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on Experimental Economics |
|
Issue of 2024‒02‒12
twenty-six papers chosen by |
| By: | Deborah Kistler; Su Nanxu; Christian Thoeni |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of three salience manipulations on cooperation in a standard public goods game. A standard social preferences model enriched by salience weights provides hypotheses about the expected effects of our salience manipulations. We test these predictions in a laboratory experiment using different techniques to manipulate the salience of either the highest or lowest contribution in the group. We find no systematic effect of the salience manipulation on cooperation, even though our regression analysis suggests that subjects’contributions are positively linked to the salient contribution. This is because subjects systematically reduce their contributions in the maximum condition relative the minimum condition. These two effects offset each other, resulting in contribution levels which are surprisingly unresponsive to our salience manipulations. |
| Keywords: | salience, inequality aversion, experiment, public goods game |
| JEL: | D83 D91 C91 C72 H41 |
| Date: | 2022–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lau:crdeep:22.10&r=exp |
| By: | John List |
| Abstract: | ASSA 2023 presentation |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feb:artefa:00780&r=exp |
| By: | Daugaard, Dan; Kent, Danielle; Servátka, Maroš; Zhang, Le |
| Abstract: | The global warming crisis is unlikely to abate while the world continues to collectively fund the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. Carbon divestment is urgently needed to ward off the impending climate emergency. Yet responsible investments still only account for a modest share of global assets. We conduct an incentivized artefactual field experiment to test whether framing divestment as a social norm, communicating it by a person with perceived credibility and expertise (a messenger), and highlighting optimistic attributes bolster responsible investment. Our subjects are investment professionals who have significant influence over the allocation of funds. We provide evidence that optimistic framing increases responsible investment. Assuming a comparable effect size, the observed increase would represent a $3.6 trillion USD global shift in asset allocations. |
| Keywords: | experiment, ESG, responsible investment, optimism, framing |
| JEL: | C93 G11 |
| Date: | 2023–11–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:119677&r=exp |
| By: | Clayton, Amanda; Dulani, Boniface; Kosec, Katrina; Robinson, Amanda Lea |
| Abstract: | Initiatives to combat climate change often strive to include women’s voices, but there is limited evidence on how this feature influences program design or its benefits for women. We examine the causal effect of women’s representation in climate-related deliberations using the case of community-managed forests in rural Malawi. We run a lab-in-the-field experiment that randomly varies the gender composition of six-member groups asked to privately vote, deliberate, then privately vote again on their preferred policy to combat local over-harvesting. We find that any given woman has relatively more influence in group deliberations when women make up a larger share of the group. This result cannot be explained by changes in participants’ talk time. Rather, women’s presence changes the content of deliberations towards topics on which women tend to have greater expertise. Our work suggests that including women in decision-making can shift deliberative processes in ways that amplify women’s voices. |
| Keywords: | gender; natural resources management; natural resources; governance; women's empowerment; community forestry; decision making; poverty; capacity development; MALAWI; SOUTHERN AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2232&r=exp |
| By: | Mireille Jacobson; David Powell |
| Abstract: | We conducted a field experiment that randomized advertisements, advertisement content, and prices across 2, 204 counties in the United States to study the impacts on online purchases of naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug. Advertising increased website users but only impacted purchases when combined with a price reduction. Messages emphasizing the discreet nature of online sales had no additional impact on purchases. Comparing counties with advertisements featuring a highly discounted price to those featuring the full price, we estimate a price elasticity of demand for online naloxone of -1.3. Price is a significant barrier to online purchases of this life-saving medication |
| JEL: | I12 I18 M37 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32029&r=exp |
| By: | Ilke Aydogan (IÉSEG School Of Management [Puteaux]); Loïc Berger (CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IÉSEG School Of Management [Puteaux], EIEE - European Institute on Economics and the Environment, CMCC - Centro Euro-Mediterraneo per i Cambiamenti Climatici [Bologna]); Valentina Bosetti (Bocconi University [Milan, Italy], EIEE - European Institute on Economics and the Environment, CMCC - Centro Euro-Mediterraneo per i Cambiamenti Climatici [Bologna]) |
| Abstract: | We report the results of two experiments designed to better understand the mechanisms driving decision-making under ambiguity. We elicit individual preferences over different sources of uncertainty, entailing different degrees of complexity, from subjects with different sophistication levels. We show that (1) ambiguity aversion is robust to sophistication, but the strong relationship previously reported between attitudes toward ambiguity and compound risk is not. (2) Ellsberg ambiguity attitude can be partly explained by attitudes toward complexity for less sophisticated subjects only. Overall, regardless of the subject's sophistication level, the main driver of Ellsberg ambiguity attitude is a specific treatment of unknown probabilities. |
| Date: | 2023–07–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04370668&r=exp |
| By: | Chowdhury, Shyamal (University of Sydney); Hasan, Syed (Massey University); Sharma, Uttam (ISER-N Nepal) |
| Abstract: | Based on a randomized controlled trial conducted on extremely poor youths in Nepal, we report the impact of a vocational training program that offered long-duration training combined with incentives for trainers tied to trainees' success. Furthermore, to mimic the practices in the field, a component of the program allowed trainers to select trainees from eligible applicants. For the trainees that were randomly selected, after nine months of program completion, we found no significant effect of the training on the outcomes except for employment prospects. However, we observed some improved outcomes for the trainees selected by trainers. The findings are consistent with the observed pattern of finding a better outcome when the program implementers non-randomly select the treatment groups. Our investigation thus points out that trainee selection can provide a better outcome of vocational training. |
| Keywords: | vocational training, job training, employment training, impact evaluation, RCT |
| JEL: | L25 L26 L53 M53 O12 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16705&r=exp |
| By: | Nobuyuki Hanaki; Yuta Takahashi |
| Abstract: | We present and conduct a novel experiment on a multi-period beauty contest game motivated by the canonical New-Keynesian model. Participants continuously provide forecasts for prices spanning multiple future periods. These forecasts determine the price for the current period and participants’ payoffs. Our findings are threefold. First, the observed prices in the experiment deviate more from the rational expectations equilibrium prices under strategic complementarity than under strategic substitution. Second, participants’ expectations respond to announcements of future shocks on average. Finally, participants employ heuristics in their forecasting; however, the choice of heuristic varies with the degree of strategic complementarity. |
| Date: | 2023–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:1213r&r=exp |
| By: | Graeber, Thomas W (Harvard Business School); Noy, Shakked (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Roth, Christopher (University of Cologne) |
| 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 the forecast'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 |
| JEL: | C90 D91 D83 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16736&r=exp |
| By: | Van Campenhout, Bjorn; Nabwire, Leocardia |
| Abstract: | In rural societies with strong gender norms and customs, small informal agribusinesses may often be one of the few ways in which women can independently generate revenue. However, previous research has indicated that female run business may be perceived less favorably compared to their male counterparts. In this paper, we examine potential consequences of these biased perceptions on business transactions. In particular, we test whether the gender of the seller has an impact on buyers’ negotiation strategies and eventual outcomes in bilateral price negotiations. We use a lab-in-the-field experiment in eastern Uganda, where a representative sample of smallholder maize farmers are offered the opportunity to bargain over a bag of improved maize seed variety from a male or female seller. We find that buyers confronted with a female seller are less likely to accept the initial offer price and respond with a lower counter-bid price than farmers faced with a male seller. Negotiations take an average of one round longer when the seller is a woman and the transaction price is almost 9 percent lower. For comparison, we also look at the effect of the starting price on the same bargaining outcomes and find that the gender disadvantage is roughly equal to a 20 percent higher starting price. |
| Keywords: | gender; seeds; smallholders; maize; bargaining power; gender norms; UGANDA; EAST AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2225&r=exp |
| By: | Assenza, Tiziana; Cardaci, Alberto; Haliassos, 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 ex-posure to a taxing and persistent cognitive load significantly reduced consumption, particularly for individuals under the threat of furlough, while simultaneously in-creasing 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: | 2024–01–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:128994&r=exp |
| By: | Mohammed Abdellaoui (HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales); Han Bleichrodt (UA - Université d'Alicante, Espagne); Cédric Gutierrez (Università Bocconi) |
| Abstract: | Overconfident behavior, the excessive willingness to bet on one's performance, may be driven by optimistic beliefs and/or ambiguity attitudes. Separating these factors is key for understanding and correcting overconfident behavior, as they call for different corrective actions. We present a method to do so, which we implement in two incentivized experiments. The first experiment shows the importance of ambiguity attitudes for overconfident behavior. Optimistic ambiguity attitudes (ambiguity seeking) counterbalanced the effect of pessimistic beliefs, leading to neither over- nor underconfident behavior. The second experiment applies our method in contexts where overconfident behavior is expected to vary: easy versus hard tasks. Our results showed that task difficulty affected both beliefs and ambiguity attitudes. However, although beliefs were more optimistic for relative performance (rank) and more pessimistic for absolute performance (score) on easy tasks compared with hard tasks, ambiguity attitudes were always more optimistic on easy tasks for both absolute and relative performance. Our findings show the subtle interplay between beliefs and ambiguity attitudes: they can reinforce or offset each other, depending on the context, increasing or lowering overconfident behavior. This paper was accepted by Yuval Rottenstreich, behavioral economics and decision analysis. Funding: This work was supported by HEC Paris research budget and Bocconi junior researchers' grants. Supplemental Material: The data and online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.00165 . |
| Date: | 2023–12–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04383402&r=exp |
| By: | Alderman, Harold; Gilligan, Daniel; Leight, Jessica; Mamo, Tigist; Mulford, Michael; Tambet, Heleene |
| Abstract: | We explore the impact of different models of scalable nutrition services embedded within a light-touch graduation program, implemented at scale in Ethiopia. The graduation program provided poor households enrolled in Ethiopia’s national safety net, the Protective Safety Net Program (PSNP), with additional livelihood programming including savings groups, business skills training and linkages to financial services. In addition, extremely poor households received a one-time livelihood grant on an experimental basis, as cash transfers or in-kind poultry grants, at a value much smaller than lump sum transfers in other graduation model programs in recent literature. The experiment compared a core nutrition model of nutrition information and sanitation and hygiene activities to an enhanced model that added more intensive nutrition messaging, supplementary feeding of malnourished children, mental health services, and a male engagement activity. Results show that interaction with health care workers and participation in community health activities increased significantly under the enhanced nutrition model, as did maternal nutritional knowledge. Nevertheless, neither nutrition model led to significant improvements in child dietary diversity or anthropometric outcomes on average. However, cash livelihood grants combined with the enhanced nutrition model reduced childhood stunting. |
| Keywords: | nutrition; poverty; social safety nets; livelihoods; cash transfers; poultry; hygiene; grants; nutrition sensitive social protection; light-touch graduation program; ETHIOPIA; EAST AFRICA; AFRICA SOUTH OF SAHARA; AFRICA |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2208&r=exp |
| By: | Kalena Cortes; Karen Kortecamp; Susanna Loeb; Carly Robinson |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the results from a randomized controlled trial of Chapter One, an early elementary reading tutoring program that embeds part-time tutors into the classroom to provide short bursts of 1:1 instruction. Eligible kindergarten students were randomly assigned to receive supplementary tutoring during the 2021-22 school year (N=818). The study occurred in a large Southeastern district serving predominantly Black and Hispanic students. Students assigned to the program were over two times more likely to reach the program’s target reading level by the end of kindergarten (70% vs. 32%). The results were largely homogenous across student populations and extended to district-administered assessments. These findings provide promising evidence of an affordable and sustainable approach for delivering personalized reading tutoring at scale. |
| JEL: | I21 I24 I26 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32039&r=exp |
| By: | Kosec, Katrina; Mo, Cecilia Hyunjung; You, Soosun; Boittin, Margaret |
| Abstract: | Do individuals’ perceptions of their relative economic status affect their attitudes regarding gender roles in patriarchal societies? What role does hearing messages designed to increase support for women’s empowerment play in moderating these effects? Leveraging an original survey experiment in Nepal, we find that a prime conferring feelings of relative deprivation causes women to revert to traditional views of gender in economic decision-making; they become less supportive of women having equal control over household income, sharing house hold chores with men, and working outside the home. Women’s empowerment messaging does not attenuate these effects. Priming men to feel relatively deprived causes declines in gender equitable economic and political views, but women’s empowerment messaging nullifies these effects. The results suggest that among populations feeling relatively deprived, regressive gender norms may take hold. However, light-touch efforts to spur support for women’s empowerment may counter some reversion to traditional views of gender. |
| Keywords: | economic aspects; gender; women's empowerment; decision making; income; households; women; men; gender equity; workforce; poverty; labour force participation; NEPAL; SOUTH ASIA; ASIA |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2211&r=exp |
| By: | Mekvabishvili, Rati |
| Abstract: | Many modern societies sustain large-scale cooperation among strangers and maintain the provision of public goods through well-functioning top-down formal institutions. However, it is important to understand the differences between weak and strong formal institutions in achieving two key goals in social dilemma situations: sustaining socially beneficial equilibria and fostering individual prosocial behavior. Additionally, we need to examine what happens to cooperation when the credibility of a formal institution is undermined and what occurs when it ceases to function. In this novel experiment of a repeated public goods game, we explore the effects of an exogenous centralized punishment mechanism with a low probability, which serves as a weak formal institution, and compare it with a strong formal institution. Our findings are encouraging, as they demonstrate that even under a weak formal institution, relatively high levels of cooperation can be sustained. However, irrespective of whether the punishment probability for free riders is low or high, once the punishment mechanism is removed, cooperation breaks down to a similarly low level. This suggests that regardless of the strength of the formal institution, there is an alike effect of crowding out an individual’s intrinsic motivation for cooperation. Therefore, the application of a centralized punishment mechanism as a policy tool to promote cooperation, regardless of its strength, appears to be a double-edged sword: socially beneficial outcome and intrinsically motivated cooperation hardly can be attained simultaneously |
| Keywords: | formal institutions, public good, centralized punishment, crowding out, cooperation |
| JEL: | C90 D02 H41 |
| Date: | 2023–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:119659&r=exp |
| By: | Hoddinott, John; Ahmed, Akhter; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Rakshit, Deboleena |
| Abstract: | There are few studies that rigorously assess how agricultural and nutrition related interventions enhance resilience and even fewer that incorporate a gendered dimension in their analysis. Mindful of this, we address three knowledge gaps: (1) Whether agricultural interventions aimed at diversifying income sources and improving nutrition have sustainable impacts (on asset bases, consumption, gender-specific outcomes and women’s empowerment, and on diets) that persist after the intervention ends; (2) whether such interventions are protective when shocks occur? and (3) whether these interventions promote gender-sensitive resilience. We answer these questions using unique data, a four-year post-endline follow up survey of households from a cluster-randomized controlled trial of a nutrition-and-gender-sensitive agricultural intervention in Bangladesh. We find that treatment arms that included both agriculture and nutrition training had sustainable effects on real per capita consumption, women’s empowerment (as measured by the pro-WEAI), and asset holdings measured four years after the original intervention ended. Treatment arms that included both agriculture and nutrition training (with or without gender sensitization) reduced the likelihood that households undertook more severe forms of coping strategies and reduced the likelihood that household per capita consumption fell, in real terms, by more than five percent between in the four years following the end of the intervention. The treatment arm that only provided training in agriculture had positive impacts at endline but these had largely faded away four years later. Our results suggest that bundling nutrition and agriculture training may contribute to resilience as well as to sustained impacts on consumption, women’s empowerment, and asset holdings in the medium term. These have implications for the design of future gender- and nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs. |
| Keywords: | resilience; agriculture; nutrition; gender; women's empowerment; income; shock; training; BANGLADESH; SOUTH ASIA; ASIA |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2231&r=exp |
| By: | Moens, Eline (Ghent University); De Pessemier, Dyllis (Ghent University); Baert, Stijn (Ghent University) |
| Abstract: | Although unequal treatment of workers based on political affiliation is prohibited in many countries, it is conspicuously understudied in the discrimination literature. In this study, we set up a vignette experiment with genuine recruiters to provide more insight into the effect of political engagement in job applicants on the assessment of their resumes by these professionals. We find that, overall, recruiters view an applicant as less creative, open-minded, empathetic and emotionally sensitive when a political engagement is expressed. These stigma are greater for candidates with a right-wing nationalist commitment. Relatedly, these candidates are assessed worse in terms of overall hireability and perceived inclination or taste among employers, colleagues and customers to collaborate with them. They are, however, seen as somewhat more assertive. In contrast to research conducted in one- or two-party systems, we do not find interactions with the political preference of the recruiter herself/himself. Overall, the effect of mentioning a political engagement in a resume is more negative when the required education level of the vacancy is high. |
| Keywords: | hiring discrimination, political preference, vignette experiment |
| JEL: | D72 J21 J71 P16 C91 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16730&r=exp |
| By: | King King Li (SAFTI - Shenzhen Audencia Financial Technology Institute); Kang Rong (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics) |
| Abstract: | We propose a two-step guessing game to measure the depth of thinking. We apply this method to the P beauty contest game. Using our method, we find that 81% of subjects do not make choice following best response reasoning while the classical method would suggest only 12%. The result suggests that the classical method has the fundamental problem that it cannot distinguish if a submitted number is due to best response reasoning or not. It also suggests that traditional level k analysis falsely attributes some sophistication to random players, and that the degree of false attribution is large. Our procedure provides an alternative way to identify whether the individual has best response reasoning which is essential for any positive level of depth of thinking and differentiates between the depth of thinking and random choice, and hence provides a very different conclusion, which is suggestive of limitations of the classical method. |
| Keywords: | P Beauty Contest, Best Response Reasoning, Experiment |
| Date: | 2023–12–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04376266&r=exp |
| By: | Rametta, Jack T.; Fuller, Sam |
| Abstract: | Balance tests are standard for experiments in numerous fields, with many journals across disciplines recommending or requiring them for publication. This standard persists despite significant evidence of balance tests' inadequacies and the development of better tools for detecting failures of random assignment and covariate imbalance. To date there is still no consensus on how randomization and balance should be checked, and also how these failures and imbalances should be addressed, or if they should be addressed at all. In this article we provide clear guidelines and implement a new statistical test, the "balance permutation test, " designed to detect arbitrarily complex randomization failures. Our approach leverages a combination of permutation inference and the predictive power of machine learning to accomplish this task. Additionally, we advocate reporting both simple unadjusted and "doubly robust" treatment effect estimates in all experimental contexts, but particularly in situations where failures are detected. To justify our recommendations and the use of our method, we report the results of two sets of applications. First, we show how the balance permutation test is able to detect complex imbalance in real, simulated, and even fabricated data. Second, using an extensive set of Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate the overwhelming advantages of doubly robust treatment effect estimation over existing methods. Finally, we introduce an efficient, easy-to-use R package, MLbalance, that implements the balance permutation test approach. Our hope is that this method helps resolve the longstanding debate over how to detect and adjust for assignment failures in experiments. |
| Date: | 2024–01–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:xcwt9&r=exp |
| By: | Coleman, Fiona M.; Ahmed, Akhter; Roy, Shalini; Hoddinott, John |
| Abstract: | Evidence shows social protection can improve diets, but little is understood about how effects vary within a household or what factors determine how food is allocated across different household members. We use individual food intake data from two randomized control trials to estimate intrahousehold dietary impacts of cash or food transfers, with or without nutrition behavior change communication (BCC), in two regions of Bangladesh. We assess whether intrahousehold impacts 1) are consistent with different allocation "rules" hypothesized in the literature, 2) differ by transfer modality, provision of BCC, or regional context. Results indicate that households distribute food equally among their members (men, women, boys, and girls), both in absolute terms and in proportion to individual-specific requirements and deficits. Patterns are similar across regions and do not depend on transfer modality or whether BCC is provided. Findings have implications for designing nutrition-sensitive social protection with different target groups prioritized. |
| Keywords: | social safety nets; diets; households; cash transfers; gender equity; nutrition; resource allocation; behaviour; food transfers; behavior change communication; BANGLADESH; SOUTH ASIA; ASIA |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2221&r=exp |
| By: | Olivia Bertelli; Thomas Calvo; Massa Coulibaly; Moussa Coulibaly; Emmanuelle Lavallée; Marion Mercier (LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Sandrine Mesplé-Somps; Ousmane Z Traoré |
| Abstract: | In standard household surveys, the data collected are exposed to response bias, particularly for questions considered sensitive. The List Experiment method is an alternative survey technique for limiting these biases. This article presents the results of an experimental survey conducted using this method with 1, 509 individuals throughout Mali. Individuals were surveyed by telephone during the summer of 2021 about their experiences and political attitudes related to insecurity. From a methodological point of view, we have drawn a number of lessons from the survey: among others, a very good understanding and acceptability of the method by the respondents, due in particular to the quality of the interviewers and supervisors; the need for a more complex sample design than for a standard questionnaire; and the importance of a short questionnaire when surveying by telephone. From an analytical point of view, the survey reveals the existence of significant social desirability biases - particularly for questions concerning political attitudes in relation to insecurity. |
| Abstract: | Dans les enquêtes standards auprès des ménages, les données collectées sont exposées à des biais de réponses, particulièrement pour les questions considérées comme sensibles. La méthode par comptage de réponses est une technique d'enquête alternative permettant de limiter ces biais. Cet article présente les résultats d'une enquête expérimentale menée selon cette méthode auprès de 1 509 individus sur l'ensemble du territoire malien. Les personnes ont été sondées par téléphone durant l'été 2021 à propos d'expériences et d'attitudes politiques liées à l'insécurité. D'un point de vue méthodologique, nous en tirons plusieurs enseignements : entre autres, une très bonne compréhension et acceptabilité de la méthode par les enquêté·e·s, qui tient notamment à la qualité des enquêteur·trice·s et des superviseur·se·s ; la nécessité d'un plan de sondage plus complexe que pour un questionnaire standard ; et l'importance d'un questionnaire court lorsqu'on enquête par téléphone. Du point de vue analytique, l'enquête fait ressortir l'existence de biais déclaratifs significatifs – notamment pour les questions portant sur les préférences politiques en lien avec l'insécurité. |
| Keywords: | Phone survey, social desirability bias, Mali, List Experiment, Security, Phone survey social desirability bias Mali List Experiment Security |
| Date: | 2023–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04366322&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: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1877&r=exp |
| By: | Avner Seror |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I introduce the Priced Survey Methodology (PSM), a tool designed to overcome the limitations of traditional survey methods in analyzing social preferences. The PSM's design draws inspiration from consumption choice experiments, as respondents fill out the same survey multiple times under different choice sets. I generalize Afriat's theorem and show that the Generalized Axiom of Revealed Preferences is necessary and sufficient for the existence of a concave, continuous, and single-peaked utility function rationalizing answers to the PSM. This result has two major implications. First, it is possible to measure a respondent's ideal answer to a survey using only ordinal relations between possible answers. Second, the PSM captures aspects of social preferences often overlooked in standard surveys, such as the relative importance that respondents attribute to different survey questions. I deploy a PSM measuring altruistic preferences in a sample of online participants, recover respondents' single-peaked preferences, and draw several implications. |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2401.03876&r=exp |
| By: | Abay, Kibrom A.; Abdelfattah, Lina; Elkaramany, Mohamed; Elsabbagh, Dalia; Kurdi, Sikandra |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the impacts of a traditional food distribution and a nutrition-sensitive food distribution intervention in the context of a rapidly increasing inflationary pressure in Egypt. Besides evaluating the relative and absolute impacts of these interventions on household food and nutrition security, we also examine their impacts on households’ preferences for in-kind versus cash transfers. We implement a clustered randomized control trial through which we randomly assigned communities into: (i) “nutrition-sensitive†food box, (ii) traditional “staple-heavy†food box, and (iii) control group. We find that the nutrition-sensitive food distribution cushioned falls in dietary quality and food security of targeted households relative to the control group while the impact of the traditional and staple-heavy food distribution appears to be negligible. The nutrition-sensitive food boxes increased beneficiary households’ dietary diversity by about 9 percent while also increasing energy, protein, and iron intake by 12, 13, and 19 percent, respectively. We also find that experience with the food boxes increases households’ preference for in-kind transfers, more so among households experiencing high inflation rates and among those households not covered by other food and cash transfer programs. Receiving food boxes increases preference for in-kind transfer by about 9-11 percentage points. Our findings have important implications for the debate on the efficacy of alternative interventions to support poor households as food prices rise and the relative efficacy of in-kind and cash-transfers. The lack of effectiveness of the staple-heavy food boxes suggests that the design and content of in-kind transfers are crucial when considering this policy option, including compared to cash. |
| Keywords: | food systems; inflation; households; nutrition; food security; cash transfers; diet; poverty; policies; EGYPT; ARAB COUNTRIES; MIDDLE EAST; NORTH AFRICA; AFRICA |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:2218&r=exp |
| By: | Ellenrieder, Sara; Kallina, Emma Marlene; Pumplun, Luisa; Gawlitza, Joshua; Ziegelmayer, Sebastian; Buxmann, Peter |
| Abstract: | The deployment of machine learning (ML)-based decision support systems (DSSs) in high-risk environments such as radiology is increasing. Despite having achieved high decision accuracy, they are prone to errors. Thus, they are primarily used to assist radiologists in their decision making. However, collaborative decision making poses risks to the decision maker, e.g. automation bias and long-term performance degradation. To address these issues, we propose combining findings of the research streams of explainable artificial intelligence and education to promote human learning through interaction with ML-based DSSs. We provided radiologists with explainable vs non-explainable decision support that was high- vs low-performing in a between-subject experimental study to support manual segmentation of 690 brain tumor scans. Our results show that explainable ML-based DSSs improved human learning outcomes and prevented false learning triggered by incorrect decision support. In fact, radiologists were able to learn from errors made by the low-performing explainable ML-based DSS. |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dar:wpaper:141971&r=exp |