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on Experimental Economics |
| By: | Xiaoping Zhao (Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University, JAPAN); Junyi Shen (Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, JAPAN); Ken-Ichi Shimomura (College of Asia Pacific Studies, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, and Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, JAPAN); Hiromasa Takahashi (Faculty of International Studies, Hiroshima City University) |
| Abstract: | We study public-good provision in a three-player environment with Cobb-Douglas preferences and heterogeneous endowments. Across treatments we vary the distribution of endowments while holding the group's total endowment constant. We conduct two comparisons: (i) within-mechanism, contrasting theoretical benchmarks with experimental outcomes; and (ii) across mechanisms, contrasting simultaneous with sequential play under the same role–endowment mapping. In the sequential mechanism, the richest participant is exogenously assigned as the leader, and the two followers move simultaneously in the second stage. Taking Varian (1994) as a testable null (sequential provision should not exceed simultaneous provision), we report both aggregate provision and role-level contributions and document alignment and gaps between theory and data within mechanisms, as well as the pure timing effect across mechanisms. This design extends the literature that has largely studied heterogeneous endowments under simultaneous play by adding a systematic analysis of heterogeneous endowments under sequential play. |
| Keywords: | Endowment heterogeneity; Simultaneous moves；Sequential moves; Public goods; Theory; Experiment |
| JEL: | C91 C92 D63 H41 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2026-28 |
| By: | Federico Atzori (Sapienza University); Luca Corazzini (University of Milan - Bicocca); Valeria Maggian (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice); Filippo Pavesi (LIUC University); Massimo Scotti (LIUC University) |
| Abstract: | We examine gender differences in competitiveness when performance depends on creativity, which is central to many high-skilled jobs, and investigate how generative AI may affect them. Our study is based on a laboratory experiment in which participants complete a creative task and then choose whether to enter a tournament compensation scheme, with access to ChatGPT varying across treatments. While men and women achieve similar levels of creative performance, they differ in competition entry, with women displaying a lower willingness to compete in environments without AI assistance. This gender gap in competition becomes smaller when AI is available. To investigate the mechanisms behind this pattern, we construct a measure of underconfidence based on the difference between participants’ beliefs about their relative performance and their actual rank. We show that underconfidence predicts competition entry and that, besides improving creative performance, AI is associated with lower underconfidence, particularly among women. |
| Keywords: | Gender Gap in Competition; Creativity; Generative AI; Laboratory Experiment |
| JEL: | C91 J16 J24 O33 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2026:25 |
| By: | Hannah H. Chen (Department of Finance, National Central University); Cary Deck (Department of Economics, University of Alabama & Economic Science Institute, Chapman University); Rachel J. Huang (Department of Finance, National Central University); Larry Y. Tzeng (Department of Finance, National Taiwan University); Lin Zhao (School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics) |
| Abstract: | Economic decisions often involve uncertainty in both wealth and time. We introduce an axiom requiring the trade-of between wealth and time to remain invariant across both domains. Together with standard axioms, it characterizes Expected Additive Time-Wealth Utility (EATWU). We provide an alternative characterization based on consistency in higher-order risk preferences and extend risk apportionment to decisions involving wealth, time, and both. Our model predicts consistent risk allocations across these domains within each order. A laboratory experiment examining second-, third-, and fourth-order risk preferences fnds systematic relationships across domains that are broadly consistent with the model’s predictions. |
| Keywords: | Time and Wealth, Cross-Domain Stationarity, Higher-Order Risk Preferences, Risk Apportionment, Experimental Economics |
| JEL: | C9 D8 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chu:wpaper:26-13 |
| By: | Philipp Doerrenberg (University of Mannheim); Christoph Feldhaus (Ruhr University Bochum); Paula Scholz (University of Cologne); Sebastian Berger (Bern University of Applied Sciences) |
| Abstract: | We conduct a field experiment on gender discrimination against pre-PhD students in academic economics and business administration. We invite the universe of postdocs and professors at German, Austrian, and Swiss universities to a survey on AI in teaching. Invitations are randomly sent by nine male and nine female Master’s students. Each student also randomly varies whether their email mentions a PhD intention. Male researchers provide more answers to female students, while female researchers show no average gender difference. PhD intention increases male researchers’ responses to male students. It reduces female researchers’ responses to female students, driven mainly by tenured researchers. |
| Keywords: | Gender, Behavior, Discrimination, Academia, Field Experiment |
| JEL: | C93 J16 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:439 |
| By: | Will Hartog; Lihua Lei; Mandar Rahurkar; Navdeep Sahni; Yixin Tang |
| Abstract: | The surrogate index method is the modern standard for estimation of long-term effects in a designed experiment using only short-term outcomes. This method relies on the surrogacy and comparability assumptions which may be violated in practice leading to estimation bias. We propose a new method called Experiment Reservoir Surrogate (ERS) which leverages a reservoir of historical long-term experiments that is common in large-scale experimentation platforms. ERS avoids the surrogacy assumption by predicting the long-term average treatment effect directly, and relaxes the comparability assumption by matching to similar historical experiments, without requiring every experiment in the reservoir to be comparable to the target experiment. Moreover, ERS is memory-efficient, as it only requires aggregate data for each time period, instead of raw individual-level data. We theoretically justify the improved efficiency of ERS and demonstrate the improvement empirically on a reservoir of experiments from the online platform DoorDash. |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2610.36352 |
| By: | Beerli, Andreas (ETH Zurich); Fiorin, Stefano (Bocconi University); Gulyas, Andreas (University of Mannheim); Kopp, Daniel (ETH Zurich); Khoshnama, Mahsa (Princeton University); Siegenthaler, Michael (ETH Zurich) |
| Abstract: | We estimate how strongly job seekers value wages and job benefits, how well informed they are about compensation differences across firms, and how much they update beliefs when shown such information. In a field experiment, we randomly embed wage and benefit information from an employer-review platform on job ads for 265, 000 users of a Swiss job-board network. Revealed-preference estimates suggest a 1% higher posted wage increases clicks to view and engage with the ad by 0.4%. A conceptual framework decomposes this elasticity into preferences, prior knowledge, and belief updating, identified through a belief-elicitation experiment with users from the same job boards. We find job seekers underestimate wage differences across jobs by half, know little about benefit differences, and update beliefs partially. Accounting for these information frictions, the implied own-wage elasticity of applications is 2.5–2.9. Among twelve benefits shown, job seekers value four significantly: a company car (10% of wages), work from home (8%), firm-sponsored childcare (6%), and a parking spot (4%). The average job offers benefits worth 11% of wages. Because higher-paying jobs offer more benefits, total compensation inequality exceeds wage inequality. |
| Keywords: | amenities, job benefits, job search, wage elasticity of applications, wage transparency, willingness to pay |
| JEL: | J32 J33 J64 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18992 |
| By: | Gallo, Misty (University of Arkansas); Wolf, Patrick (University of Arkansas); Patrinos, Harry (University of Arkansas, Fayetteville) |
| Abstract: | Government programs often experience low take-up, limiting their potential positive impact. We examine whether reducing registration frictions can increase participation in a state-financed literacy intervention program. In a randomized field experiment, families received either encouragement and a simplified enrollment process, or these interventions plus text message nudges, relative to a business-as-usual control group. We find that encouragement and simplified registration increased take-up by more than 10 percentage points, while a fuller treatment of encouragement, simplified enrollment, and text nudges increased take-up by 6 percentage points. We also estimate the impact of these treatments to promote use of funding and amount of funding used to access tutoring. We find positive intent-to-treat effects with the fuller treatment showing a strong impact on use and amount of funding used. These low-cost interventions offer a promising strategy for increasing participation in government programs. |
| Keywords: | literacy, tutoring, take-up, nudge, behavioral economics, encouragement, regulatory friction, parental engagement, choice, implementation |
| JEL: | I21 D91 C93 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp19002 |
| By: | Brosch, Hanna (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg); Langer, Christina (ifo Institute); Lergetporer, Philipp (Technical University of Munich); Mueller, Sandra (Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)); Pfeifer, Harald (Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)); Tschoepe, Nele (Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)) |
| Abstract: | Does generative artificial intelligence (AI) expand the set of tasks that middle-skilled, early-career workers can successfully perform? In a field experiment with 673 final-year IT apprentices at twelve German vocational schools, we randomly assign access to AI for completing occupation-specific tasks. To identify task expansion, we study tasks both within the apprenticeship curriculum and deliberately beyond it. AI raises productivity substantially across all task types, with gains tending to be larger on tasks where performance without AI is lowest. Crucially, productivity increases by 26–31 percentage points on tasks beyond apprentices’ formal training, providing direct evidence of AI-enabled task expansion. These productivity gains do not come at the cost of reduced immediate task comprehension. Treatment effects are generally larger among apprentices with above-median AI literacy. |
| Keywords: | generative artificial intelligence, field experiment, productivity, task expansion, middle-skilled workers, apprenticeships |
| JEL: | J24 O33 C93 I21 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18999 |
| By: | Mickael Beaud (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); Yujiang Sun (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); Marc Willinger (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) |
| Abstract: | While various models of inequality aversion predict different effects of background risk on giving, empirical evidence remains mixed. This study presents a laboratory experiment using a modified dictator game to examine whether exposure to an additive, zero-mean background risk affecting endowments influences giving behavior. Our results show that such exposure does not significantly affect average donation amounts, the likelihood of giving nothing, or the tendency to split resources equally. These findings are consistent with ex ante inequality concerns under risk neutrality; however, overall, our experimental data do not support the behavioral predictions implied by purely ex post inequality aversion. |
| Keywords: | Inequality aversion, Background risk, Dictator game |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05777756 |
| By: | Mônica Viegas Andrade (Cedeplar/UFMG); Kenya Noronha (Cedeplar/UFMG); Cristiana Vidigal Lopes (GEESC); Nayara Abreu Julião (Cedeplar/UFMG); Aline de Souza (GEESC); Agustín Marcelo Barreiro (FACE/UFMG); Arthur Freitas Morais (FACE/UFMG); Barbara Jeha Maakaroun Cunha Gomes (FACE/UFMG); Ísis Vilela Duarte (FACE/UFMG); Marco Túlio Gariba Silva (FACE/UFMG); Matheus Pinto Coelho Rocha (DEST/UFMG) |
| Abstract: | This paper, the first in a series on health care cost-sharing mechanisms, provides a detailed review of two landmark experiments in health insurance: the RAND Health Insurance Experiment and the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment. It revisits their experimental designs, identification strategies, outcome measures, main findings, and limitations, with particular attention to the mechanisms through which insurance coverage and patient cost sharing affect health care utilization, expenditures, and health outcomes. The two experiments provide complementary evidence. The Oregon experiment shows that obtaining health insurance coverage increases health care utilization and improves financial protection, whereas the RAND experiment demonstrates that cost sharing reduces utilization, primarily by affecting the decision to initiate care. The RAND findings also indicate that reductions in utilization are not necessarily concentrated on low-value care, since clinically necessary services are also affected, and that health effects are heterogeneous, with greater benefits from full coverage among low-income individuals in poorer initial health. Taken together, the evidence shows that the price faced by patients significantly affects the demand for health care, while also highlighting the limitations of cost sharing as a stand-alone instrument for improving the efficiency of health care utilization. |
| Keywords: | health insurance; cost sharing; copayment; moral hazard; RAND Health Insurance Experiment; Oregon Health Insurance Experiment. |
| JEL: | I11 I13 D82 C93 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td702 |
| By: | Cassidy, Rachel; McKenzie, David; Neelamraju, Kalyan N. |
| Abstract: | Women-owned-or-led small and medium-sized enterprises (WSMEs) are underrepresented in public and corporate supply chains worldwide. There is growing interest in promoting SMEs’ and WSMEs’ integration into value chains, but limited causal evidence whether interventions to support their participation in procurement are effective. This paper conducts a phased randomized controlled trial to estimate the impacts of corporate procurement training for WSMEs in Colombia. The program increases procurement knowledge and readiness, resulting in a ten percentage point increase in registrations to corporate portals, and an eight percentage point increase in the likelihood of submitting a bid. Impacts on winning bids are concentrated in WSMEs with prior procurement knowledge or experience, whose probability of winning a contract increases by eight to nine percentage points. These impacts are approximately twenty percent of the control means. More broadly, the paper illustrates how complier-weighted treatment effects can be used to evaluate programs delivered through a funnel-shaped participation process, common in private sector development interventions. |
| Date: | 2026–10–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11481 |
| By: | Marisol Rodríguez Chatruc; Ernesto Stein; Razvan Vlaicu; Victor Zuluaga |
| Abstract: | International trade increases aggregate welfare but also creates winners and losers, making it politically contentious. Recent research has established that individuals are more sensitive to anti-trade information about employment loss than to pro-trade information about lower prices or greater variety. This paper studies how individual attitudes and beliefs change in response to information about employment losses (in import-competing sectors), gains (in export-oriented sectors), and the possibility of compensation for displaced workers. To this end, a large-scale survey experiment was implemented in 18 Latin American countries using nationally representative samples. The results suggest that anti-trade information reduces support for trade even when compensation is mentioned, while pro-trade messages increase support only when they emphasize employment gains. Belief updating about trade's employment effects seems to be a relevant mechanism. |
| Keywords: | International trade;Attitudes;Employment;Survey experiment;Latin America |
| JEL: | F13 D72 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdm:wpaper:2026-08 |
| By: | Kalleitner, Fabian; Adriaans, Jule; Brüggemann, Ole; Moya, Cristóbal; Bohmann, Sandra |
| Abstract: | Willingness to reduce gender inequalities partly depends on whether people are aware of them and consider them unfair. Extending scholarship centered on inequality misperceptions, we focus on beliefs about the sources of the gender pay gap (GPG), experimentally varying people's ability to attribute pay disparities to women's choices. Preregistered survey experiments in the U.S. and Germany show that information about larger (vs. smaller) and within-job (vs. overall) GPGs independently increases awareness, raises perceived unfairness, and translates into general support for government action. Initially less-supportive groups (conservatives, men) showed some of the largest increases in general support. Yet, updated beliefs did not increase support for specific policies, such as pay transparency laws or gender quotas. These findings suggest that information campaigns can affect beliefs about GPG's size and sources, but even perceiving GPGs as unfair does not bridge the gap between abstract commitment to gender equality and concrete policy support. |
| Keywords: | gender pay gap, misperception, gender equality policy, information provision experiment |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cexwps:344216 |
| By: | Cheng, Zhi (Aaron); Li, Ting; Pavlou, Paul A. |
| Abstract: | How does information transparency affect customer retention in markets where quality is difficult to verify? Conventional wisdom suggests that transparency intensifies price competition and increases customer churn. We challenge this view by showing that acquisition-stage transparency can strengthen retention in markets for credence goods characterized by delayed feedback and persistent uncertainty, where customers revisit their decisions without clear quality signals. We develop a transparency-confidence-retention framework, in which transparency at acquisition builds choice confidence, a psychological switching cost that anchors customers to their initial decisions. Using 83, 835 auto insurance contracts from a European insurer and multiple identification strategies, we find that customers acquired through transparent channels are 4.6%–11.8% less likely to churn than those acquired through less transparent channels. A randomized, controlled experiment with 1, 515 participants shows that transparency reduces customer churn primarily by strengthening choice confidence rather than increasing conventional switching costs, such as brand trust or product fit. Decomposing transparency into attribute, comparative, and evaluative dimensions reveals that evaluative transparency exerts the strongest influence. Analyses of boundary conditions indicate that the retention effect of transparency is amplified when public and private signals remain congruent with earlier informational cues. These findings reconceptualize transparency as a relational mechanism that fosters decisional assurance and stabilizes retention under quality uncertainty. |
| Keywords: | information transparency;choice confidence;customer retention;switching costs;credence goods |
| JEL: | J50 L81 |
| Date: | 2026–10–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:141644 |
| By: | Liu, Jing (University of Maryland); Sweet, Tracy (University of Maryland, College Park); Chen, Marty (University of Maryland, College Park); Engelberg, Jonathan (University of Maryland, College Park); Masters, Megan (University of Maryland, College Park); Clark, Martyn (University of Maryland, College Park); Persaud, Axel (University of Maryland, College Park); Lancaster, Alia (University of Maryland, College Park); Hollingsworth, Jeffrey (University of Maryland, College Park); Rice, Jennifer (University of Maryland, College Park) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate access to a course-integrated generative AI (GenAI) tutor in a randomized controlled trial involving 2, 379 undergraduate students and 30 instructors across multiple disciplines in a large U.S. public university. Among sections of the same course, tutor access reduced final grades by 0.37 standard deviations and learning management system participation by 0.90 standard deviations. Participation declines were similarly large in the full sample, and estimated academic losses were greater among first-generation students. These findings suggest that introducing an AI tutor may displace engagement with existing learning activities without improving academic performance, with potentially differential impact across student groups. |
| Keywords: | generative AI, higher education, AI tutoring, randomized controlled trial, academic performance, student engagement |
| JEL: | I23 I21 C93 O33 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18989 |
| By: | Tiziana Assenza (Toulouse School of Economics); Stefanie Huber (University of Bonn); Anna Mogilevskaja (University of Bonn); Tobias Schmidt (Deutsche Bundesbank, Research Center) |
| Abstract: | We use an experimental module in the Bundesbank Online Panel Households to show that the estimated link between inflation expectations and household consumption changes significantly depending on survey wording. This finding reconciles prior contradictory results and has direct implications for central bank survey design. Our experiment systematically varies elicitation framing of consumption questions along three dimensions: the reference unit (individual vs. household), the time horizon (past one, 3, or 12 months), and the question type (attitudinal, planned, qualitative and quantitative recall-based). We find that mainly question type significantly influences the estimated relationship between inflation expectations and durable consumption. While the average association is weak, its sign and magnitude vary strongly with question design. Planned spending and attitudinal questions, such as whether it is a good time to buy, produce very similar negative associations, suggesting that respondents interpret the former as a proxy for future intentions. In contrast, quantitative recall-based questions on past spending yield a modestly positive or insignificant link. These results highlight the critical role of survey design in shaping behavioral measurements, offering a novel explanation for mixed findings in the literature and guidance for both research and policy. |
| Keywords: | Inflation expectations; household consumption; survey design; question wording; framing effects; measurement |
| JEL: | C83 D84 D12 E21 E31 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:437 |
| By: | Harbring, Christine (RWTH Aachen University); Simons, Stella (RWTH Aachen University) |
| Abstract: | In Germany, the gross hourly income of men was 6 % higher than that of women in 2025 when controlling for factors such as profession or qualifications. One possible explanation for the remaining gender pay gap may be gender differences in salary expectations and negotiations. Therefore, we examine whether gender differences exist in employees’ self-set salaries and if so, we explore potential reasons behind them. Identifying gender differences in the comparatively simplified context of self-set salaries could provide valuable insights beyond the complexities of negotiation scenarios. In particular, we investigate whether providing sub-jects with information about the average salary of men – thereby offering pay transparency – impacts self-set salaries (individual vs. transparency treatment). Furthermore, we examine how salaries are set when there is a direct comparison to another worker, and when the self-set salary affects another worker’s salary (individual vs. group treatment). Results clearly show that women set lower salaries than men in the individual treatment. However, no significant gender differences are observed in the transparency or group treatment. |
| Keywords: | gender differences, self-set salaries, gender pay gap, pay transparency, laboratory experiment |
| JEL: | C91 M5 J16 K38 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp19009 |
| By: | Thomas Graeber; Christopher Roth; Florian Zimmermann |
| Abstract: | This article reviews how different types of information shape belief formation. We organize the discussion around two distinctions: whether information supplies evidence or a frame work for interpreting evidence, and whether it is qualitative or quantitative. Stories describe individual instances in qualitative terms, whereas statistics summarize many observations numerically. Narratives and quantitative models provide qualitative and quantitative frame works, respectively, for interpreting evidence. We examine how learning from evidence and learning from models interact: models shape responses to existing and subsequent evidence, while evidence can prompt model revision. We argue that qualitative information engages associative cognitive processes, such as mental simulation and memory retrieval, which tend to give it a larger and more lasting influence on beliefs than quantitative information. We then discuss implications for strategic communication and the supply of information in media markets, and identify challenges and open questions for future research. |
| Keywords: | Secondary employment, Labor supply, Worker preferences, Discrete choice experiment. |
| JEL: | C25 J22 J28 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_790 |
| By: | Mohedano, Lorenzo Estepa; Jorrat, Diego; Orozco Olvera, Victor Hugo; Ramirez, Ericka Rascon |
| Abstract: | Elicited probabilities have been shown to be effectively in explaining and predicting behavior. Their elicitation is typically facilitated by visual aids, such as beads or beans. This study, introduces a novel aid, consisting of a cardboard-based slider, to facilitate probability elicitation among populations with low levels of education. Unlike discrete aids, such as beads, the slider allows respondents to report probabilities on a continuous scale, which is particularly advantageous for statistical inference and econometric modeling. To compare the effectiveness of these aids, the study conducted four survey experiments: two in Nigeria, one in Honduras, and one in Spain. These experiments assessed the validity of elicited expectations using both visual aids. The study found no significant differences in participants’ understanding of basic probability concepts or in the time required to complete the task. However, it found that the slider yielded more precise measures (lower variance) than the beads. These results suggest that comprehension remains consistent across both aids, but that the slider improved the precision of subjective probability elicitation in the field. |
| Date: | 2026–09–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11450 |
| By: | Dania V. Francis; Rob Gillezeau; Damon Jones; Angelino C. G. Viceisza |
| Abstract: | Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have played a major role in detecting direct forms of racial discrimination. In this essay, we ask whether RCTs can (or cannot) play an equally important role in the case of systemic racial discrimination. We propose a conceptual model of systemic racial discrimination drawing from prior definitions of systemic racism. We then consider a range of possibilities and limitations for how RCTs can help understand systemic racial discrimination, including: (1) the feasibility of manipulating systemic racial discrimination on a large scale; (2) smaller scale approaches; (3) conducting RCTs across different structural settings; (4) the manipulation of the salience of systemic forces; (5) the role of information in reducing systemic racial discrimination; (6) the manipulation of the salience of racial identity; and, finally, (7) examination of strategic responses to systemic racial discrimination. In discussing limitations, we point to other approaches that may fill in the gaps left by RCTs in studying systemic racial discrimination. |
| JEL: | C9 J15 J7 Z13 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35882 |
| By: | Haruo Kakehi |
| Abstract: | We study regression adjustment for ratios of treatment effects in completely randomized experiments. The existing literature adjusts the numerator and denominator separately, but this approach misses the efficiency target, loss of which matters more when richer or high-dimensional covariate information and flexible or regularized prediction methods are used to pursue further efficiency gains. We propose a two-step estimator that directly predicts the relevant transformed outcome. Using cross-fitting, our method accommodates high-dimensional first-stage prediction while keeping the final adjustment fixed-dimensional, thereby avoiding instability from a growing number of adjustment covariates. We further develop persistence-based LASSO theory that does not require sparsity, permits more covariates than observations, and allows cross-validated penalty selection under prediction-level conditions. For additional efficiency gains, our augmented two-step estimator nests the benchmark adjustment spaces and is therefore asymptotically no less efficient than the benchmark estimators, while its feasible conservative variance estimator satisfies the same efficiency ordering. Simulation studies and a real-data analysis demonstrate that our proposed estimator performs better than existing methods. |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2610.35666 |
| By: | Jeanne Hagenbach (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Charlotte Saucet (UP1 UFR02 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - École d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | We experimentally study how individuals read strategically-transmitted information when they have preferences over what they will learn. Subjects play disclosure games in which Receivers should interpret messages skeptically. We vary whether the state that Senders communicate about is ego-relevant or neutral for Receivers, and whether skeptical beliefs are aligned or not with what Receivers prefer believing. Compared to neutral settings, skepticism is significantly lower when it is self-threatening, and not enhanced when it is self-serving. These results shed light on a new channel that individuals can use to protect their beliefs in communication situations: they exercise skepticism in a motivated way, that is, in a way that depends on the desirability of the conclusions that skeptical inferences lead to. We propose two behavioral models that can generate motivated skepticism. In one model, the Receiver freely manipulates his beliefs after having made skeptical inferences. In the other, the Receiver reasons about evidence in steps and the depth of his reasoning is motivated. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous depth of reading, Motivated beliefs, Skepticism, Unraveling result, Hard information, Disclosure games |
| Date: | 2025–05–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03770685 |
| By: | Busso, Matías; González-Velosa, Carolina; Muñoz-Morales, Juan S.; Ruiz, Juanita; Valencia Romero, Juan Diego; van der Werf, Cynthia |
| Abstract: | This paper studies whether government-issued skill certification improves labor market integration when workers skills are hard to verify. We evaluate a randomized offer of access to an occupation-specific certification program in Colombia to locals and migrants, two groups with different ex ante signaling capacity. The program certifies existing skills rather than providing training. Among locals, the offer increases employment by reducing inactivity and raises hours worked. The effects persist unevenly over time and are robust to attrition bounds and alternative outcome measures. Among migrants, estimates are less precise and provide no evidence of effects in employment, hours, or wages. The results show that a common skill certification generates different patterns of labor market adjustment among locals and migrants. |
| Keywords: | signaling;certifications;skills;Migration |
| JEL: | J24 J61 J64 I26 O15 D82 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:14806 |
| By: | Natalie Bau; Corinne Low; Bryce Millett Steinberg |
| Abstract: | Whether to engage in sex and with whom are extremely consequential decisions for young women worldwide, and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where HIV rates are high and adolescent pregnancies are common. Yet little is known about the extent to which these decisions are financially motivated. We combine a randomized controlled trial of monthly cash assistance to female students at the University of Zambia with detailed, high-frequency data on sexual behavior and partner characteristics. We find that this temporary increase in income significantly changes women's sexual behavior. Treated participants are 5.1 percentage points less likely to have sex during the treatment period, and the rate of condomless sex falls by 30%. Among women who were not sexually active at baseline, the likelihood of having sex falls by 43%, and partner quality conditional on sex greatly improves. Financial assistance also reduces financial precarity, increasing food security, mental health, and cognitive capacity. These results can be rationalized with a dynamic model of partner search in which women can choose to search for boyfriends or high-income partners who provide financial support and bargain over both transfers and condom use. We conclude that a substantial share of sexual activity is financially motivated in this setting, even in a population not typically regarded as vulnerable. Increasing young women's income may be a useful tool for reducing the negative externalities of risky sex and improving match quality. |
| JEL: | J16 O12 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35940 |
| By: | Anujit Chakraborty; Arkadev Ghosh; Matt Lowe; Gareth Nellis |
| Abstract: | We hypothesize that broad contact, involving brief interactions with multiple outgroup members, and deep contact, meaning longer interactions with a single outgroup member, play distinct roles in shaping intergroup relations. We set up a factory in India and recruited Hindu and Muslim men to work in pairs on joint production tasks. We randomly assigned participants to work either with the same ingroup or outgroup partner daily (deep contact), a different outgroup partner each day (broad contact), or to a control group. Deep contact strengthens social and economic ties with the outgroup partner. But only broad contact reduces the majority group's misperceptions about outgroup strangers. Using within-treatment variation in partners’ pre-treatment productivity, we show that participants in both arms learn about their partners, but broad participants also generalize these belief updates to strangers. These findings align with a model in which independent sampling promotes learning about outgroups more than prolonged interaction with a single individual does. Nevertheless, neither type of contact changes behavior toward the wider outgroup. |
| JEL: | C93 D83 D9 Z13 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35884 |
| By: | Zhong, Yang (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Distractions are pervasive in modern workplaces, from frequent interruptions to noisy open-plan offices. Using an incentivized laboratory experiment, I study performance and well-being under task-switching and auditory distractions, elicit willingness to pay to avoid them, and develop a survey measure of distraction resilience that captures individuals' willingness and ability to work under distractions. Neither distraction significantly reduces performance, but both reduce well-being. Participants are willing to pay to avoid distractions, with those experiencing lower well-being under distractions willing to pay more. I find no gender differences in the effects on performance or well-being, although women are willing to pay less than men to avoid both distractions. I validate the survey measure of distraction resilience by showing that those scoring higher experience better well-being under both distractions. I then incorporate the validated measure in a representative Dutch panel and find that greater distraction resilience is related to higher income, a greater likelihood of holding a supervisory position, and higher job satisfaction. |
| Keywords: | refugee children, schools, integration, educational attainment, contraceptives JEL Classification: I24, I21, J13, J15, O15 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:827 |
| By: | Moira Gidseg (College of the Holy Cross) |
| Abstract: | In this study, I investigate whether the out-of-sample predictive accuracy of existing distributional preference models can be improved by appending a "discretion" term which captures the intrinsic value of choosing for others (i.e., valuing control over others as distinct from caring about their outcomes). I propose a specific functional form for the discretion term that distinguishes between positive discretion (options to increase another’s payoff) and negative discretion (options to decrease it), with diminishing marginal utility. I append this term to four distributional preference models: inequality aversion (Fehr & Schmidt, 1999), quasi-maximin (Charness & Rabin, 2002), constant elasticity of substitution (Andreoni & Miller, 2002), and bliss point (Gidseg, 2026). I estimate individual-level parameters using an incentivized experiment with 105 subjects playing a Power Game, in which subjects spend their own earnings to gain control over a partner’s payoff. I then assess predictive accuracy on non-estimation data using the root mean squared error. I find that the discretion term improves spending prediction accuracy for approximately 18–23% of subjects across all four distribution models. Importantly, the discretion term rarely worsens prediction (1–4% of subjects). The estimated discretion parameters show significant heterogeneity across individuals but are not significantly correlated with measured personal characteristics. These findings suggest that incorporating the intrinsic value of decision rights over others into utility models can meaningfully improve 'economists' ability to predict behavior in social contexts. |
| JEL: | C72 D64 C91 H41 D91 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hcx:wpaper:2602 |
| By: | Thomas Dohmen (Maastricht University & University of Bonn); Steffen Künn (Maastricht University); Jonas Radbruch (Humboldt University Berlin); Amelie Schiprowski (University of Bonn) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies workers’ preferences for dual-job arrangements in which workers reduce hours in primary employment to take up a secondary job in a different occupation to increase task variety and job satisfaction. Using a discrete choice experiment embedded in a survey of 5, 238 full-time, prime-age workers in permanent jobs in Germany, we ask respondents to compare their current job to a hypothetical dual-job arrangement that varies in earnings, contractual security, job-search support, and training requirements. We find that nearly half of respondents choose a dual-job arrangement in at least one out of five choice tasks presented to them. Earnings changes have large effects on acceptance, and contractual risk is a central non-wage determinant: guaranteed return options substantially increase participation and command high willingness-to-pay. Overall, the results indicate that a considerable share of workers is willing to reallocate working time across jobs primarily when income stability and employment security are preserved. |
| Keywords: | Secondary employment, Labor supply, Worker preferences, Discrete choice experiment |
| JEL: | C25 J22 J28 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:438 |
| By: | Thomas Dohmen; Jonas Radbruch; Steffen Künn; Amelie Schiprowski |
| Abstract: | This paper studies workers’ preferences for dual-job arrangements in which workers reduce hours in primary employment to take up a secondary job in a different occupation to increase task variety and job satisfaction. Using a discrete choice experiment embedded in a survey of 5, 238 full-time, prime-age workers in permanent jobs in Germany, we ask respondents to compare their current job to a hypothetical dual-job arrangement that varies in earnings, contractual security, job-search support, and training requirements. We find that nearly half of respondents choose a dual-job arrangement in at least one out of five choice tasks presented to them. Earnings changes have large effects on acceptance, and contractual risk is a central non-wage determinant: guaranteed return options substantially increase participation and command high willingness-to-pay. Overall, the results indicate that a considerable share of workers is willing to reallocate working time across jobs primarily when income stability and employment security are preserved. |
| Keywords: | Secondary employment, Labor supply, Worker preferences, Discrete choice experiment. |
| JEL: | C25 J22 J28 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_788 |
| By: | Sonia S. Siraz (EM - EMLyon Business School); Björn Claes (The Open University (United Kingdom, Milton Keynes) - OU); Sharon A. Alvarez (PITT - University of Pittsburgh - Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE)) |
| Abstract: | Despite the growing importance of entrepreneurship as a pathway to economic mobility, ethnic minority entrepreneurs continue to face persistent disadvantages in access to capital, particularly following business failure. This study examines how ethnic stereotypes and evaluators' ethnic identity shape perceptions of funding-worthiness for Latinx entrepreneurs relative to White non-Latinx entrepreneurs in the United States. Using a full-profile conjoint experiment comprising 12, 496 evaluations from 781 evaluators, we provide evidence of systematic ethnicity-based disparities in post-failure funding assessments. Latinx entrepreneurs are evaluated as less funding-worthy than White entrepreneurs, even when objective financial indicators such as the level of debt indicate comparable or lower financial risk. These findings suggest that favorable financial attributes do not fully offset ethnicity-based disadvantages in evaluations. We further show that the ethnic identity of evaluators conditions these evaluations. Shared ethnic identity does not mitigate ethnicity-based disparities in perceived funding-worthiness. Instead, Latinx evaluators evaluate Latinx entrepreneurs less favorably than White evaluators. Together, these findings show how post-failure funding evaluations are shaped by embedded ethnic hierarchies, reproducing inequality in entrepreneurial finance. By identifying how ethnic stereotypes and ethnic identity jointly influence funding assessments, this study advances research on ethnic minority entrepreneurship and contributes to business ethics scholarship by clarifying mechanisms through which systemic inequality is sustained in evaluative decision-making. |
| Keywords: | Latinx minority entrepreneurs, Ethnic identity, Entrepreneurial failures, Stereotypes, Access to finance, Inequality, Conjoint experiments |
| Date: | 2026–09–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05777380 |
| By: | John Bone; Michalis Drouvelis; Konstantinos Georgalos; Indrajit Ray |
| Abstract: | We set up an experiment to test whether players use a payoff-irrelevant public message (BLUE or RED) as a possible sunspot to coordinate in a Battle of the Sexes game in which the pure strategies are labelled as X and Y. We find that most players do not play a “sunspot equilibrium†; instead, they learn to coordinate on a particular focal point (pure strategy X) in the game, largely ignoring the presence of the public signal (colour), and stick to this focal point, even after the public signal is withdrawn. Colour-contingent play emerges in only two of the six matching groups, which adopt opposite mappings. |
| Keywords: | Battle of the Sexes, Coordination, Sunspots, , Public Signal, Focal Point |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:444838694 |
| By: | World Bank; Barsbai, Toman; Demirel, Merve; Moskopp, Philipp; Alvarez, Marcello Pérez; Sutter, Matthias |
| Abstract: | This project studies the effects of international educational migration from a low-income country. We evaluate an intervention from an NGO that supports Ugandan students with limited financial means in p ursuing a bachelor’s degree in Germany. Admission to the program may substantially expand students’ economic opportunities by combining the returns to migration to a high-income country with the returns to higher education. We conduct a randomized controlled trial that leverages the NGO’s randomized admissions process among qualified applicants. In addition, we implement a randomized school-based campaign that informs secondary school students in Uganda about the program. Here, we present preliminary evidence on short-term effects. Admission to the program increases applicants’ monthly labor income by about $900 during their first years in Germany, while they are still students and working part-time. Despite the challenges of adapting to a markedly different environment, admission to the program considerably improves the subjective wellbeing of applicants and their parents in Uganda. Admission also raises aspirations among applicants’ siblings and friends in Uganda. The school-based information campaign raises migration intentions and aspirations but has no measurable impact on human capital investments. |
| Date: | 2026–07–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:hdnspu:212835 |
| By: | Patrick Arni; Bart Cockx; Andrey Launov |
| Abstract: | How do unemployed workers form beliefs about their labor-market prospects, and how do these beliefs affect behavior, policy effectiveness, and welfare? We develop and estimate a structural job-search model with quasi-Bayesian updating, combining Swiss panel data on beliefs and job-search behavior with a randomized counseling-and-coaching intervention. Job seekers enter unemployment with overly optimistic beliefs about interview arrivals, but gradually become pessimistic as past signals fade from memory. The estimated updating process combines features consistent with both motivated beliefs and recency-weighted information processing. The model replicates the observed dynamics of applications, interviews, wages, and job finding, while decomposing treatment effects into changes in search efficiency, search costs, and beliefs. We find that belief formation is the principal channel through which the intervention accelerates transitions into employment. However, despite increasing job finding, the intervention reduces participant welfare because it operates primarily through lower reservation wages. |
| Keywords: | job search, biased beliefs, expectations, quasi-Bayesian learning, randomized control trial, structural econometric estimation, evaluation, active labor market policies |
| JEL: | C41 C51 C93 D04 D83 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_13090 |
| By: | Linda Lemarié (Audencia Business School (France, Nantes)); Diletta Acuti (University of Bath (United Kingdom, Bath)); Marta Pizzetti (EM - EMLyon Business School); Giampaolo Viglia (University of Portsmouth) |
| Abstract: | We demonstrate that adding eco-friendly components to offerings improves sustainability judgments, whereas reducing or removing such components—despite potential sustainability gains—receives little recognition. We call this asymmetry the sustainable additive bias . Across nine studies, including a field and a lab experiment, we demonstrate the existence of this bias and uncover its underlying mechanism and boundary conditions. We show that companies are judged more sustainable when they add, rather than subtract, eco-components. This asymmetry is specific to eco-friendly components: consumers recognize the sustainability benefits of removing traditional, less environmentally friendly components. The bias arises because additive changes signal greater environmental effort on the part of the company and is attenuated by prototypicality—that is, the extent to which a component represents a typical example of sustainability. Overall, our findings highlight how environmental cues can distort sustainability judgments and favor additive changes that may be counterproductive to genuine sustainability. We describe the implications of this bias and actions to reduce it. |
| Keywords: | Eco-friendly cue, Omission neglect, Effort heuristic, Sustainable additive bias, Sustainability judgment, Waste, Prototypicality |
| Date: | 2026–09–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05766407 |
| By: | Jorge M. Agüero; Ursula T. Aldana; Erica M. Field; Veronica Frisancho; Ignacio Rodriguez Hurtado; Javier Romero |
| Abstract: | Error in the measurement of key development outcomes affects our understanding of socioeconomic phenomena and their policy implications. This paper focuses on measuring intimate partner violence (IPV), a public health issue affecting women globally. We introduce a novel, privacy-enhancing data collection method using a ballot, comparing it to standard survey techniques in which responses are not kept private from enumerators, and list experiments, an approach ensuring complete anonymity. Our findings show that improved privacy yields higher and more accurate IPV reports than both, especially among women with low education. By linking our data with two natural experiments, we demonstrate that the non-random nature of underreporting with standard methods can lead to biased estimates of IPV determinants. |
| JEL: | C81 C83 J12 J16 O12 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35891 |
| By: | Patrick Arni (ZHAW School of Management and Law); Bart Cockx (Ghent University); Andrey Launov (University of Kent) |
| Abstract: | How do unemployed workers form beliefs about their labor-market prospects, and how do these beliefs affect behavior, policy effectiveness, and welfare? We develop and estimate a structural job-search model with quasi-Bayesian updating, combining Swiss panel data on beliefs and job-search behavior with a randomized counseling-and-coaching intervention. Job seekers enter unemployment with overly optimistic beliefs about interview arrivals, but gradually become pessimistic as past signals fade from memory. The estimated updating process combines features consistent with both motivated beliefs and recency-weighted information processing. The model replicates the observed dynamics of applications, interviews, wages, and job finding, while decomposing treatment effects into changes in search efficiency, search costs, and beliefs. We find that belief formation is the principal channel through which the intervention accelerates transitions into employment. However, despite increasing job finding, the intervention reduces participant welfare because it operates primarily through lower reservation wages. |
| Keywords: | Job search, biased beliefs, expectations, quasi-Bayesian learning, randomized control trial, structural econometric estimation, evaluation, active labor market policies |
| JEL: | C41 C51 C93 D04 D83 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2026–10–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2026020 |
| By: | Thomas W. Graeber; Christopher Roth; Florian Zimmermann |
| Abstract: | This article reviews how different types of information shape belief formation. We organize the discussion around two distinctions: whether information supplies evidence or a framework for interpreting evidence, and whether it is qualitative or quantitative. Stories describe individual instances in qualitative terms, whereas statistics summarize many observations numerically. Narratives and quantitative models provide qualitative and quantitative frameworks, respectively, for interpreting evidence. We examine how learning from evidence and learning from models interact: models shape responses to existing and subsequent evidence, while evidence can prompt model revision. We argue that qualitative information engages associative cognitive processes, such as mental simulation and memory retrieval, which tend to give it a larger and more lasting influence on beliefs than quantitative information. We then discuss implications for strategic communication and the supply of information in media markets, and identify challenges and open questions for future research. |
| Keywords: | stories, statistics, narratives, beliefs, learning, qualitative information, models |
| JEL: | D83 D91 C90 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_13082 |
| By: | Christian Conrad; Julius Schoelkopf; Michael Weber; Frank Brueckbauer |
| Abstract: | Professional forecasters' heterogeneous narratives about how inflation affects stock markets in 2023 rationalize their high disagreement regarding quantitative expectations for 12-month-ahead inflation and stock returns in December 2022. Professional forecasters causally update their return expectations in heterogeneous directions in response to information about the inflation outlook, depending on the narrative they entertain. Moreover, the narratives also affect their asset allocation in a hypothetical portfolio-choice experiment. Providing common signals does not necessarily lead to convergence of beliefs if agents subscribe to different narratives. |
| Keywords: | narratives, expectation formation, inflation, beliefs, monetary policy, subjective models, RCT, inflation expectations, return expectations |
| JEL: | D83 D84 E31 E44 E52 E71 G11 G12 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_13076 |
| By: | Moira Gidseg (College of the Holy Cross) |
| Abstract: | In this study, I propose a new model of distributional preferences, the “Bliss Point†model. According to this model, each person has a preferred payoff for others which is a linear function of his own payoff, and he suffers a utility penalty proportional to the distance between this bliss point for his co-players and the actual payoffs. To evaluate the empirical relevance of this model, I create an experiment in which subjects play several games which affect both their own payoff and that of an anonymous partner. I used their behavior to estimate individual-level parameters of my model as well as three others: inequality aversion (Fehr & Schmidt, 1999), quasi-maximin (Charness & Rabin, 2002), and constant elasticity of substitution (Andreoni & Miller, 2002). I then compare the models’ ability to predict behavior out-ofsample. I find that the Bliss Point model generally predicts about as well as the other models. Further, it is a better predictor than the other models for up to 7% of subjects, depending on the task. This suggests that the Bliss Point model is a useful alternative to existing models. |
| JEL: | C72 D64 C91 H41 D91 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hcx:wpaper:2601 |
| By: | Amaral, Sofia (World Bank); Borker, Girija (World Bank); Prakash, Nishith (Northeastern University); Sviatschi, Maria (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | Frontline state agents wield broad discretion over citizens’ access to public services, yet whether the attitudes shaping it can be changed among incumbent bureaucrats is largely unknown. Partnering with the Bihar Police, we run a cluster randomized trial across 417 stations and ~2, 500 senior officers evaluating a three-day expressive arts intervention grounded in Theatre of the Oppressed to improve police responses to gender-based violence (GBV). Seven months after baseline, treated officers exhibit more favorable GBV attitudes, greater empathy, and stronger legal knowledge. These translate into behavior: in victim audits one year later, treated stations are 15 percentage points less likely to blame victims, dismiss fewer complaints, and provide more referrals, while records show a 41% drop in registration delays and, over a longer horizon, increased citizen GBV reporting. Exploiting transfers, we find suggestive evidence that effects persist as officers relocate and diffuse to untreated colleagues. Junior female officers under treated seniors report lower harassment and anxiety. Attitudes shaping bureaucratic discretion are malleable, and changing how state agents exercise authority can improve service delivery and workplaces. |
| Keywords: | police, gender-based violence, state capacity, bureaucratic discretion, gender attitudes, workplace spillovers |
| JEL: | J16 K42 J45 D73 D91 C93 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp19005 |
| By: | Stanis{\l}aw M. S. Halkiewicz; Sergey Alexeev |
| Abstract: | Complete stepped-wedge designs guarantee eventual intervention delivery, but their final periods contain no concurrent controls. Under exposure-time heterogeneity this creates a design-analysis tension: a constant-effect analysis can be precise while targeting a design-dependent contrast, whereas an exposure-time indicator (ETI) analysis targets a prespecified time-averaged effect but may be much less precise. We develop an adequacy radius that quantifies the size of exposure-time heterogeneity compatible with a prespecified tolerance for estimand mismatch, and combine it with precision calculations to compare complete wedges with rollout-constrained hybrid designs that retain a wait-list arm. For a balanced wedge with a wait-list under the Hussey-Hughes model, the wait-list share and the correlation act on the constant-effect GLS estimand through a single scalar; we prove that the radius increases strictly with the wait-list share and decreases strictly with the within-cluster correlation, but remains bounded. Numerical optimisation and a model-based redesign of a weekend allied-health trial show that intermediate hybrids make estimand-aligned ETI analysis materially more affordable, giving a robustness-precision frontier rather than a binary choice between a complete wedge and a parallel trial. A second trial, of digital adherence support for tuberculosis treatment, has the same radius but no detectable heterogeneity; its test of a constant effect would detect heterogeneity large enough to halve the coverage of the nominal interval only 37% of the time. The contribution is a diagnostic and design principle: when exposure-time heterogeneity is plausible, retaining concurrent controls reduces the price of analysing the estimand one intends to report. |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2610.35853 |
| By: | Julien Senn; Thomas F. Epper; Ernst Fehr |
| Abstract: | Workers care not only about pay and career opportunities but also about meaningful work and socially responsible employers. This heterogeneity matters for worker-firm matching, recruitment, and compensation, yet its preference-based origins remain poorly understood. In a two-wave study of a sample broadly representative of the Swiss adult population (N=1, 031), we study whether social preferences provide a common account of life goals, job preferences, and occupational sorting. We structurally estimate two facets of social preferences: altruism in the advantageous and in the disadvantageous domain. We show that these two dimensions are negatively correlated, and that failing to account for both can substantially bias — in our applications, underestimate — the effects of social preferences. Social preferences predict respondents’ life goals, their preferred job attributes, and their willingness to work in the tobacco industry. In particular, higher altruism is associated with lower emphasis on wealth, financial security, career status, pay, and advancement, but greater emphasis on corporate social responsibility and meaningful work. It also predicts greater willingness to avoid working in the tobacco industry. Lastly, altruism when ahead is positively associated with employment in education, health, and social services. Thus, this paper highlights the importance of social preferences for explaining worker motivation and labor-market sorting. |
| Keywords: | social preferences, meaning-at-work, career choices, sorting |
| JEL: | D01 D91 J24 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_13075 |
| By: | Olena Kostyshyna; Luba Petersen; Jing Yang |
| Abstract: | Using a controlled macroeconomic experiment, we compare monetary policy rules that differ in how much they look through inflation: a Lean-Against policy that responds strongly to inflation and a Look-Through policy that responds less strongly. We combine each rule with communication protocols that vary the information the central bank releases about its policy response: restricted qualitative information, detailed quantitative information, and detailed quantitative information combined with inflation and output projections. Midway through each session, we raise the persistence of the cost-push shock. Looking through large, persistent shocks raises and prolongs inflation and increases the risk that inflation expectations unanchoring, while responding with tighter policy curbs inflation sooner. Communication matters mainly through projections. Adding detailed quantitative information to qualitative statements has little effect on output gaps, inflation, expectations or forecast errors. Communicating projections reduces inflation and output losses, anchors inflation expectations and lowers forecast errors. Under Look-Through, projections anchor inflation expectations and reduce inflation after the increase in supply shock persistence. Looking through supply-shock-induced inflation is only advisable when the central bank can communicate credible and focal projections to guide expectations. |
| Keywords: | Monetary policy; Monetary policy framework and transmission; Monetary policy tools and implementation |
| JEL: | C C9 D D8 D84 E E5 E52 E58 |
| Date: | 2026–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bca:bocawp:26-39 |