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on Experimental Economics |
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Issue of 2022‒04‒25
twenty-six papers chosen by |
| By: | Kamei, Kenju; Tabero, Katy |
| Abstract: | Teams are known to be more cognitively able, and accordingly behave more efficiently, than individuals. This paper provides the first experimental evidence of the so-called “individual-team discontinuity effect” in an institutional setting. In a finitely repeated public goods game where sanctioning institutions are available, teams sustain cooperation surprisingly better than individuals. The superiority of teams is driven by their effective use of punishment. Given an opportunity to construct a formal sanction scheme in their groups, teams enact deterrent schemes by voting much more frequently than individuals. When peer-to-peer punishment is possible, teams inflict costly punishment more frequently on low contributors than individuals, thereby reducing the relative frequency of “misdirected” punishment among teams. These results underscore the effectiveness of having teams as a decision-making unit in organizations in mitigating collective action dilemmas. |
| Keywords: | institution, public goods, experiment, punishment, discontinuity effect |
| JEL: | C92 D02 D72 H41 |
| Date: | 2021–11–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:112106&r= |
| By: | Eric Floyd; Michael Hallsworth; John List; Robert Metcalfe; Kristian Rotaru; Ivo Vlaev |
| Abstract: | In this study, we first present a large natural field experiment that tested messages aimed at increasing tax compliance. We find that the main drivers of changes in compliance are messages describing the monitoring and enforcement behavior of the tax collector. A second natural field experiment built on the results of the first experiment to further investigate what kinds of costs resulting from tax collector oversight are salient to taxpayers. Specific time and cognitive incentives did not significantly increase payment rates, whereas stating non-specific costs of inaction did. Additional analyses suggest the increase in compliance is likely due to a 'fill in the blank' effect in which taxpayers assume the consequence is a fine. Interestingly, specifically stating maximum fine or jailtime consequences have the largest effect in a laboratory setting but only if the consequences are interpreted as realistic. Overall, our study reinforces that tax authorities can use short messages to increase tax compliance; the estimated accelerated revenue from the two field studies amounts to 9.9m GBP. |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feb:natura:00750&r= |
| By: | Anselm Hager (Humboldt University); Lukas Hensel (Guanghua School of Management); Johannes Hermle (University of California, Berkeley and IZA); Christopher Roth (University of Cologne, ECONtribute, briq, CESifo, Cage) |
| Abstract: | How does a citizen’s decision to participate in political activism depend on the partic-ipation of others? We conduct a nationwide natural field experiment in collaboration with a major European party during a recent national election. In a party survey, we randomly provide canvassers with true information about the canvassing intentions of their peers. When learning that more peers participate in canvassing than previously believed, canvassers significantly reduce both their canvassing intentions and behavior. An additional survey among party supporters underscores the importance of free-riding motives and reveals that there is strong heterogeneity in motives underlying supporters’ behavioral responses. |
| Keywords: | Political activism, natural field experiment, strategic behavior, beliefs, motives |
| JEL: | D8 P16 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:158&r= |
| By: | Lekfuangfu, Warn N. (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Powdthavee, Nattavudh (University of Warwick); Riyanto, Yohanes E. (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) |
| Abstract: | We experimentally investigate whether people generally perceive inheritance as effort-induced or luck-induced. By randomly matched two strangers in a lab setting, we test whether the sources of opportunity handed down from the 'testator' subjects determines later redistributive decisions among the 'heir' subjects. On average, redistribution is highest among the heirs whose chance of winning is determined by the pure luck of the paired testator. In contrast, our subjects treat inherited opportunity generated by effort of someone else who they are artificially linked with as relatively fair. Our results suggest that people would feel entitled to bequests and inheritance unless the randomness of inheritance has been made salient to them. |
| Keywords: | inheritance, fairness, redistribution, experiment, inequality of opportunity |
| JEL: | D64 H2 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15125&r= |
| By: | Cano, Alexander; Cortes, Darwin; Mantilla, Cesar; Prada-Medina, Laura; Restrepo, Medardo |
| Abstract: | We conduct a lab-in-the-field experiment in which 214 rural workers must choose between a cash or a voucher payment for completing a real-effort task. Participants face a twenty-percent chance of suffering a negative shock that will reduce their cash payment by roughly two-thirds. Opting for the voucher reduces the likelihood of the shock by one-half. We employ a multiple-price list with a varying voucher payment and a fixed cash payment to study this trade-off relevant for expanding the coverage and contributions of rural labor formalization. We find that take-up rates go from 32\% to 56\%, from the least to the more generous voucher. In a reference sample of undergrad students from the same region, take-up rates went from 17\% to 33\%. Voucher redemption costs are exogenously manipulated by randomly assigning the show-up fee in cash or vouchers. Lower redemption costs induce a higher voucher take-up, but only among students. Being a rural worker with land, and receiving government subsidies in cash, predict a higher voucher take-up. |
| Date: | 2022–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:8ft4e&r= |
| By: | Sebastian Schaube (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action); Louis Strang (University of Cologne) |
| Abstract: | Frequently, one person’s success comes at the expense of others. We contrast such zero-sum environments in which individuals’ payoffs are interdependent to those where payoffs are independent. In a laboratory experiment, we study whether the resulting inequality is perceived differently and how this affects redistribution. Across treatments, we compare a spectator’s redistribution of two workers’ earnings. If workers do not compete in a zero-sum setting, average redistribution decreases. In a representative survey, we replicate this finding and document that individuals who believe in a zero-sum world support higher levels of redistribution and are more likely to be Democrats. |
| Keywords: | Redistribution, Fairness, Zero-sum, Social preferences, Lab experiment |
| JEL: | C91 D31 D63 H23 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:160&r= |
| By: | Anabel Doñate-Buendía (LEE and Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Hernán Bejarano (Economics Division, CIDE (Centro de Investigación de Docencia Económicas, A.C.), Ciudad de México, Mexico); Aurora García-Gallego (ICAE and Economics Department, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and LEE and Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain) |
| Abstract: | In the impunity game, responders, unlike the ultimatum game, cannot affect proposer’s outcomes. Proposers in this game, like in the dictator game, have full control over their own outcome, as rejection from the responder has no effect on their payoff. Thus, the theoretical prediction of this game states that the responder should accept any offer. An experiment is designed aiming at analysing both players’ behaviour in the impunity game when subjects are aware of the gender of their partner. Additionally, we examine the effect of different stake sizes. An online experiment with eight different treatments is implemented, with a total number of 1,210 observations. The main findings are that proposers give to responders an important (around 35%) share on average, and that both the stake size and gender identification affect their decisions. Moreover, responders’ rejection patterns follow the game theoretical prediction, although the hypothesis that knowing your counterpart sex/gender affects responders’ behaviour cannot be rejected. Finally, subjects’ behaviour in this game is found to be determined by their personality and psychopathy traits, as well as by their emotional intelligence level. Other sociodemographic characteristics like place of birth or their employment status are found to also influence their decisions. |
| Keywords: | impunity game; experiment; gender identification; stake size |
| JEL: | C90 C88 D63 D64 D91 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2022/08&r= |
| By: | Emily A. Beam; Yusufcan Masatlioglu; Tara Watson; Dean Yang |
| Abstract: | We implemented a field experiment designed to increase participants’ willingness to visit a health clinic. We find differential responses to a $50 incentive framed as a loss versus framed as a gain. We find little support for the notion that loss aversion is responsible for the effectiveness of loss framing. Instead, it appears that loss framing promotes take-up by raising the perceived probability that the incentive will be provided as promised. The results suggest trust is an alternative pathway through which loss framing may affect behavior, and trust may be an important way to promote desirable health behaviors. |
| JEL: | C93 D03 I12 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29828&r= |
| By: | Katharina Momsen; Sebastian O. Schneider |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether the presence of a default interacts with the willingness of decision-makers to gather, process and consider information. In an online experiment, where about 2,300 participants choose between two compiled charity donation options worth $100, we vary the availability of information and the presence of a default. Information avoidance, when possible, increases default effects considerably, manifesting a hitherto undocumented channel of the default bias. Moreover, we show that defaults trigger motivated reasoning: In the presence of a default – even if self-selected–, participants consider new information to a lower degree than without a preselected option. |
| JEL: | C90 D64 D83 D91 |
| Date: | 2022–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2022-05&r= |
| By: | Bradley Larsen; Marc J. Hetherington; Steven H. Greene; Timothy J. Ryan; Rahsaan D. Maxwell; Steven Tadelis |
| Abstract: | We report a large-scale randomized controlled trial designed to assess whether the partisan cue of a provaccine message from Donald Trump would induce Americans to get COVID-19 vaccines. Our study involved presenting a 27-second advertisement to millions of U.S. YouTube users in October 2021. Results indicate that the campaign increased the number of vaccines in the average treated county by 103. Spread across 1,014 treated counties, the total effect of the campaign was an estimated increase of 104,036 vaccines. The campaign was cost-effective: with an overall budget of about $100,000, the cost to obtain an additional vaccine was about $1 or less. |
| JEL: | D8 I12 I18 M3 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29896&r= |
| By: | Michela Accerenzi (Development Institute of Universidad Loyola Andalucía); Pablo Brañas-Garza (LoyolaBehLAB, Universidad Loyola Andalucía); Diego Jorrat (LoyolaBehLAB, Universidad Loyola Andalucía) |
| Abstract: | Access to accurate, timely and age-appropriate information about menarche is an essential part of menstrual health. Reliable evidence shows that girls primarily obtain information from their mothers and/or other female family members, therefore, it is important to determine parents’ knowledge and their predictions about other parents’ knowledge of the age of menarche. To this end, we performed a pre-registered study with data collected from 360 households in Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras. We implemented a novel procedure to avoid social desirability bias whereby participants answered two separated questions: i) their knowledge about the age of menarche (self report) and ii) to predict or guess the modal response of the other participants regarding the same question (modal guess). Participants were paid according to accuracy. Both questions appeared randomly in the survey. Results show that parents’ knowledge is high in the study area. Recent studies indicate the age of menarche at 12 years old and 56.11% of the sample gave the same response while 62.78% hit the modal value. We estimated the impact of different sociodemographic variables and found only marginal differences. Interestingly, people with formal education and women tend to respond with lower predictions. |
| Keywords: | Age of menarche, self-report, guessing, prediction accuracy |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aoz:wpaper:132&r= |
| By: | Salamone, Alberto; Lordan, Grace |
| Abstract: | We conducted a field experiment in a small electronics manufacturing firm in the US with the specific aim to improve minutes worked, punctuality, tardiness and safety checks. Our intervention was to put posters on the production floor on a random day, which made salient to the blue-collar employees the meaning and importance of their job, which comprised of routine repetitive tasks, in a before and after design. Overall, the intervention was a success with positive and significant effects consistently found for the outcomes both immediately after the experiment finished (+3 days) and also more than two weeks after (+15 days). Our study highlights it is possible to motivate blue collar manual workers intrinsically by drawing attention to the meaning of their work. |
| Keywords: | meaning; motivation; blue collar; manufacturing; field experiment |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:114540&r= |
| By: | Doleac, Jennifer (Texas A&M University); Eckhouse, Laurel (Metropolitan State University of Denver); Foster-Moore, Eric (Metropolitan State University of Denver); Harris, Allison (Yale University); Walker, Hannah (University of Texas at Austin); White, Ariel (MIT) |
| Abstract: | Millions of people in the US are eligible to vote despite past criminal convictions, but their voter participation rates are extraordinarily low. In this study, we report the results of a series of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of mail-based interventions aimed at encouraging people with criminal records to register to vote in North Carolina. We use a novel approach to identify and contact this population, using a combination of administrative data and data from a commercial vendor. In our main experiment, conducted in the fall of 2020, we find that, on average, our mailers increased voter registration by 0.8 percentage points (12%), and voter turnout in the general election by 0.5 percentage points (11%). By contrast, our treatment has no effect on a comparison group of people without criminal records who live in the same neighborhoods. We find suggestive evidence that treatment effects vary across demographic groups and with the content of mailers. For instance, effects were smaller for Black recipients, and smaller when extra "civil rights framing"cwas added to the mailer text. Overall, we demonstrate that it is possible to identify, contact, and mobilize a marginalized group that is not effectively targeted by existing outreach efforts. Our results speak to how organizations can increase voter registration and turnout among people with criminal records, without necessarily changing laws to broaden eligibility. |
| Keywords: | criminal justice reform, civic engagement, voting, crime |
| JEL: | K42 K16 |
| Date: | 2022–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15121&r= |
| By: | Ryo Kato (Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration and Center for Computational Social Science, Kobe University, JAPAN); Takahiro Hoshino (Department of Economics, Keio University and RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project, JAPAN); Daisuke Moriwaki (AILab, CyberAgent, Inc., JAPAN); Shintaro Okazaki (King's College London, UK; Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration and Center for Computational Social Science, Kobe University, JAPAN) |
| Abstract: | Building on psychological reactance and uncertainty reduction theory, this research addresses how area familiarity, store knowledge, and promotional incentives impact the success of mobile targeting ads. To test our predictions, we conduct randomized field experiments in Japan. In Study 1, customers with different levels of area familiarity and store knowledge receive mobile ads with coupons. In Study 2, we replicate the same experiment in which consumers receive mobile ads without any coupons. The results indicate that whereas lower area familiarity contribute to geo-targeting ads effectiveness only when coupons are affixed, ads of higher store knowledge tend to increase the number of visitors regardless of the coupon attachment. We discuss our mixing results based on the dual-system theory, leading to some managerial implications. |
| Keywords: | Area familiarity; Context-based marketing; Mobile targeting; Psychological reactance; Promotional incentives; Store knowledge; Uncertainty reduction |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2022-10&r= |
| By: | Thomas F Crossley; Paul Fisher; Peter Levell; Hamish Low |
| Abstract: | Private transfers can affect the spending response to stimulus payments, as those receiving income windfalls may transfer resources to other households in greater financial need. We report a survey experiment where individuals were asked how they would respond to a £500 payment, with a randomly selected subset of individuals explicitly told that all households would receive the same payments (a ‘public windfall’ scenario). This additional information increased MPCs by 11%. Reported transfer intentions in response to windfalls suggest that public payments crowd out private transfers, partly accounting for the higher MPCs in the public windfall case. |
| Date: | 2022–02–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:964&r= |
| By: | Zhou, Jin (University of Chicago); Heckman, James J. (University of Chicago); Liu, Bei (China Development Research Foundation); Lu, Mai (China Development Research Foundation) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses random assignment to estimate the causal impacts on child skills of a widely emulated early childhood home visiting program. We show the feasibility of replicating it at scale. We estimate vectors of latent skills for individual children and compare treatments and controls. The program substantially improves child language and cognitive, fine motor, and social-emotional skills. We go beyond reporting treatment effects as unweighted item scores. We determine whether the program affects the latent skills generating correct answers to lists of test items and how the program affects the mapping from skills to item scores. Enhancements in latent skills explain most of the conventional treatment effects for language and cognition. The program operates primarily by improving skills and not by improving how effectively skills are used. The program barely changes the map from latent skills to item test scores. |
| Keywords: | experiment, scaling, mechanisms, home visiting programs, measurement |
| JEL: | J13 Z18 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15132&r= |
| By: | Sánchez, Gonzalo E.; Rhodes, Lauren A.; Espinoza, Nereyda E.; Borja, Viviana |
| Abstract: | Sexual harassment in and out of the workplace has social and economic implications for both the harassed and those subject to the environment. Understanding the nature of sexual harassment perceptions is an important step in designing effective policies aimed at its elimination. This study estimates the gaps between individual and social perceptions of sexual harassment and examines the role of gender in perception gaps in this context. This is accomplished through a laboratory experiment in order to use an incentivized method to elicit the social norm perceptions for sexual harassment scenarios of different types that could be considered in the “gray area”. We find that a gap between individual and social perceptions occurs when accounting for gender but is not present when gender is not accounted for. This occurs because we find that men and women tend to have opposite perception gaps. Under the assumption that perceived social norms influence behavior, our findings suggest that it could be beneficial to design campaigns that consider the role of gender on perceptions of sexual harassment. |
| Keywords: | sexual harassment; social norms; perceptions; perception gap; laboratory experiment |
| JEL: | B54 C91 J16 |
| Date: | 2022–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:112711&r= |
| By: | Danae Arroyos-Calvera; Nattavudh Powdthavee |
| Abstract: | We examine whether a company's corporate reputation gained from their CSR activities and a company leader's reputation, one that is unrelated to his or her business acumen, can impact economic action fairness appraisals. We provide experimental evidence that good corporate reputation causally buffers individuals' negative fairness judgment following the firm's decision to profiteer from an increase in the demand. Bad corporate reputation does not make the decision to profiteer as any less acceptable. However, there is evidence that individuals judge as more unfair an ill-reputed firm's decision to raise their product's price to protect against losses. Thus, our results highlight the importance of a good reputation in protecting a firm against severe negative judgments from making an economic decision that the public deems unfair. |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2204.03450&r= |
| By: | Mantilla, Cesar; Rincón, Ferley (Universidad del Rosario) |
| Abstract: | We propose an experiment where participants receive one of two contracts involving a piece-rate payment for performing a real-effort task. The differences in piece-rate levels aim to capture earnings differentials between formal and informal markets to study how the reallocation rules of these contracts, capturing labor mobility, affect the workers’ effort supply. We use a tournament structure where the worst-performer of the best contract and the top-performer of the worst contract enter into a contest, whose outcome is defined by the completed transcriptions in a real-effort task. We find that these contests, regardless of a low or high mobility rule based on effort, increase the participants' productivity. We also find that low mobility rules have a larger effect on a sample of workers when combined with a meritocratic initial allocation of the contracts. By contrast, students react more to rules evoking high labor mobility. We also find that the most significant increase in productivity comes from participants who retain the best contract after the contest, suggesting that perceptions of downward mobility are dominant in altering effort supply. |
| Date: | 2022–03–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:5as84&r= |
| By: | Silvia Angerer; Daniela Glätzle-Rützler; Philipp Lergetporer; Thomas Rittmannsberger |
| Abstract: | Peoples' willingness to vaccinate is critical to combating the COVID-19 pandemic. We devise a representative experiment to study how the design of the vaccine approval procedure affects public attitudes towards vaccination. Compared to an Emergency Use Authorization, choosing the more thorough Accelerated Authorization approval procedure increases vaccination intentions by 13 percentage points. Effects of increased duration of the approval procedure are positive and significant only for Emergency Use Authorization. Treatment effects are homogenous across population subgroups. Increased trust in the vaccine is the key mediator of treatment effects on vaccination intentions. |
| JEL: | I12 I18 C93 D83 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2022-04&r= |
| By: | Bahník, Štěpán (University of Economics, Prague); Vranka, Marek Albert (University of Economics) |
| Abstract: | People are more likely to behave selfishly when such behavior is easier to justify. When one receives a lesser reward for the same performed task, the perceived unfairness of the reward may serve as a justification for subsequent selfish behavior. In the present study, we let participants to break rules in a sorting task in order to increase their rewards while simultaneously harming a third party, simulating a bribe-taking. Although we did not find evidence that manipulation of perceived reward inequality affects bribe-taking, people who perceived their reward more negatively behaved more selfishly and took more bribes, causing more harm to the charity. |
| Date: | 2022–03–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:n7atx&r= |
| By: | Patrick Agte; Arielle Bernhardt; Erica M. Field; Rohini Pande; Natalia Rigol |
| Abstract: | How do poor entrepreneurs trade off investments in business enterprises versus children's human capital, and how do these choices influence intergenerational socio-economic mobility? To examine this, we exploit experimental variation in household income resulting from a one-time relaxation of household liquidity constraints (Field et al., 2013), and track schooling and business outcomes over the subsequent 11 years. On average, treatment households, who were made wealthier through the experiment, increase human capital investment such that their children are 35% more likely to attend college. However, schooling gains only accrue to children with literate parents, among whom college attendance nearly doubles. In contrast, treatment effects on investment among the illiterate accrue only on the business margin and are accompanied by adverse educational outcomes for children. As a result, treatment lowers relative educational mobility. In a forecasting exercise, we find that earnings gains for literate households are four times larger than the earnings gains for illiterate households, raising earnings inequality. Our findings highlight how parental investment choices can contribute to a growth in intergenerational earnings inequality despite reductions in urban poverty. |
| JEL: | G32 I24 I25 I26 I32 L26 O1 O15 O16 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29816&r= |
| By: | Hannah Van Borm; Stijn Baert (-) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the drivers of gender differentials in hiring chances. More concretely, we test (i) whether recruiters perceive job applicants in gender stereotypical terms when making hiring decisions and (ii) whether the activation of these gender stereotypes in recruiters’ minds varies by the salience of gender in a particular hiring context and the gender prototypicality of a job applicant, as hypothesised in Ridgeway and Kricheli-Katz (2013). To this end, we conduct an innovative vignette experiment in the United States with 290 genuine recruiters who evaluate fictitious job applicants regarding their hireability and 21 statements related to specific gender stereotypes. Moreover, we experimentally manipulate both the gender prototypicality of a job applicant and the salience of gender in the hiring context. We find that employers perceive women in gender stereotypical terms when making hiring decisions. In particular, women are perceived to be more social and supportive than men, but also as less assertive and physically strong. Furthermore, our results indicate that the gender prototypicality of job applicants moderates these perceptions: the less prototypical group of African American women, who are assumed to be less prototypical, are perceived in less stereotypical terms than white women, while some stereotypes are more outspoken when female résumés reveal family responsibilities. |
| Keywords: | hiring, gender discrimination, stereotypes, race, motherhood |
| JEL: | J71 J16 J15 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2022–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:22/1043&r= |
| By: | Nikolai Cook, Anthony Heyes (Wilfrid Laurier University) |
| Abstract: | While contemporaneous exposure to polluted air has been shown to reduce labor supply and worker productivity, little is known about the underlying channels. We present first causal evidence that psychological exposure to pollution - the "thought of pollution" - can influence employment performance. Over 2000 recruits on a leading micro-task platform are exposed to otherwise identical images of polluted (treated) or unpolluted (control) scenes. Randomization across the geographically-dispersed workforce ensures that treatment is orthogonal to physical pollution exposure. Treated workers are less likely to accept a subsequent offer of work (labor supply) despite being offered a piece-rate much higher than is typical for the setting. Conditional on accepting the offer, treated workers complete between 5.1% to 10.1% less work depending on the nature of their assigned task. We nd no effect on work quality. Suggestive evidence points to the role of induced negative sentiment. Decrements to productivity through psychological mechanisms are plausibly additional to any from physical exposure to polluted air. |
| Keywords: | Air Pollution, Gig Economy, Randomization, Labor Productivity |
| JEL: | Q53 J24 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wlu:lcerpa:bm0129&r= |
| By: | Fischbacher, Urs; Neyse, Levent; Richter, David; Schröder, Carsten |
| Abstract: | Integrating economic experiments into household surveys provides unique possibilities. We introduce the German Socio-Economic Panel's Innovation Sample (SOEPIS), which offers researchers detailed panel data and the possibility to collect personalized experimental and survey data for free. We present the options that this provides and give examples illustrating these options. |
| Keywords: | Experiments,Household Survey,Panel Study,Economic Methods,Economic Preferences,Behavioral Economics,SOEP |
| JEL: | C83 C9 D1 D9 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbmbh:spii2022201&r= |
| By: | Michael L. Anderson; Jeremy Magruder |
| Abstract: | Formal analysis plans limit false discoveries by registering and multiplicity adjusting statistical tests. As each registered test reduces power on other tests, researchers prune hypotheses based on prior knowledge, often by combining related indicators into evenly-weighted indices. We propose two improvements to maximize learning within these types of analysis plans. First, we develop data-driven optimized indices that can yield more powerful tests than evenly-weighted indices. Second, we discuss organizing the logical structure of an analysis plan into a gated tree that directs type I error towards these high-powered tests. In simulations we show that researchers may prefer these "optimus gates" across a wide range of data-generating processes. We then assess our strategy using the community-driven development (CDD) application from Casey et al. (2012) and the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment from Finkelstein et al. (2012). We find substantial power gains in both applications, meaningfully changing the conclusions of Casey et al. (2012). |
| JEL: | C12 C55 C81 C9 C93 O1 |
| Date: | 2022–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29843&r= |