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on Experimental Economics |
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Issue of 2024‒02‒05
25 papers chosen by |
| By: | Pietro Guarnieri; Lorenzo Spadoni |
| Abstract: | In this experimental study, we delve into the role of personal and social norms in an anti-coordination decision, such as the choice between staying home or going out in the El Farol Bar Game. Our design consists of two interconnected studies: in Study 1, we elicit either empirical or normative expectations before subjects make their decision in a one-shot El Farol Bar Game; in Study 2, subjects play two El Farol Bar games with different social-expectation primes. Our results reveal that the majority of subjects believe that staying home is the right thing to do and tend to act in accordance with their normative belief. Nevertheless, there is no prevailing consensus on what others believe is normatively right (normative expectations), and subjects do not base their decisions on these expectations. Conversely, a substantial majority of subjects expects that the predominant behavior is staying home (empirical expectations), and subjects tend to adhere to their empirical expectations. As far as social-expectation primes are concerned, they only lower subjects’ propensity to go out. This happens only when the prime conveys an empirical expectation to go out or a normative expectation to stay home. Furthermore, we observe a relatively low rate of change in the second El Farol Bar decision, and this does not hinge on the prime content. |
| Keywords: | Wealth; anti-coordination games; social expectations; normative beliefs |
| JEL: | C90 D83 D84 D91 |
| Date: | 2024–01–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pie:dsedps:2024/303&r=exp |
| By: | Zvonimir BaÅ¡ić (Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, UK); Parampreet C. Bindra (University of Innsbruck); Daniela Glätzle-Rützler (University of Innsbruck, Austria); Angelo Romano (Leiden University, Netherlands); Matthias Sutter (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn, University of Cologne, Germany, University of Innsbruck, Austria, IZA Bonn, Germany, and CESifo Munich); Claudia Zoller (Management Center Innsbruck) |
| Abstract: | We study the developmental roots of cooperation in 929 young children, aged 3 to 6. In a unified experimental framework, we examine pre-registered hypotheses about which of three fundamental pillars of human cooperation – direct reciprocity, indirect reciprocity, and third-party punishment – emerges earliest and is more effective as a means to increase cooperation in a repeated prisoner’s dilemma game. We find that already children aged 3 act in a conditionally cooperative way. Yet, direct and indirect reciprocity do not increase overall cooperation rates beyond a control condition. Compared to the latter, punishment more than doubles cooperation rates, making it the most effective mechanism to promote cooperation. We also find that children’s cognitive skills and parents’ socioeconomic background influence cooperation. We complement our experimental findings with a meta-analysis of studies on cooperation among adults and older children, confirming that punishment outperforms direct and indirect reciprocity. |
| Keywords: | Cooperation, reciprocity, third-party punishment, children, parents, prisoner’s dilemma game, experiment, meta-analysis |
| JEL: | C91 C93 D01 D91 H41 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2024_02&r=exp |
| By: | Christoph Engel (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods); Max R. P. Grossmann (University of Cologne); Axel Ockenfels (University of Cologne, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods) |
| Abstract: | Large Language Models (LLMs) have the potential to profoundly transform and enrich experimental economic research. We propose a new software framework, “alter_ego†, which makes it easy to design experiments between LLMs and to integrate LLMs into oTree-based experiments with human subjects. Our toolkit is freely available at github.com/mrpg/ego. To illustrate, we run differently framed prisoner’s dilemmas with interacting machines as well as with human machine interaction. Framing effects in machine-only treatments are strong and similar to those expected from previous human-only experiments, yet less pronounced and qualitatively different if machines interact with human participants. |
| Keywords: | Software for experiments, large language models, humanmachine interaction, framing |
| JEL: | C91 C92 D91 O33 L86 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2024_01&r=exp |
| By: | Ximeng Fang (University of Oxford); Lorenz Goette (University of Bonn); Bettina Rockenbach (University of Cologne); Matthias Sutter (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, University of Cologne, University of Innsbruck); Verena Tiefenbeck (Friedrich-Alexander Universität Nürnberg-Erlangen, ETH Zurich); Samuel Schoeb (University of Bamberg); Thorsten Staake (University of Bamberg, ETH Zurich) |
| Abstract: | Behavioral policy often aims at influencing behavior by mitigating biases due to, e.g., imperfect information or inattention. We study how this is affected by the simultaneous presence of multiple biases arising from different sources, through a field experiment on resource conservation in an energyand water-intensive everyday activity (showering). One intervention, shower energy reports, primarily targeted knowledge about environmental impacts; another intervention, real-time feedback, primarily targeted salience of resource use. We find a striking complementarity. While only the latter induced significant conservation effects when implemented in isolation, each intervention became more effective when implemented jointly. This is consistent with predictions from a theoretical framework that highlights the importance of targeting all relevant sources of bias to achieve behavioral change. |
| Keywords: | behavioral public policy, pro-environmental behavior, limited attention, information provision, real-time feedback, policy interactions |
| JEL: | D83 D90 Q41 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2023_13&r=exp |
| By: | Grossmann, Max; Hackethal, Andreas; Laudi, Marten; Pauls, Thomas |
| Abstract: | We conduct a field experiment with clients of a German universal bank to explore the impact of peer information on sustainable retail investments. Our results show that information about peers' inclination towards sustainable investing raises the amount allocated to stock funds labeled sustainable, when communicated during a buying decision. This effect is primarily driven by participants initially underestimating peers' propensity to invest sustainably. Further, treated individuals indicate an increased interest in additional information on sustainable investments, primarily on risk and return expectations. However, when analyzing account-level portfolio holding data over time, we detect no spillover effects of peer information on later sustainable investment decisions. |
| Keywords: | Household Finance, Sustainable Finance, Experimental Finance, Financial Advice |
| JEL: | D14 G11 C93 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:safewp:280963&r=exp |
| By: | Assenza, Tiziana; Cardaci, Alberto; Chaliasos, Michael |
| Abstract: | The complexities of geopolitical events, financial and fiscal crises, and the ebb and flow of personal life circumstances can weigh heavily on individuals' minds as they make critical economic decisions. To investigate the impact of cognitive load on such decisions, we conducted an incentivized online experiment involving a representative sample of 2, 000 French households.. The results revealed that exposure to a taxing and persistent cognitive load significantly reduced consumption, particularly for individuals under the threat of furlough, while simultaneously increasing their account balances, particularly for those not facing such employment uncertainty. These effects were not driven by supply constraints or a worsening of credit constraints. Instead, cognitive load primarily affected the optimality of the chosen policy rules and impaired the ability of the standard economic model to accurately predict consumption patterns, although this effect was less pronounced among college-educated subjects. |
| Keywords: | consumption, saving, borrowing, cognitive load, online experiments, RCT, crises, furlough |
| JEL: | G5 C9 D15 D91 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:imfswp:281064&r=exp |
| By: | Diekert, Florian; Goeschl, Timo; König-Kersting, Christian |
| Abstract: | Can Attribution Science, a method for quantifying – ex post – humanity’s contribution to adverse climatic events, induce pro-environmental behavioral change? We conduct a conceptual test of this question by studying, in an online experiment with 3, 031 participants, whether backwards-looking attribution affects future decisions, even when seemingly uninformative to a consequentialist decision-maker. By design, adverse events can arise as a result of participants’ pursuit of higher payoffs (anthropogenic cause) or as a result of chance (natural cause). Treatments vary whether adverse events are causally attributable and whether attribution can be acquired at cost. We find that ex-post attributability is behaviorally relevant: Attribution to an anthropogenic cause reduces future anthropogenic stress and leads to fewer adverse events compared to no attributability and compared to attribution to a natural cause. Average willingness-to-pay for ex-post attribution is positive. The conjecture that Attribution Science can be behaviorally impactful and socially valuable has empirical merit. |
| Keywords: | Extreme event attribution; attribution science; behavioral change; cause dependence; online experiment |
| Date: | 2024–01–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:awi:wpaper:0741&r=exp |
| By: | Masahiro Kato; Kyohei Okumura; Takuya Ishihara; Toru Kitagawa |
| Abstract: | Individualized treatment recommendation is a crucial task in evidence-based decision-making. In this study, we formulate this task as a fixed-budget best arm identification (BAI) problem with contextual information. In this setting, we consider an adaptive experiment given multiple treatment arms. At each round, a decision-maker observes a context (covariate) that characterizes an experimental unit and assigns the unit to one of the treatment arms. At the end of the experiment, the decision-maker recommends a treatment arm estimated to yield the highest expected outcome conditioned on a context (best treatment arm). The effectiveness of this decision is measured in terms of the worst-case expected simple regret (policy regret), which represents the largest difference between the conditional expected outcomes of the best and recommended treatment arms given a context. Our initial step is to derive asymptotic lower bounds for the worst-case expected simple regret, which also implies ideal treatment assignment rules. Following the lower bounds, we propose the Adaptive Sampling (AS)-Policy Learning recommendation (PL) strategy. Under this strategy, we randomly assign a treatment arm with a ratio of a target assignment ratio at each round. At the end of the experiment, we train a policy, a function that recommends a treatment arm given a context, by maximizing the counterfactual empirical policy value. Our results show that the AS-PL strategy is asymptotically minimax optimal, with its leading factor of expected simple regret converging with our established worst-case lower bound. This research has broad implications in various domains, and in light of existing literature, our method can be perceived as an adaptive experimental design tailored for policy learning, on-policy learning, or adaptive welfare maximization. |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2401.03756&r=exp |
| By: | Roland Bénabou (Princeton University, NBER, CEPR, IZA, BREAD, and briq); Armin Falk (University of Bonn); Luca Henkel (University of Chicago and University of CEMA, CESifo, JILAEE) |
| Abstract: | Choosing what is morally right can be based on the consequences (ends) resulting from the decision – the Consequentialist view – or on the conformity of the means involved with some overarching notion of duty – the Deontological view. Using a series of experiments, we investigate the overall prevalence and the consistency of consequentialist and deontological decision-making, when these two moral principles come into conflict. Our design includes a real-stakes version of the classical trolley dilemma, four novel games that induce ends-versus-means tradeoffs, and a rule-following task. These six main games are supplemented with six classical self-versus-other choice tasks, allowing us to relate consequential/deontological behavior to standard measures of prosociality. Across the six main games, we find a sizeable prevalence (20 to 44%) of non-consequentialist choices by subjects, but no evidence of stable individual preference types across situations. In particular, trolley behavior predicts no other ends-versus-means choices. Instead, which moral principle prevails appears to be context-dependent. In contrast, we find a substantial level of consistency across self-versus-other decisions, but individuals’ degree of prosociality is unrelated to how they choose in ends-versus-means tradeoffs. |
| Keywords: | morality, deontological, consequentialist, Kantian, ends-versus-means, trolley dilemma, prosocial, altruism, social preferences |
| JEL: | C91 D01 D64 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:275&r=exp |
| By: | Gerardo Sabater-Grande (LEE and Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Noemí Herranz-Zarzoso (Department of Economic Analysis, Universitat de València, Spain); Aurora García-Gallego (LEE & Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón-Spain) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effectiveness of monetary incentives and/or feedback in order to improve students’ calibration of academic performance. A randomized field experiment is implemented in which undergraduate students enrolled in a Microeconomics course are offered the possibility to judge their academic performance immediately before (prediction) and after (postdiction) completing each of the three exam-multiple choice tests of their continuous evaluation. Potential (actual) miscalibration in each test is calculated as the difference between the predicted (post-dicted) grade and the actual grade. The treatment variables are monetary incentives and individual feedback since they may potentially affect students’ judgment accuracy. Different treatments allow for the analysis of the effect of one of the variables alone or the joint effect of introducing the two variables. The main result is that potential and actual miscalibration are independent of the treatment variables. Our data analysis controls for confounding factors like students’ cognitive ability, academic record, risk attitudes and personality traits. Our data reflect that students’ potential miscalibration is significantly reduced in subsequent tests to the first, only in the treatment where individual feedback as well as monetary incentives are provided. |
| Keywords: | calibration of academic performance, monetary incentives, feedback, prediction, post-diction |
| JEL: | C93 D03 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2024/01&r=exp |
| By: | McGee, Andrew (University of Alberta, Department of Economics); McGee, Peter (University of Arkansas) |
| Abstract: | What can employers learn from personality tests when applicants have incentives to misrepresent themselves? Using a within-subject, laboratory experiment, we compare personality measures with and without incentives for misrepresentation. Incentivized personality measures are weakly to moderately correlated with non-incentivized measures in all treatments. When test-takers are given a job ad indicating that an extrovert (introvert) is desired, extroversion measures are positively (negatively) correlated with IQ. Among other characteristics, only locus of control appears related to faking on personality measures. Our findings highlight the identification challenges in measuring personality and the potential for correlations between incentivized personality measures and other traits. |
| Keywords: | personality; measurement; hiring; screening; experiments |
| JEL: | C91 D82 M50 |
| Date: | 2023–12–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:albaec:2023_012&r=exp |
| By: | Brodeur, Abel; Cook, Nikolai M.; Hartley, Jonathan S.; Heyes, Anthony |
| Abstract: | Pre-registration is regarded as an important contributor to research credibility. We investigate this by analyzing the pattern of test statistics from the universe of randomized controlled trials (RCT) studies published in 15 leading economics journals. We draw two conclusions: (a) Pre-registration frequently does not involve a pre-analysis plan (PAP), or sufficient detail to constrain meaningfully the actions and decisions of researchers after data is collected. Consistent with this, we find no evidence that pre-registration in itself reduces p-hacking and publication bias. (b) When pre-registration is accompanied by a PAP we find evidence consistent with both reduced phacking and publication bias. |
| Keywords: | Pre-analysis plan, Pre-registration, p-Hacking, Publication, bias, Research credibility |
| JEL: | B41 C13 C40 C93 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:i4rdps:101&r=exp |
| By: | Balafoutas (University of Exeter, United Kingdom, University of Innsbruck, Austria); Helena Fornwagner (University of Exeter, Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO)); Rudolf Kerschbamer (University of Innsbruck, Austria); Matthias Sutter (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, IZA Bonn, CESifo Munich, University of Cologne); Maryna Tverdostup (Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, Austria) |
| Abstract: | Credence goods markets are prone to fraudulent behavior and market inefficiencies due to informational asymmetries between sellers and customers. We examine experimentally the effects of diagnostic uncertainty and insurance coverage on the information acquisition and provision decisions by sellers and the trading decisions by consumers. Our results reveal that diagnostic uncertainty is a major source of inefficiency by decreasing efficient service provision. Insurance coverage has a positive net effect on market efficiency, despite making information acquisition and efficient service provision less likely. We also examine the role of -s and of sellers’ prosociality in shaping service provision and information acquisition. |
| Keywords: | Credence goods, diagnostic uncertainty, insurance coverage, experiment |
| JEL: | C91 D82 G22 |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2023_11&r=exp |
| By: | Bauer, Kevin; Chen, Yan; Hett, Florian; Kosfeld, Michael |
| Abstract: | How does group identity affect belief formation? To address this question, we conduct a series of online experiments with a representative sample of individuals in the US. Using the setting of the 2020 US presidential election, we find evidence of intergroup preference across three distinct components of the belief formation cycle: a biased prior belief, avoidance of outgroup information sources, and a belief-updating process that places greater (less) weight on prior (new) information. We further find that an intervention reducing the salience of information sources decreases outgroup information avoidance by 50%. In a social learning context in wave 2, we find participants place 33% more weight on ingroup than outgroup guesses. Through two waves of interventions, we identify source utility as the mechanism driving group effects in belief formation. Our analyses indicate that our observed effects are driven by groupy participants who exhibit stable and consistent intergroup preferences in both allocation decisions and belief formation across all three waves. These results suggest that policymakers could reduce the salience of group and partisan identity associated with a policy to decrease outgroup information avoidance and increase policy uptake. |
| Keywords: | group identity, information demand, information processing, political polarization |
| JEL: | D47 C78 C92 D82 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:safewp:280966&r=exp |
| By: | Anselm Hager (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin); Lukas Hensel (University of Oxford); Johannes Hermle (University of California, Berkeley); Christopher Roth (University of Cologne and ECONtribute) |
| Abstract: | Are political activists driven by instrumental motives such as making a career in politics or mobilizing voters? We implement two natural field experiments in which party activists are randomly informed that canvassing is i) effective at mobilizing voters, or ii) effective for enhancing activists’ political careers. We find no effect of the treatments on activists’ intended and actual canvassing behavior. The null finding holds despite a successful manipulation check and replication study, high statistical power, a natural field setting, and an unobtrusive measurement strategy. Using an expert survey, we show that the null finding shifted Bayesian posterior beliefs about the treatment’s effectiveness toward zero. The evidence thus casts doubt on two popular hypothesized instrumental drivers of political activism—voter persuasion and career concerns—and points toward expressive benefits as more plausible motives. |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:274&r=exp |
| By: | McGee, Andrew (University of Alberta, Department of Economics); McGee, Peter (University of Arkansas) |
| Abstract: | Women report setting lower reservation wages than men in survey data. We show that women set reservation wages that are 14 to 18 percent lower than men’s in laboratory search experiments that control for factors not fully observed in surveys such as offer distributions and outside options. This gender gap — which exists even controlling for overconfidence, preferences, personality, and intelligence — leads women to spend less time searching than men while accepting lower wages. Women — but not men — set reservation wages that are too low relative to theoretically optimal values given their risk preferences early in search, reducing their earnings. |
| Keywords: | reservation wages; gender wage gaps; search experiments |
| JEL: | C91 J16 J64 |
| Date: | 2023–12–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:albaec:2023_011&r=exp |
| By: | Vojtech Bartos (University of Milan); Silvia Castro (LMU Munich); Kristina Czura (University of Groningen); Timm Opitz (Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition) |
| Abstract: | We analyze gender discrimination in entrepreneurship finance. Access to finance is crucial for entrepreneurial success, yet constraints for women are particularly pronounced. We structurally unpack whether loan officers evaluate business ideas and implementation constraints differently for male and female entrepreneurs, both as individual entrepreneurs or in entrepreneurial teams. In a lab-in-the-field experiment with Ugandan loan officers, we document gender discrimination of individual female entrepreneurs, but no gender bias in the evaluation of entrepreneurial teams. Our results suggest that the observed bias is not driven by animus against female entrepreneurs but rather by differential beliefs about women’s entrepreneurial ability or implementation constraints in running a business. Policies aimed at team creation for start-up enterprises may have an additional benefit of equalizing access to finance and ultimately stimulating growth. |
| Keywords: | access to finance; gender bias; entrepreneurship; lab-in-the-field; |
| JEL: | C93 G21 J16 L25 L26 O16 |
| Date: | 2023–12–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:473&r=exp |
| By: | Paolo Crosetto; Laurent Muller; Bernard Ruffieux |
| Abstract: | We run an incentivized framed-field laboratory experiment to evaluate the interaction of labelling (Nutri-Score) and pricing policies (fat taxes and thin subsidies) on the food shopping of a sample of French consumers. Taxes and subsidies, designed to fit Nutri-Score, are differentiated according to their magnitude (large or small), and their salience (explicit or implicit). We exploit a Difference-in-Difference design, whereby subjects shop for real from a catalog of 290 products twice, first without any labelling nor pricing policy, and then a second time with one of five different combinations of labelling and pricing policies. We focus on the impact of different policy mixes on the aggregate nutritional quality and the total expenditure of the shopping. Results show that: i) when implemented alone, taxes and subsidies are less effective than labelling, especially when implicit and when small in magnitude; ii) with high taxes and subsidies, the policy mix is complementary to labelling, but strongly sub-additive; iii) with low taxes and subsidies, the policy mix is counter-effective and leads to lower impacts; iv) a cost-benefit analyses indicates that any pricing policy results in negligible gains for the consumer and large costs for the state. |
| Keywords: | Nutritional Policies, Labels, Price Policy, Laboratory Experiment, Nutri-Score |
| JEL: | C81 C91 D81 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gbl:wpaper:2024-01&r=exp |
| By: | Philipp, Marie-Fleur (University of Tübingen); Büchau, Silke (University of Tübingen); Schober, Pia S. (University of Tübingen); Werner, Viktoria (University of Tübingen); Spieß, C. Katharina (Bundesinstitut für Bevölkerungsforschung (BiB)) |
| Abstract: | Not only the quantity of formal daycare provision for young children, but also its quality has become an issue of political concern. This experimental study investigates how a hypothetical improvement in the quality of daycare facilities shapes normative judgements regarding daycare use and working hours norms for parents with young children in Germany. The analysis is framed using capability-based explanations combined with theoretical concepts of ideals of care and normative policy feedback theories. We draw on a factorial survey experiment implemented in 2019/2020 in the German Family Panel (pairfam) measuring underlying work-care norms for a couple with a 15-month-old child under different contextual conditions. Ordered logistic and linear multilevel regressions were conducted with 5, 324 respondents. On average, high hypothetical daycare quality for young children leads respondents to recommend greater daycare use and longer working hours for mothers and fathers by about 1 hour per week. Respondents who hold more egalitarian gender beliefs, those with tertiary education, native Germans and parents tend to respond more strongly to higher daycare quality by increasing their support for full-daycare use. The results consistently point to the relevance of high quality for increasing the acceptance and subsequently take-up of formal daycare. |
| Keywords: | work-care norms, gender beliefs, care ideals, early childhood education and care, daycare, childcare, factorial survey, pairfam, Germany |
| JEL: | I2 J13 J16 J22 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16729&r=exp |
| By: | Behringer, Jan; Dräger, Lena; Dullien, Sebastian; Gechert, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | We use novel German survey data to investigate how perceptions and information about public finances influence attitudes towards public debt and fiscal rules. On average, people strongly underestimate the debt-to-GDP ratio, overestimate the interest-to-tax-revenue ratio and favor a tighter German debt brake. In an information treatment experiment, people consider public debt to be a more (less) severe problem once they learn the actual debt-to-GDP or interest-to-tax-revenue ratio is higher (lower) than their estimates. However, the treatment effects partly vanish when anchoring respondents' beliefs with historical public debt figures. We find no treatment effects on attitudes towards the debt brake. |
| Keywords: | public debt, fiscal rules, information treatment, expectations |
| JEL: | E60 D83 H31 H60 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:han:dpaper:dp-715&r=exp |
| By: | Thomas Graeber (Harvard Business School); Shakked Noy (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Christopher Roth (. University of Cologne, ECONtribute, CEPR, briq and MPI for Collective Goods Bonn) |
| Abstract: | For many decisions, people rely on information received from others by word of mouth. How does the process of verbal transmission distort economic information? In our experiments, participants listen to audio recordings containing economic forecasts and are paid to accurately transmit the information via voice messages. Other participants listen either to an original recording or a transmitted version and then state incentivized beliefs. Our main finding is that, across a variety of transmitter incentive schemes, information about the reliability of a forecast is lost in transmission more than twice as much as information about theforecast’s level. This differential information loss predictably distorts listeners’ belief updates: following transmission, reliable and unreliable messages converge in influence and average belief updates from new information are weakened. Mechanism experiments show that the differential loss is not driven by transmitters deliberately trading off the costs and benefits of transmitting different kinds of information. Instead, it results from memory constraints during transmission, which can be overcome through targeted reminders. |
| Keywords: | Information Transmission, Word-of-mouth, Narratives, Reliability |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:272&r=exp |
| By: | Ingar Haaland (NHH Norwegian School of Economics); Julian König (University of Bonn); Christopher Roth (University of Cologne and ECONtribute); Johannes Wohlfart (University of Cologne and ECONtribute) |
| Abstract: | Information provision experiments have become pivotal in understanding how beliefs influence human behavior in various social science contexts. These experiments, which manipulate the information sets available to respondents, enable the exogenous alteration of beliefs and perceived constraints, providing valuable insights. This review article explores methodologies for measuring and updating beliefs, designing effective information treatments, and addressing experimenter demand effects. The paper also discusses the challenges of belief measurement, such as overcoming numerical anchoring and understanding the persistence of belief changes. Additionally, it highlights the growing importance of studying the impact of qualitative information and the attentional foundations of expectation formation. |
| Keywords: | Information |
| JEL: | C90 D83 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:271&r=exp |
| By: | Taryn Eames |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the results of the first large-scale correspondence study estimating hiring discrimination against applicants who disclose pronouns. A resume audit design is leveraged, where two fictitious resumes are sent in response to each job posting: in each pair, the treatment resume contains pronouns listed below the name and the control resume does not list any pronouns. Two treatments are considered: nonbinary "they/them" pronouns and binary "he/him" or "she/her" pronouns congruent with the sex implied by the applicant's name. Strong evidence is found that disclosing "they/them" pronouns reduces positive employer response: discrimination estimates are robust to the Heckman-Siegelman critique and magnitude is statistically larger compared to those disclosing "he/him" or "she/her" pronouns. Further, there is suggestive evidence that discrimination is higher in Republican than Democratic geographies. By comparison, there is limited evidence that disclosing "he/him" or "she/her" pronouns results in discrimination. |
| Keywords: | field experiment; correspondence study; resume audit study; discrimination; pronouns; nonbinary people; labour market |
| JEL: | C93 J15 J16 J23 J71 |
| Date: | 2024–01–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-766&r=exp |
| By: | François Cochard (Université de Franche-Comté, CRESE, F-25000 Besançon, France); Alexandre Flage (Université de Lorraine, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, BETA, F-54000 Nancy, France) |
| Keywords: | Dictator game, Ultimatum Game, Loss-Sharing, Meta-analysis, Non-monetary domain. |
| JEL: | C13 C91 D03 D64 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crb:wpaper:2023-09&r=exp |
| By: | Simone Alfarano; Albert Banal-Estañol; Eva Camacho; Giulia Iori; Burcu Kapar; Rohit Rahi |
| Abstract: | We consider a setting in which privately informed agents are located in a network and trade a risky asset with other agents with whom they are directly connected. We compare the performance, both theoretically and experimentally, of a complete network (centralized market) to incomplete networks with differing levels of connectivity (decentralized markets). We show that decentralized markets can deliver higher informational efficiency, with prices closer to fundamentals, as well as higher welfare for mean-variance investors. |
| Keywords: | Networks, heuristic learning, informational efficiency, experimental asset markets |
| JEL: | C92 D82 G14 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1420&r=exp |