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on Experimental Economics |
| By: | Evangelos Dioikitopoulos; Rigissa Megalokonomou; Tommaso Sartori; Yves Zenou |
| Abstract: | Public information campaigns often rely on credible expert messengers to influence people’s beliefs. We study how messenger identity and communication technology shape persuasion in a large-scale randomized experiment on vaccination attitudes among young adults in Greece. Participants receive an identical public-health message that varies only in who delivers it — a medical scientist or a social media influencer — and in how it is delivered — through immersive virtual reality or conventional video. Exposure raises trust in vaccines and trust in the healthcare system. Scientists are rated substantially more credible than influencers yet are no more persuasive on average; the two groups’ effectiveness rests on different characteristics — the scientists’ on perceived reliability and knowledgeability, the influencers’ on personal appeal, prior familiarity, and reputation. We find that persuasion is greater under virtual reality, consistent with stronger engagement. Changes in beliefs persist for at least six months, and initially hesitant participants report greater willingness to vaccinate. A model in which engagement, prior uncertainty, and effective credibility enter persuasion multiplicatively rationalizes these patterns. |
| Keywords: | randomized experiment, persuasion, belief formation, source credibility, messenger familiarity, social media influencers, virtual reality, engagement, health communication, vaccination |
| JEL: | C93 D83 I12 D91 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12961 |
| By: | Brian Jabarian; Luca Henkel |
| Abstract: | We study AI agents as information-collection technologies: automated systems that elicit decision-relevant signals from humans through live interactions. We test how such AI automation impacts information collection and organizational outcomes using a natural field experiment with 70, 000 applicants applying for real jobs. Applicants were randomly assigned to be interviewed by either human recruiters or AI voice agents. Afterward, human recruiters evaluate the interviews and make hiring decisions. Applicants interviewed by AI agents are 12% more likely to receive job offers, and these gains translate into higher job starts and worker retention, with no decline in the productivity of hired workers. Analyzing interview transcripts reveals that AI voice agents achieve controlled variance: their interviews are more structured and consistent while remaining responsive to individual applicants, which is associated with more hiring-relevant information collected. Our results suggest that a key advantage of AI automation lies in environments where information collection is delegated across many human workers and repeated such that variance in task execution becomes noise in decision-relevant signals, which AI compresses through adaptive standardization. |
| Keywords: | artificial intelligence, interviews, hiring, organizational design, field experiment |
| JEL: | C93 J24 M15 M51 O33 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12984 |
| By: | Paul Althaus; Leon Houf; Christiane Schwieren |
| Abstract: | Generative AI has become an everyday advisor, and the systems people consult are live and interactive, not pre-scripted. We ask whether access to such a system changes behavior under risk. In an incentivized experiment (N = 158), participants made lottery choices with an optional decision aid presented as a conventional pre-written tool, a live one-shot AI, or a live interactive AI they could query, with information format held equivalent across conditions. Risk preferences are elicited via DOSE. We find no evidence that access to a live AI advisor changes risk aversion. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2609.07358 |
| By: | Ganglmair, Bernhard; Holcomb, Alex |
| Abstract: | Partners in R&D alliances and joint ventures are rarely symmetric, yet whether asymmetry helps or hurts collaboration is not fully understood. We study how asymmetry in competitors' information endowments affects collaborative knowledge exchange. A model of word-of-mouth communication predicts a clean separation: Initiating the knowledge exchange requires that the informational advantage sac rificed be sufficiently small, while the continuation incentive is independent of the initial endowment (and asymmetry). In a laboratory experiment, we confirm the model's comparative-statics predictions and establish three results. First, initiation rates decline as initial asymmetry increases, holding the better-endowed partner's initial endowment constant. Second, conditional on initiation, the initial asymme try does not predict defection later in collaboration. Third, extreme asymmetry reduces match length and joint surplus because initiation fails, not because continu ation breaks down. The initiation-continuation separation implies that governance mechanisms targeting the formation margin (such as pilot projects, phased disclo sure agreements, or credible commitments to reciprocate) can expand the range of asymmetric partnerships that succeed, while continuation requires no special intervention. |
| Keywords: | asymmetric partnerships, cooperation, experimental economics, information sharing, joint ventures, knowledge diffusion, open innovation, R&D collaboration, strategic alliances |
| JEL: | C92 D83 L24 M21 O31 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:343045 |
| By: | Leon Houf; Christiane Schwieren |
| Abstract: | In-group favouritism and out-group hostility are well-documented, but real-world group settings rarely fit a simple dichotomy. Often, a "middle-group" shares some identity markers with the in-group without fully belonging to it. How do people treat such intermediate groups? We address this question using a formal identity marker framework and a multi-lab online experiment (N = 376) with a private allocation task immune to reputation effects and demand characteristics. We find that a middle-group can be treated neutrally, i.e., distinct from both in-group favouritism and out-group hostility, but only under specific conditions. When the middle-group shares two identity markers with the in-group, including university affiliation, a complete hierarchy emerges: the in-group is favoured, the middle-group is treated according to the allocation rule, and the out-group bears the loss. However, when the middle-group shares only one marker, it is treated indistinguishably from the out-group, regardless of which marker is shared. Furthermore, differentiated behaviour evolves only after participants have re-encountered the experimental instructions and group constellation in a second phase, not gradually across rounds. These findings demonstrate that participants can perceive beyond binary in-/out-group categorisation, but such perception requires both sufficient identity overlap and repeated exposure to the group setting. Our identity marker framework provides a tool for systematically studying group relations in more complex settings. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2609.09046 |
| By: | Max H. Farrell; Malika Korganbekova; Sanjog Misra |
| Abstract: | A/B tests are standard in firm decision making. In the standard pipeline, experimental data is converted to a deployment decision by applying a t-test of the difference in means (the lift) and deploying the treatment if lift is positive and statistically significant. This common workflow answers the wrong question. We argue that firms need a decision rule for economic payoffs in the future deployment environment, not a test of equality in the experimental sample. We develop an ambiguity-averse decision framework in which each arm is evaluated by its ambiguity-penalized value over distributions close to the experimental outcome distribution. The resulting rule has a simple closed form thanks to the Donsker-Varadhan representation and it requires only the outcome data from a standard A/B test plus one interpretable parameter governing trust in the experiment. Our rule is thus no more difficult to implement than a t-test. A mean-variance approximation shows how the rule penalizes variability, while a connection to utility maximization shows it to be a certainty equivalent. We are able to perform a real-world evaluation of our proposed rule in the context of digital marketing using an archive of 552 advertising experiments from an anonymous US-based online platform. The proposed rule substantially reduces regret relative to conventional hypothesis testing. The results show that economically conservative, distribution-aware deployment rules can outperform statistical-significance rules in digital experimentation. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2609.07633 |
| By: | Thomas Graeber; Benjamin Enke |
| Abstract: | Economic decisions are often shaped by comparison points such as reference points, goals, expectations and peers. A long-standing puzzle is that decisions sometimes increase in these comparators (assimilation) and sometimes decrease in them (contrast). We develop a simple taxonomy that predicts the sign. The idea is that when absolute evaluations—translating a decision input into an output—are difficult, people use comparison points as information about how to navigate tradeoffs. This logic predicts that decisions decrease in input comparators—those tied to exogenous decision inputs (e.g., a typical hourly wage)—and increase in output comparators—those tied to endogenous decisions or outcomes (e.g., typical daily earnings). We test and confirm these predictions in experiments on labor supply, investment and belief updating, involving both social and expectations-based comparison points. We further show that comparison effects weaken both when decision uncertainty is experimentally reduced and when comparators are less informative, consistent with a mechanism of comparisons as information. Finally, a classification of the prior literature suggests that the input-vs.-output taxonomy organizes the sign of comparison effects across more than 100 experimental and field observational studies. |
| JEL: | D9 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35694 |
| By: | Xiaodan Shao; Vivek Choudhary; Arnab Majumdar |
| Abstract: | Drug-drug interaction (DDI) errors pose serious risks to patient safety. Existing decision-support systems often require physicians to respond to alerts, disrupting workflows and contributing to high override rates. We examine whether a non-mandatory information intervention can reduce DDI errors and foster learning. Using a randomized field experiment with India's largest electronic medical record platform, we analyze 2.81 million prescriptions from 1, 700 physicians using a difference-in-differences design. Treatment physicians received real-time information highlighting DDI errors without being required to respond, while control physicians received no such information. The intervention reduced DDI errors by 8.6%, corresponding to an estimated US$4.8 million in annual hospitalization cost savings and approximately 134 lives potentially saved. We identify two mechanisms: reactive correction, whereby physicians remove errors after they are flagged, and proactive learning, whereby they avoid errors before alerts occur. While early reductions are driven primarily by correction, physicians increasingly avoid errors over time. They also become less likely to repeat previously flagged errors and reduce new errors, suggesting that learning generalizes beyond specific drug pairs. The effects are consistent across physician types and do not compromise productivity or care quality. Our findings show that non-mandatory information interventions can improve patient safety through both immediate error correction and persistent, generalizable learning. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2609.09673 |
| By: | Sven A. Simon; Sven Arne Simon |
| Abstract: | Ignorance of facts and laws may provide an excuse for self-serving reporting behavior, even at the risk of telling the untruth. This paper examines what decision-makers report when they do not know their true entitlement to a financial gain, why they do so, and how the resulting dilemma under ignorance can be mitigated. In a theory-guided online experiment, I show that ignorance substantially increases self-serving but potentially untruthful reporting behavior relative to a full-information benchmark. Three mechanisms – two behavioral and one institutional – drive this shift: (i) decision-makers' beliefs about their true entitlement, (ii) social norms governing reporting under ignorance, and (iii) the requirement to provide a definite statement. I evaluate two interventions: allowing information acquisition and offering a fair buyout of the unknown entitlement. Both mitigate self-serving reporting under ignorance, but the fair buyout involves a trade-off: it has the unintended side effect of increasing dishonesty among informed decision-makers. |
| Keywords: | dishonesty, ignorance, information acquisition, fair buyout, social norms, experiment |
| JEL: | C91 D83 D91 H26 K42 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12985 |
| By: | Azami Idrissi, Abdelkarim; Fanghella, Valeria; Gonzalez-Fernandez, Pedro; Hauser, Karl |
| Abstract: | Li and Camerer (2022) examine whether attention automatically captured by visual features can influence economic decisions. In their first experiment, they find that visual salience affects people's choices between items, leading to systematic mistakes even when salience is unrelated to the items' actual value. First, we successfully computationally reproduce the main claims of the experiment, but uncover one minor coding error, which has no effect on the studies' main results. Second, using a larger, representative US sample (N = 418) we replicate both the significance and direction of the main estimates, finding that salience had an even stronger effect on economic choices. Furthermore, these replicated results withstand our robustness test. |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:i4rdps:321 |
| By: | Giulia Buccione (CEMFI, Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros); Martín A. Rossi (Universidad de San Andrés) |
| Abstract: | We provide experimental evidence from rural Egypt on the benefits of incorporating sensory familiarity into the design of health interventions in developing countries. Using a “taste-preserving” filtration technology that mimics the local water profile, we find adoption rates of 91 percent, far exceeding the 50 percent ceiling previously documented for chlorinated water. Willingness to pay is 61 percent higher for filtered water than chlorinated water. Mechanism tests show that familiar taste strongly shapes perceptions of water’s healthiness, suggesting that alignment with imprinted sensory preferences improves uptake of health technologies. |
| Keywords: | Chlorination, water-borne diseases, field experiments, Egypt. |
| JEL: | D10 I10 C93 Q53 Z10 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmf:wpaper:wp2026_2609 |
| By: | V\'aclav Kratochv\'il; Radim Jirou\v{s}ek; Kl\'ara \v{S}im\r{u}nkov\'a; Simona Ba\v{z}antov\'a |
| Abstract: | This data paper describes an anonymized release derived from controlled behavioral experiments on decision-making under risk (known probabilities) and ambiguous uncertainty (partially specified or unknown probabilities) in Ellsberg-type urn tasks. The release contains 4, 486 decision records from 246 adult participant records across two implementations (laboratory and online). In each task, participants reported their maximum stake to enter a subsequent lottery; these stake responses can be interpreted as proxies for willingness to pay within the implemented incentive mechanism. In a subset of tasks, participants also selected the color they wished to bet on. The online implementation additionally includes ex-post evaluations of perceived uncertainty across situations. The repository further provides detailed game definitions, realized lottery outcomes, participant instructions, and a data dictionary of variables. The source export contained 4, 544 decision records; 58 records belonging to five participants younger than 18 were excluded from this release because documentation of guardian permission for unrestricted public data publication was not available. The dataset supports replication studies, comparisons of ambiguity-attitude models, and analyses of behavioral stability under repeated participation. |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2608.26358 |
| By: | Cappelen, Alexander W. (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Kariv, Shachar (Dept. of Economics, University of California, Berkeley); Kimbrough, Erik O. (Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy, Chapman University); Sørensen, Erik Ø. (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Tungodden, Bertil (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Zame, William R. (Dept. of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles) |
| Abstract: | When decision-makers allocate resources between anonymous others, with their own payoffs held constant, own-payoff utility maximization places no restriction on behavior; consistent structure in choices therefore reveals a normative principle. We employ a graphical budget line design to elicit allocations of real money between two anonymous others across many budget sets that vary the relative prices of redistribution. Choices overwhelmingly satisfy the axioms of rational choice, revealing individual normative principles. Subjects reveal a widely shared principle of impartiality (symmetric treatment of the two recipients) but hold heterogeneous views about the best symmetric allocation, ranging from Rawlsian equality to utilitarian efficiency. |
| Keywords: | normative principles; distributive justice; impariality; equality; efficiency; revealed preference; constant elasticity of substitution; experiment |
| JEL: | C91 D63 D64 D81 |
| Date: | 2026–09–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2026_012 |
| By: | Linda Dezso (University of Graz, Austria; EcoAustria - Institute for Economic Research, Austria); Christian Koch (University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom) |
| Abstract: | Public demands to restrict immigrants' access to welfare typically invoke immigrants' outgroup status and their allegedly insufficient contributions. While contributions are fundamental to the welfare state, immigrants' contributions are not directly observable, which creates fertile ground for misperceptions that political rhetoric often exploits when portraying natives as the main contributors. We present results from a stylized experiment in which UK-resident natives and immigrants are paired to divide resources. We isolate how ingroup favoritism and framed contributor status shape distributive choices and fair-share beliefs, even in the absence of actual differences in contributions to the resources. We find no statistically significant effect of ingroup favoritism on choices, but both natives and immigrants claim more when framed as contributors. Making unequal allocations costly reduces claims, and secondary analyses suggest that costliness also attenuates the contributor effect. Both groups also report higher fair-share beliefs when framed as contributors than when they are not. These findings show that merely framing individuals as contributors shapes distributive preferences in self-serving ways and produces egocentrically biased fair-share beliefs. We propose that incorporating such self-serving dynamics into the microfoundations of preferences for redistribution toward immigrants could help explain exclusionary welfare preferences beyond explanations centered on anti-immigrant attitudes and nationalism. |
| Keywords: | contributions, framing, redistribution, ingroup favoritism, self-serving behavior, fairness beliefs, natives, immigrants, spectators, UK |
| JEL: | C9 D63 D69 D91 J15 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grz:wpaper:2026-18 |
| By: | Jiawei Fu; Donald P. Green |
| Abstract: | Should researchers adjust for covariates in randomized experiments, and if so, how? The literature offers three distinct prescriptions: do not adjust because randomization guarantees unbiasedness; adjust for outcome-prognostic covariates to improve precision; or adjust for covariates imbalanced between treatment arms. These competing prescriptions create confusion and uncertainty. We develop a unified framework for decision and practice. Given available information, we show that the optimal correction is what we call ex-post bias. The only relevant criterion for adjustment is prognosticity for ex-post bias; neither raw covariate imbalance nor outcome prognosticity is sufficient by itself. We also show that correcting imbalance and improving precision are two sides of the same decision problem. We develop two estimation approaches, one of which recovers familiar adjustment estimators and provides a new theoretical justification for them. Simulations compare alternative covariate-selection and adjustment strategies. Overall, our framework provides a unified foundation for covariate adjustment in randomized experiments. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2609.09039 |
| By: | Harin, Alexander |
| Abstract: | The article discusses an experiment in which subjects must choose between probabilistic and guaranteed outcomes. The so-called "limit" version of this experiment is proposed, which should be carried out for a probability outcome that is as close as possible to 100% probability, namely, so close, the difference between the winning quantities for probabilistic and guaranteed outcomes is much smaller than the minimum currency unit. At the same time, obtaining one of the possible results may force to reconsider generally accepted approaches in behavioral economics. В статье рассмотрен эксперимент, в котором испытуемые должны сделать выбор между вероятностным и гарантированным исходами. Предложен т.н. «предельный» вариант этого эксперимента, который должен проводиться для вероятностного исхода предельно близко к 100% вероятности, а именно, настолько близко, чтобы разница между величинами выигрыша для вероятностного и гарантированного исходов – была много меньше минимальной денежной единицы. При этом, получение одного из возможных результатов способно заставить пересмотреть общепринятые подходы в поведенческой экономике. |
| Keywords: | utility, prospect theory, probability weighting function |
| JEL: | C9 C91 D8 D81 |
| Date: | 2026–09–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:130961 |
| By: | Harvey Barnhard; Giacomo Opocher; Rahul Singh |
| Abstract: | In evidence-based policymaking, typically one experimental sample is observed, then a learned policy recommendation is implemented at scale. Policies learned from the experimental data can perform well in expected welfare, yet random sampling in the experiment can produce recommendations with poor welfare outcomes. In this paper, we ask: how should policy learning algorithms balance expected welfare against sampling risk? Our main contribution is to show that algorithmic stability plays a central role in characterizing and navigating the tradeoff. Intuitively, if a policy learning algorithm's recommendation remains stable when one experimental unit is replaced, then that algorithm has limited sampling risk. We propose a method for policy learning called policy-vote bagging, which learns treatment decisions on many subsamples then averages their votes into treatment probabilities. Relative to using one subsample, averaging across subsamples preserves expected welfare and improves expected utility for a risk-averse researcher. We derive sharp bounds linking estimation accuracy, subsample size, and welfare variation, including an exact guarantee under CARA utility. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2609.19418 |
| By: | Haya Halimeh; Sascha Kaltenpoth; Kevin B\"osch; Oliver M\"uller |
| Abstract: | LLM-based GUI agents increasingly act on behalf of users in digital environments that were designed with human users in mind. These graphical user interfaces were designed to support, but also deliberately steer, the behaviour and decisions of users. While behavioural biases in the textual outputs of LLMs are well-documented, far less is known about how such influence operates when models act as agents that perceive interfaces and execute decisions---and, in particular, whether the reasoning capabilities increasingly built into these agents make them more robust to it. Drawing on Dual-Process Theory, we empirically investigate whether LLM-based GUI agents are susceptible to automatic (Type 1) and reflective (Type 2) digital nudges, and how their reasoning configuration moderates this susceptibility. In a randomized online shopping experiment with 3, 600 agents and a total of 21, 600 simulations across six frontier models from three providers, we found that agents were vulnerable to both nudge types. Crucially, the reasoning configuration moderated these effects in opposing directions, reducing susceptibility to automatic default nudges while heightening it to reflective social influence nudges. Extensive reasoning therefore did not make agents more robust but redirected the route through which choice architecture takes effect. Exploratory analysis further showed this redirection to be systematically structured by model scale. Beyond establishing nudge susceptibility as a behavioural property of agentic AI, the study positions interface design as a governance concern for organizations that delegate decisions to autonomous agents. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2609.19843 |
| By: | Stefano Carattini (Georgia State University); Pamela Giustinelli (University of Padova); Marcella Veronesi (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | Knowledge gaps and biased beliefs concerning both climate change and climate policy represent major obstacles to the decarbonization process. Climate education may offer a scalable solution to address such obstacles. In the context of a national reform of the school curriculum in Italy, we implemented a nationwide field experiment, training thousands of secondary school teachers across thousands of schools using a staggered design. Our intervention, a comprehensive course on climate change and climate policy, goes beyond the light-touch interventions typical in the literature. Using extensive survey data, we examine how training affects teachers' knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and policy preferences and, in turn, those of students. Our study highlights important initial knowledge gaps and biased beliefs about climate change among teachers and students, and provides evidence that climate education can address them at scale. Following our intervention, teachers and students also reconsider their support for climate policies. |
| Keywords: | climate change, climate policies, field experiment, biased beliefs, public support, climate education, secondary education |
| JEL: | C93 D72 D83 Q54 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2026-008 |
| By: | Stuart, Bryan (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia); Taylor, Evan (University of Arizona) |
| Abstract: | We develop a framework that allows researchers to describe a wide class of quasi-experimental treatment effect estimates using direct analogs of the features that make a randomized controlled trial transparent. The outcome weight measures how much each observation's outcome contributes to an estimate, and its sign defines effective treatment and control groups. We show estimates take a Wald form, equal to the weighted outcome difference between these groups divided by an effective first stage that quantifies the identifying treatment contrast. Our framework also allows researchers to assess covariate balance, examine how differences throughout the outcome distribution contribute to mean impacts, and identify influential observations. The treatment effect weight--the outcome weight times treatment--instead measures how much each observation's unobserved treatment effect contributes to an estimate, and exactly decomposes an estimate into subgroup-specific components. When the implied weighting of an estimate is undesirable, we show how to construct alternative estimates that satisfy researcher-specified criteria. We illustrate the framework with analyses of democracy and growth, Chinese import competition, and returns to schooling. |
| Keywords: | treatment effect estimation, transparency |
| JEL: | C13 C81 C82 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18903 |
| By: | Ninan, Kiran; Oberste, Jean-Pierre; Ying, Xiangji; DeVito, Nicholas J (University of Oxford); Li, Tianjing; Blanco, David; Grana, Carolina; Boutron, Isabelle; Baldwin-SoRelle, Carrie (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill); Kilicoglu, Halil |
| Abstract: | Importance: Defining outcomes completely in trial registrations limits opportunities for reporting bias. That is, an incomplete outcome definition might be compatible with multiple results, so investigators could conduct many analyses and calculate different effects that would all appear to be consistent with the planned outcome. Objective: To evaluate outcome definitions for registered randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to determine whether they were complete or incomplete. Design: A cross-sectional study of RCTs registered on ClinicalTrials.gov and published in International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) member journals from 1 January to 30 June, 2025. Setting: ClinicalTrials.gov and RCTs published in ICMJE member journals. Participants: Outcomes registered before or soon after participant enrollment began for eligible RCTs. Exposure: This study characterized outcome registration completeness without a formal exposure or intervention. Main Outcomes and Measures: The proportion of outcomes that were defined completely (i.e., included a specific measurement, specific metric, variable type, time point, and cutoff, if applicable). Results were explored by outcome priority (i.e., Primary, Secondary, Other outcomes), trial regulatory status for RCTs governed by the US Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act (i.e., “Applicable Clinical Trials” versus other RCTs), by funder (i.e., Industry, National Institutes of Health, Other governmental organizations, Other), and journal. Results: Among 210 RCTs including 2543 registered outcomes, only 6 RCTs (2.9%) defined all outcomes completely and 326 outcomes (12.8%) were defined completely. Most outcomes defined the specific measurement (72.7%) and metric (85.7%), and the cutoff where applicable (65.0%) but not variable type (22.4%). In exploratory analyses, outcome definitions were more complete for Primary outcomes compared with Secondary and Other outcomes (20.5% versus 12.2% and 9.2%, respectively). Outcomes in Applicable Clinical Trials were better defined than outcomes in other RCTs (15.5% versus 11.0%), and outcomes in RCTs sponsored by Industry or funded by the National Institutes of Health were better defined than outcomes in Other RCTs (17.0% and 19.6% versus 7.4%, respectively). There was no evidence of differences across journals. Conclusions and Relevance: Most RCTs published in ICMJE member journals did not define their outcomes completely in registrations. Complete outcome definitions in trial registrations could prevent reporting biases. |
| Date: | 2026–09–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:metaar:hkudx_v1 |
| By: | Loureiro Lopes, A.I.; Ortega, Alberto Lopez; van der Velden, Mariken Anna Catharina Geertruida |
| Abstract: | Corporations increasingly feature minority families in mainstream advertising, positioning themselves as inclusive civic actors. Yet whether audiences read such representation as ordinary marketing or as a political statement—and whether all minorities are read alike—remains unclear. We field a pre-registered survey experiment in the Netherlands (N≈1, 500), randomly exposing respondents to a supermarket advertisement depicting a control (white, heterosexual), Muslim, or same-sex family. Minority-family advertisements are perceived as substantially more political than the control and shift perceptions of the brand to the ideological left, both in abstract placement and in concrete party association. These effects are markedly selective: the Muslim-family advertisement is read as roughly twice as political as the same-sex advertisement, and is the only condition to lower purchase intention, and does so precisely through the perception that it is political. Issue attributions are domain-specific: the same-sex advertisement moves perceived brand support for LGBTQ+ rights, the Muslim advertisement perceived support for immigration—and, contrary to expectations, these reactions are broad rather than confined to right-wing consumers. The findings reveal a selective politicization of corporate inclusion, in which ethno-religious diversity is politicized and commercially penalized while sexual-orientation diversity is comparatively normalized. |
| Date: | 2026–08–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:yugqh_v1 |
| By: | Shiyao Liu; Junni L. Zhang |
| Abstract: | Recent work encourages political scientists to move from post-only toward within-subject designs for improved precision from repeated measurements. We formalize a potential-outcomes framework for two-period within-subject designs that allows for unequal allocation and heterogeneous treatment and carryover effects. We characterize the pooled estimator and evaluate the carryover test used to justify pooling. We find: first, pooling identifies the average treatment effect only when the gap in the average carryover effects is zero across the two treatment sequences. The unit-clustered standard error for the pooled estimator is identical to its design-based counterpart. Second, under mild conditions, the carryover test has strictly less power than the average-treatment-effect test with post-only data. The resulting two-step procedure, which pools only after a nonrejected test, produces confidence intervals that typically undercover. When the gap is zero, undercoverage occurs if and only if pooling is more efficient than post-only analysis, precisely when the within-subject design is worthwhile. When the gap is nonzero, undercoverage is typical unless the gap or sample size is large. Third, we derive a sensitivity analysis and find published conclusions robust to plausible carryover gaps. We therefore endorse within-subject designs but recommend justifying a zero carryover gap substantively and reporting sensitivity to departures. |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2608.26606 |
| By: | Louise Bernard; Robert D. Metcalfe; Andrew Schein |
| Abstract: | Demand flexibility at scale is likely to be an important part of the future energy system. This study evaluated the world’s first nationwide domestic and commercial demand flexibility program. We analyzed the policy using a natural field experiment, with a sample of 2.7 million, assigning 119, 999 customers to a control group and the rest to receive randomized encouragement to sign up to the demand flexibility program. The program paid consumers to reduce their demand below a predicted baseline at peak demand across 16 events (i.e., when the system was stressed) during the Winter of 2023–24. Customers who opted into events reduced demand during events by 23.1% among compliers, at an average cost for the system operator of £2, 325 per MWh. The adoption of solar panels and batteries, heat pumps, and EVs all increased demand response. |
| JEL: | Q40 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35485 |
| By: | Daniela Del Boca (University of Turin and Collegio Carlo Alberto); Luca Favero (University of St. Andrews); Chiara Pronzato (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | Many advanced economies face persistently low fertility alongside rapid population ageing, raising concerns about economic sustainability and demographic balance. Addressing these challenges requires both sustained labor market participation among the working-age population and conditions that support childbearing. These objectives place women, and particularly mothers, at the center of the demographic debate, as motherhood remains a key turning point in employment trajectories and family formation. Using experimental evidence from an intervention targeting mothers who curtailed employment due to childcare responsibilities, the paper finds that improving work–family reconciliation can support mothers’ labor market reintegration, promote investments in existing children, and, under conditions of greater stability, strengthen fertility desires. |
| Keywords: | work, motherhood, family-friendly policies, desired fertility |
| JEL: | J13 J18 J21 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2026-006 |
| By: | Mahreen Khan; Iman Sen |
| Abstract: | Soft skills are widely believed to matter for labor market success, but two questions remain central to their use in active labor-market policy: are they malleable beyond childhood, and can training in these skills improve employment outcomes? To address these, we evaluate CareerX, a one-month soft-skills and career-readiness program for university students in Bangladesh. Across 15 cohorts, 1, 794 applicants were randomly assigned to an offer of training or a control group. One to two months after, training improves employment and paid employment by 7.3% and 6.7% in the treatment group. One year later, the estimated effect is similar in magnitude but less precisely estimated. An index of self-reported soft skills is 0.10 SD higher shortly after the program and remains higher, by 0.13 SD, one year later with larger gains in intrapersonal than interpersonal skills. Other measures such as CV quality, professional references and job-search planning and effort do not change detectably, a pattern consistent with improvements in soft skills contributing to the observed employment effects. The program is delivered at low marginal cost through group sessions and hybrid instruction at approximately USD 117 per additional attendee employed. Our results indicate that soft skills remain malleable at the point of labor market entry and that short programs can shift early employment outcomes at a cost well below comparable interventions. |
| Keywords: | youth employment, labor market entry, soft skills, RCT |
| JEL: | J24 M53 O15 I26 J08 C93 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2026-05 |
| By: | Brodeur, Abel; Valenta, David |
| Abstract: | Replication packages are central to transparency and reproducibility in empirical research, yet they may inadvertently contain personally identifiable information (PII) enabling the identification of research participants whose identities were never meant to be public. We systematically analyze 327 replication packages associated with articles using author-collected data from 11 leading journals across economics, political science, and psychology to quantify the prevalence of PII. Using a semi-automated detection tool and manual validation, we document the types of PII present, assess risk factors associated with their occurrence, and propose guidelines for safer data sharing. We find that 21.1% of packages contain information that could lead to identification of the research participants, with 14.4% of packages containing direct identifiers such as names, email addresses, or phone numbers. The rates range from 16.7% in psychology to 17.8% in politics and 25.9% in economics. We find that PII rates are much higher in field experiments (29.2%) and online experiments (26.6%) compared to laboratory experiments (8.3%). Packages containing data of participants in low- or lower-middle-income countries are also substantially more likely to contain PII. Our findings highlight critical gaps in current research data-sharing practices and inform journal policies to better protect participant privacy while maintaining open science standards. |
| Keywords: | Personally identifiable information, Data availability, Replication |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:i4rdps:320 |
| By: | Sascha O. Becker; Ana Fernandes; Nurlan Lalayev; Doris Weichselbaumer; Ana Margarida Fernandes |
| Abstract: | We study gender differences in employers' responses to commuting distance using data from a large-scale correspondence test in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. A 10 km increase in driving distance reduces women’s probability of receiving an interview invitation by 1.8 percentage points, around 9 percent of the mean female invitation rate, while commuting distance has no corresponding effect for men. The gender difference is statistically significant and robust to alternative distance measures and thresholds, firms’ rural or urban location, and local labor-market tightness. The female distance penalty does not vary detectably with applicants' reported marital status or the presence of children, providing no support for screening based on these observed indicators of household responsibilities. |
| Keywords: | gender discrimination, commuting, labor market, field experiment, Germany, Switzerland, Austria |
| JEL: | C93 J16 J61 J71 R41 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12989 |
| By: | Jennifer Wieland (TUM - Technische Universität Munchen = Technical University Munich = Université Technique de Munich); Lauren Keating (EM - EMLyon Business School); Alwine Mohnen (TUM - Technische Universität Munchen = Technical University Munich = Université Technique de Munich) |
| Abstract: | Individual resistance to adopting generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) jeopardises its successful implementation in organisations. Across two studies, this paper aims to explain why some individuals embrace GenAI while others oppose it, and investigates whether a growth mindset can facilitate its adoption in organisations. In Study 1, we surveyed 159 German employees to establish a Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model explaining the variance in GenAI adoption. The structural equation modelling results revealed that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control predict the intention to adopt GenAI, with attitudes exhibiting the strongest association. While Study 1 enhances understanding of GenAI adoption, Study 2 seeks to promote it. Given the challenges posed by GenAI, we tested whether a growth mindset – the belief that abilities can be developed – can boost GenAI adoption, as it fosters openness to challenges and change. In a randomised experiment with 389 German employees, we observed that a growth mindset intervention positively influences attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. Overall, the findings provide insight into the role that mindsets play in approaching or avoiding digital transformations, as well as offer a path for diminishing people's reluctance to embrace them. |
| Keywords: | Mindsets, Generative AI, Technology adoption, Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) |
| Date: | 2026–08–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05724498 |
| By: | Claudia Cerrone; Yoan Hermstr\"{u}wer; Josu\'e Ortega |
| Abstract: | Roughly fifty thousand families in England appeal their school assignments each year through a centralized and understudied procedure that improves the placement of about one in five claimants. This paper shows that appeals are not an institutional afterthought: they change how parents report preferences to the education authority and the quality of placements it generates. Once the appeal stage is incorporated, Immediate Acceptance (IA) becomes less manipulable and can support equilibrium outcomes that Pareto dominate those of Deferred Acceptance (DA) under truth-telling, reversing the DA-IA welfare comparison. In a preregistered experiment, we find results consistent with the theoretical predictions: appeals increase truth-telling in IA, leaving DA essentially unchanged, and widen the IA-DA efficiency gap. Around 60% of the IA efficiency gain appears before any appeal is upheld, because subjects anticipating the possibility of a potential appeal rank schools differently. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2609.06865 |
| By: | Gabriela Demarchi (UMR MoISA - Montpellier Interdisciplinary center on Sustainable Agri-food systems (Social and nutritional sciences) - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier - CIHEAM - Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement); Julie Subervie (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier); Cauê D Carrilho (USP - Universidade de São Paulo = University of São Paulo); Thibault Catry (UMR 228 Espace-Dev, Espace pour le développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - AU - Avignon Université - UR - Université de La Réunion - UNC - Université de la Nouvelle-Calédonie - UG - Université de Guyane - UA - Université des Antilles - UM - Université de Montpellier); Antoine Pfefer (UMR 228 Espace-Dev, Espace pour le développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - AU - Avignon Université - UR - Université de La Réunion - UNC - Université de la Nouvelle-Calédonie - UG - Université de Guyane - UA - Université des Antilles - UM - Université de Montpellier); Philippe Delacote (BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - AgroParisTech - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CEC - Chaire Economie du Climat - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres) |
| Abstract: | Payments for Environmental Services (PES) are widely used to protect tropical forests, but rigid pricing may fail when landowners' opportunity costs fluctuate. Inflexible incentives can lead to contract breaches, reducing environmental benefits. We test whether flexible PES contracts improve outcomes by allowing partial payments when deforestation remains below a threshold. Using a Becker-DeGroot-Marschak auction within a randomized controlled trial, we compare a flexible PES contract, a zero-deforestation contract, and a control group. Although the zero-deforestation contract had greater potential to avoid deforestation, high breach rates reduced realized conservation. The flexible PES contract, while more costly due to higher compliance, achieved greater forest protection per hectare: participants deforested 31% less than under the stringent contract in the peak period (95% CI [2%, 60%], d = 0.12). These findings suggest that flexible PES contracts can improve the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of conservation programs. |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05735513 |
| By: | Rebekah Avard (Bath Social and Development Research); Tara Bedi (Trinity College Dublin and TIME); Michael King (Trinity College Dublin and TIME); James Copestake (University of Bath); Fiona Remnant (Bath Social and Development Research) |
| Abstract: | Raising women's empowerment through economic inclusion and social protection programmes has proved challenging. Women's access to resources improves but across many studies measured decision-making agency barely moves. Part of the weakness in evidence may be measurement as composite indices may conceal change that occurs unevenly across domains. Within the context of a multi‐faceted anti‐poverty, or Graduation, programme in Malawi, we investigate the women's empowerment impacts of gender targeting, and the additive effect of a 12‐month couples economic cooperation and empowerment training. We combine the results from a randomised control trial with 2, 934 women from poor married households with findings from qualitative research in which researchers collect unprompted accounts of change from the participants' perspective to challenge and substantiate the quantitative findings. Female resources rise in all three treatment arms. The aggregate decision making index moves only where the couples training is added, and only marginally, but beneath it financial decision‐making rises in both female‐targeted arms while male targeting reduces women's say over productive decisions, the very activities the programme creates. Qualitatively, women across arms describe more collaborative decision‐making over income generating activities, the essential realm of the Graduation programme, more than over budgeting, and budgeting moves mainly where the couples training addressed it directly; the driver they name unprompted is the programme's gender messaging rather than the cash. We show that participant‐led and unprompted qualitative evidence can identify which components of composite indices merit attention, independently of researcher priors. |
| Keywords: | Social Protection, Intra-household, Gender Empowerment, Measurement |
| JEL: | J16 D13 O12 C93 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep1526 |
| By: | Juan Carlos Muñoz-Mora (Centro de Investigaciones Económicas y Financieras (CIEF), Escuela de Economía y Finanzas Universidad EAFIT); Maria José Rubiano (Universidad de Antioquia); Daniela Mejía-Tejada (Universidad EAFIT); Paola Velásquez (Universidad EAFIT) |
| Abstract: | Urban housing inadequacy remains a silent driver of ill-health, stress, and fractured family relations in Latin America. We evaluate Hogares Saludables—a social innovation by Cementos Argos—across Medellín, Cali, and Barranquilla (2023–2024), combining a randomized controlled trial (N=1, 200) with a qualitative module we term Home Biographies, which integrates Most Significant Change, photo-elicitation, and body mapping. This mixed-methods design moves beyond “what works” to show how and why physical upgrades to floors, kitchens, and bathrooms reconfigure daily practices, dignity, and agency. We document short-run gains in mental well-being, household harmony, and perceived safety; reductions in women’s unpaid domestic burden; and strengthened social capital through community participation and skills training. Improvements recalibrate residents’ temporal imaginaries—re-signifying past sacrifice and expanding credible futures—thus linking material change to symbolic belonging. We translate these insights into actionable guidance for scaling: align technical choices with lived preferences, embed participatory communication, and leverage on-site training to minimize dropout. By centering beneficiary voice within rigorous causal inference, this study contributes an evaluative blueprint for SDG-aligned housing programs and invites housing scholars to treat home not only as infrastructure, but as a platform for relational and temporal transformation. |
| Keywords: | Qualitative research; Housing improvements; Qualitative housing deficit; The Most Significant Change |
| JEL: | R21 I31 O15 C93 D13 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000122:023624 |
| By: | Francesco Angelini; Johan Lyrvall |
| Abstract: | Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly embedded in scientific work, but researchers may not evaluate its use uniformly across research tasks. This study examines task-specific attitudes towards AI among an international, self-selected sample of 3, 785 PhD students in STEM and medical and health sciences who participated in Nature's Graduate Survey 2025. We analyse respondents' comfort with using AI for writing a research article, collecting and analysing data, designing experiments, tracking scientific literature, and summarising it. Latent class analysis identifies four distinct attitudinal profiles. The dominant profile reflects a "division of labour, " in which AI is widely accepted for literature-related tasks but resisted in activities closely associated with intellectual contribution, such as writing, data analysis, and experimental design. A "status quo" profile is broadly uncomfortable across tasks, an "all-purpose" profile is broadly comfortable, and an "undecided" profile expresses substantial uncertainty. These patterns suggest that attitudes towards AI in research are organised less around a simple acceptance-rejection divide than around task-specific boundaries, likely concerning delegation, authorship, and responsibility. Because the survey measures comfort rather than legitimacy, the profiles are best interpreted as attitudinal configurations with a normative dimension. The findings highlight the importance of task-specific approaches to AI governance, doctoral training, disclosure, and research evaluation. |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2608.25678 |
| By: | Brice Corgnet (EM - EMLyon Business School); Yao Thibaut Kpegli (TREE - Transitions Energétiques et Environnementales - UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Jacopo Magnani (NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology [Trondheim] - NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology = Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet = Norjan teknis-luonnontieteellinen yliopisto) |
| Abstract: | Our study provides the first causal test of classical and behavioral asset pricing models that incorporate skewness pricing. In line with these models, our experimental markets show that skewness is systematically priced. Our findings also reveal that positively skewed assets available in small supply exhibit negative expected returns, which is consistent with prospect theory, but not with expected utility models. Furthermore, in line with the mechanism underlying prospect theory, we show that the negative returns of the positively skewed asset are most pronounced during market sessions where traders overweight the low probability of receiving a large payoff. |
| Date: | 2026–07–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05740177 |
| By: | Elliot Lipnowski; Doron Ravid |
| Abstract: | Limited attention forces organizations to decide not only how much to discuss, but also which issues merit discussion. We study strategic communication about a multidimensional decision when a receiver can respond only along a few endogenously chosen issues. Players agree on the ideal action but prioritize different errors. In equilibrium, communicated and omitted issues must be statistically unrelated and separable according to the sender's preferences. Thus, the sender's priorities determine the agenda; the receiver's do not. Synchronized priorities raise the receiver's best equilibrium payoff but lower his worst, so he may prefer a less synchronized sender. |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2609.00380 |
| By: | Lennard Ma{\ss}mann; Karolina Gliszczy\'nska-Schroeder |
| Abstract: | Heavy-tailed and skewed outcomes are common in the randomized experiments and observational studies used to estimate heterogeneous treatment effects, yet the mean-squared-error criterion that guides splitting in honest causal trees is sensitive to the extreme values they generate. Building on the causal forest framework (Athey and Imbens, 2016; Wager and Athey, 2018), we introduce the Median Squared Deviation (MSD) criterion, which replaces the leafwise difference in means in the honest splitting objective with the Hodges--Lehmann location estimator while leaving honest leaf estimation and forest inference unchanged. Two further median-based rules, the Median Absolute Deviation (MAD) and the Least Median of Squares (LMS), serve as robust baselines. We evaluate the criteria in a simulation study covering precision, bias, and confidence interval coverage. MSD restricts its robustness to split selection and lowers the error of conditional average treatment effect estimates under heavy-tailed and skewed outcomes. Further, we re-visit two empirical applications: the first analyzes the electoral effects of a Mexican conditional cash transfer program on precinct-level observations, while the second application studies antiretroviral treatments in HIV-positive adults. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2609.07888 |
| By: | Christina Felfe; Lukas Kagerbauer; Max Müller; Christoph Sajons; Judith Saurer; Thomas Zwick |
| Abstract: | Do refugees face systematic disadvantages in the apprenticeship market and what measures can mitigate them? We address these questions using a combination of discrete choice experiments and information treatments involving 800 firms in Ger many. Our findings show that refugees are much less likely to be accepted for ap prenticeships than their native counterparts, unless they are substantially better qualified in terms of formal education. However, this gap can be significantly re duced through two key mechanisms: signaling soft skills such as discipline, moti vation, and reliability, and implementing public policy programs that enhance job specific language proficiency and job readiness. |
| Keywords: | Labor shortages, Vocational training, Refugees, Soft skills, Integration policies |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_778 |
| By: | Olivér Ujvárossy (ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies); Hubert János Kiss (ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies; Corvinus University of Budapest) |
| Abstract: | We study whether classroom gender composition is associated with adolescents' risk-taking and willingness to compete. Using lab-in-the-field data from 1, 108 students in 53 classes from nine Hungarian secondary schools, we relate incentivized measures of both outcomes to the share of girls in the class. School fixed effects compare students across classes within the same school, and we interpret these comparisons as conditional associations because class composition is not randomly assigned. Student-level regressions show robust gender gaps: girls are less risk-taking and less willing to compete than boys. Classroom gender composition, however, is not systematically associated with either outcome. Flexible specifications and analyses of boys and class-level gender gaps likewise reveal no consistent pattern. |
| Keywords: | Gender composition; Risk-taking; Willingness to compete; Classroom peers; Adolescents |
| JEL: | C80 C90 D91 I21 J16 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:discpr:2612 |