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on Neuroeconomics |
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Issue of 2020‒09‒07
three papers chosen by |
| By: | Dasgupta, Utteeyo (Wagner College); Mani, Subha (Fordham University); Sharma, Smriti (Newcastle University); Singhal, Saurabh (Lancaster University) |
| Abstract: | Hierarchies in social identities have been found to be integrally related to divergences in economic status. In India, caste is one such significant social identity where continued discriminatory practices towards the lower castes have resulted in poor outcomes for them. While there is considerable work on such divergence on many economic outcomes along caste lines, there is no work on behavioral preferences and personality traits that can also be adversely affected by such identity hierarchies, and that are important determinants of educational attainments and labor market performances. We combine rich data from incentivized tasks and surveys conducted among a large sample of university students in a Seemingly Unrelated Regression framework and find that the historically marginalized Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SCSTs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) fare worse than the upper castes along several dimensions of economic behavior such as competitiveness and confidence and personality traits such as grit, locus of control, and conscientiousness. Further, we find that parental investments only have limited compensatory effects on these gaps. This suggests a need for redesigning the structure of affirmative action policies in India as well as targeting interventions with an aim to improving soft skills among the disadvantaged. |
| Keywords: | behavioral preferences, personality, caste, experiments, India |
| JEL: | I23 C9 C18 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2020–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13515&r=all |
| By: | Thangalakshmi R.; Subramanya P.; Kashinath M; Natesh Babu |
| Abstract: | Teaching is one of the stressful professions. The presence of diabetes contributes to the further increase in their stress levels, andthis negatively affects their sleep quality and emotional states. Yoga is known to reduce stress and have a beneficial effect on healthy and diseased conditions. The objective of the study comprised to study the effect of yoga on stress, sleep quality, and emotional states of school teachers suffering from type 2 diabetes. The methodology involved 39 (all female) schoolteachers who have type 2 diabetes since minimum of 3.4±2.2 years, with age range 30 to 55years (44 ± 6.6). Subjects with known cases of cardiac disease, psychiatric illness, recent surgery, pregnancy, were excluded from the study. All the subjects underwent one month of yoga intervention, one daily for five days a week. Fasting, postprandial blood glucose level, Perceived stress, emotional regulation and sleep quality were assessed before and at the end of the intervention. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 10. Paired sample t test was used to find the pre-post differences in all variables. Paired sample t test showed significant reduction in perceived stress (p |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vor:issues:2020-33-06&r=all |
| By: | Gosnell, Greer |
| Abstract: | In a large-scale natural field experiment comprising 38,654 customers of a renewable energy supplier in the United Kingdom, we randomize environmental information and dissonance-inducing messaging to promote an active switch from paper to online billing. We find that environmental information and imagery is ineffective in inducing behavior change. Interestingly, the dissonance-inducing messaging weakly improves uptake by 1.2 percentage points among our main sample but backfires among a subsample of individuals with doctoral educations, decreasing uptake by 6.2 percentage points relative to a control group. Contrary to the majority of the literature on gender and environmental behavior, females in our sample are less likely to switch to paperless billing. |
| Keywords: | Natural field experiment; message framing; cognitive dissonance; information provision; imagery; resource use; paperless billing; ES/K006576/1 |
| JEL: | D12 D83 L21 Q29 |
| Date: | 2018–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:89815&r=all |