce uncivil expression while preserving substantive disagreement in online political discussions. Using an experimental setting that simulates social media interactions, we analyse how AI-generated paraphrases influence the tone of conversations and assess their effects not only on the direct participants of a debate but also on external observers who encounter these exchanges. The findings provide insights into the potential of AI-assisted communication tools to foster healthier online discourse. |
| Date: | 2026–05–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:jhbuf_v1 |
| By: | Goldstein, Daniel A. N. (University of Oslo); Bakke, Kaja Sparre; Dahlum, Sirianne; Wig, Tore |
| Abstract: | Studies of democratic backsliding suggest that political elites can, but often fail to, serve as "democratic gatekeepers" by punishing autocratic colleagues to protect democracy. While there is a substantial body of literature examining voters' preferences for democracy and their reactions to democratic violations by elites, we know less about elites' preferences for democratic gatekeeping in contemporary democracies. We develop a theory of democratic gatekeeping among political elites in democracies, examining the practice within and between parties. We tested the implications of this theory in pre-registered survey experiments targeting approximately 8, 000 national and local elected representatives and party officials in Norway. We then compared the results to those of a survey of citizens. Through various experimental approaches, we uncover the gatekeeping preferences of Norwegian political elites when exposed to anti-democratic party colleagues and political parties as potential coalition partners. |
| Date: | 2026–05–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:2rwgt_v1 |
| By: | Cooper Howes; Can Urgun; Mark Whitmeyer |
| Abstract: | We study a population-wide tournament in which agents, who care both about their absolute and relative wealth, experiment by searching over correlated objects. We explore the role of the agents' beliefs about the environment; namely, the stochastic processes corresponding to their experimentation. We find that although optimism leads to higher output, it also produces greater inequality. We connect these observations with empirical evidence suggesting a positive relationship between inequality and entrepreneurship. |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2606.02306 |
| By: | Gabriele Camera (ESI, Chapman University); Gary Charness (UC Santa Barbara); Nir Chemeya (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev); Ro'i Zultan (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) |
| Abstract: | We propose a novel game, the Dictatorial Public Goods Game, to study the interplay between collective resource generation and centralized provision of public goods. After making choices in a standard VoluntaryContribution Mechanism (VCM), one player is selected from the group to administrate the contributions: either provide the public good or expropriate the collected resources for personal gain. We find that adding this centralized mechanism reduces efficiency compared to the standard VCM. Although higher contributions increase the material incentive to expropriate, they lead to more provision. Thus, pro-social choices in the contribution and in the provision stages act as complements, reflecting the generation of social capital in the group. Administrators tend to provide more when the statutory default is expropriation rather than provision. This counter status-quo effect is in line with the standard provision-maintenance gap in the literature, but is not explained by the theoretical arguments typically invoked to explain such framing effects. |
| Keywords: | group decision-making, public goods, repeated games, institutions, framing |
| JEL: | C92 H41 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chu:wpaper:26-05 |
| By: | Abid N. Alam; Philip Oreopoulos; Uros Petronijevic |
| Abstract: | Using four large-scale experiments across two major Canadian universities, we experimentally evaluate the effects of growth mindset and social belonging interventions on student outcomes. In a sample of nearly 12, 000 students, we find no immediate or dynamic effects on student grades and no effect on persistence through university. We further combine survey and administrative data with machine learning methods to explore treatment effect heterogeneity, finding no evidence of meaningful variation in treatment effects across student subgroups. Despite the recent promise of these light-touch interventions, our findings indicate further research is required to identify the contexts in which their benefits generalize. |
| JEL: | C93 I21 I23 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35230 |
| By: | Jan Frankowski; Jakub SokoÅ‚owski; Soňa Stará; Joanna Mazurkiewicz; Aleksandra Prusak; Richard Jedon |
| Abstract: | This study examines how residents evaluate trade-offs between benefit scale, required engagement, and investment decision-making rules in Poland and Czechia: countries with distinct post-socialist housing trajectories. Using a large-scale discrete choice experiment with over 7, 500 respondents, we analyze the relative importance of decision-making arrangements and heterogeneity in preferences across socio-demographic groups. Findings show that residents strongly prefer building-wide benefits and majority-based decision-making. Preferences show strong cross-national consistency, suggesting structural rather than context-specific patterns. Results also reveal a preference-behavior gap, interpreted through Campbell’s paradigm: although residents value direct, democratic decision-making, board-based governance, such as in housing cooperatives, may nevertheless persist because participation costs outweigh residents’ preferences for active involvement. |
| Keywords: | collective decision-making, housing ownership, housing cooperatives, homeowners’ associations |
| JEL: | R21 D71 P31 |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ibt:wpaper:wp022026 |
| By: | Giuseppe Attanasi; Giuseppe Ciccarone; Valentina Peruzzi |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how collective cultural participation shapes the micro-dynamics of trust formation and its short-term social and economic effects. Using unique microdata from a long-term field study of collective cultural participation, comprising more than 13, 000 face-to-face interviews, we examine whether engagement in shared artistic experiences enhances instantaneous social capital, defined as a temporary yet socially meaningful increase in interpersonal trust. Results show that emotional and bodily participation in collective performances significantly increases the likelihood of reporting higher trust toward others. This situational trust, in turn, predicts a greater willingness to volunteer and higher local spending. The findings highlight that cultural events can act as catalysts of both social cohesion and local economic vitality, even within short-lived, non-institutional settings. |
| Keywords: | social capital, trust, cultural participation, field study, prosocial behavior, local development |
| JEL: | Z13 D91 D64 O18 C83 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ter:wpaper:00189 |
| By: | Jens Hainmueller; David Laitin |
| Abstract: | Citizenship is widely summarized as producing a "naturalization premium" for immigrants, but naturalization is highly selected on language, residence, employment, and motivation. We provide a quantitative meta-analysis of citizenship effects on immigrant earnings, synthesizing 63 preferred estimates from 31 studies. Identification strategy explains more between-estimate heterogeneity than citizenship regime, destination country, effect measurement window, outcome data source, earnings-sample basis, or treatment estimand. A multilevel random-effects model yields a pooled earnings premium of 9.6% (95% CI 5.0 to 14.5), broadly consistent with the study-country-collapsed estimate of 11.2% (95% CI 6.1 to 16.5). This average masks a sharp identification-strategy gradient: a randomized encouragement design implies a precisely estimated near-zero effect of 0.4% (95% CI -0.9 to 1.7); the regression-discontinuity study yields 11.3% (95% CI 5.2 to 17.8); reform-based and panel within-person estimates are positive on average but statistically indistinguishable from zero; observational instrumental-variable estimates average 39.9% (95% CI 12.6 to 73.9). Excluding observational instrumental-variable estimates reduces the pooled premium to 5.8% (95% CI 3.6 to 8.1). A within-study diagnostic from the randomized trial shows the same pattern: experimental estimates are near zero, while an observational panel comparison that ignores randomization and uses self-selected citizenship uptake implies a 9.6% gain (95% CI 3.6 to 16.0) four years after the lottery. The published citizenship premium is positive, but its magnitude and causal interpretation are highly sensitive to research design. |
| Keywords: | citizenship; naturalization; immigrant earnings; meta-analysis; selection bias. |
| JEL: | C18 F22 J15 J31 J61 K37 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26142 |
| By: | Jean-Marie Baland (Development Finance and Public Policies, University of Namur); Marie Boltz (BETA, University of Strasbourg); Catherine Guirkinger (Development Finance and Public Policies, University of Namur); Anna Jolivet (Development Finance and Public Policies, University of Namur); Roberta Ziparo (AMSE, Aix-Marseille University) |
| Abstract: | Non-participation in household decisions is commonly interpreted as weak empowerment. We challenge this interpretation by showing that non-participation can be a strategic choice — a form of delegation — when a spouse expects the decision outcome to be sufficiently close to her preferences regardless of her involvement. We propose a model of imperfect information and derive conditions under which delegation arises in equilibrium: it occurs when the opportunity cost of participation in the decision is large compared to the preference gap between spouses. A key implication is that the spouse who receives authority may achieve lower welfare than the one who delegates. We test these predictions in two incentivized experiments conducted among couples in Belgium/France and Benin, finding strong support across both contexts. Survey evidence further confirms the external validity of the results. Our findings suggest that standard survey measures of intra-household bargaining, by conflating strategic delegation with disempowerment, may incorrectly reflect the distribution of power within households. |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nam:defipp:2605 |
| By: | Yifan Hong; Hongmiao Fan; Chen Wang |
| Abstract: | Decision-making under risk is typically studied through single-shot lottery choices. Yet many real decisions involve combinatorial risk, where risk arises from multiple risky components, so the lottery over outcomes is induced rather than given outright and can be costly to evaluate exactly. We introduce an investment-allocation task to study decision under combinatorial risk, where investing in a component raises its success probability and thereby reshapes the outcome distribution. Participants favor the option with the larger probability increment, and, when increments are equal, the option with the higher initial success probability. Revealing the induced probability mass function (PMF) substantially changes behavior, making participants less responsive to combinatorial-risk features and reducing choice variance. To explain these patterns, we move beyond standard benchmarks and hand-crafted hypotheses with symbolic regression to discover compact descriptive models. The discovered models rely mainly on combinatorial-risk features, such as the after-investment success probability, rather than exact evaluation of the full induced distribution. Behavior under the displayed PMF is then well explained by augmenting this model with a prospect-theoretic residual model. The results show that people navigate combinatorial risk primarily through its core features, shifting toward lottery valuation only when the induced PMF is displayed. |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2606.10092 |
| By: | Philippe d’Astous; Iwan Meier; Pierre-Carl Michaud |
| Abstract: | We analyze whether households’ investment decisions in ESG assets can be explained by their preferences for sustainability or by their beliefs about future returns. To address this question, we develop a structural discrete-choice model with heterogeneous beliefs and preferences. Using a large-scale survey with randomized mutual fund allocation scenarios and elicited return expectations, we recover individual-level willingness to pay for sustainability (and financial risk). Our specification does not restrict investors’ willingness to pay for sustainability to be positive, allowing the data to determine both the magnitude and direction of sustainability preferences at the individual level. The results show that beliefs about expected returns are the driving factor for investing in sustainable assets and non-pecuniary preferences for sustainability play only a secondary role. Moreover, respondents’ return beliefs exceed the beliefs implied by the model’s equilibrium predictions. |
| Keywords: | Sustainable investing, beliefs and preferences, ESG. |
| JEL: | G11 G41 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsi:irersi:24 |