Papers - All
Juan-Camilo Cardenas
Cited by*: 5 Downloads*: 30 
This paper explores how wealth and inequality can affect self-governed solutions to commons dilemmas by constraining group cooperation. It reports a series of experiments in the field where subjects are actual commons users. Household data about the participants? context explain statistically the usually observed wide variation found within and across groups in similar experiments. Participants wealth and inequality reduced cooperation when groups were allowed to have face-toface communication between rounds. There are implications for a greater awareness of nonpayoff asymmetries affecting cooperation in heterogeneous groups, apart from heterogeneity in the payoffs structure of the game.
John A List,
Jason F Shogren,
Michael Spencer ,
Stephen Swallow
Cited by*: 0 Downloads*: 5
This paper considers how six alternative rebate rules affect voluntary contributions in a threshold public-good experiment. The rules differ by (1) whether an individual can receive a proportional rebate of excess contributions, a winner-takes-all of any excess contributions, or a full rebate of one's contribution in the event the public good is provided and excess contributions exist, and (2) whether the probability of receiving a rebate is proportional to an individual's contribution relative to total contributions or is a simple uniform probability distribution set by the number of contributors. The paper adds to the existing experimental economics literature on threshold public goods by investigating both aggregate and individual demand revelation under the winner-take-all and random full-rebate rules. Half of the rules (proportional rebate, winner-take-all with uniform probability among all group members, and random full-rebate with uniform probability) provide total contributions that nearly equal total benefits, while the rest (winner-take-all with proportional probability, winner-take-all with uniform probability among contributors only, and random full-rebate with proportional probability) exceed benefits by over 30 percent. Only the proportional rebate rule is found to achieve both aggregate and individual demand revelation. Our experimental results have implications for both fundraisers and valuation practitioners.
Anya Samek,
Roman Sheremeta
Cited by*: 3 Downloads*: 3
We experimentally investigate the impact of visibility of contributors and cost of information on public good contributions. First, we vary recognizing all, highest or lowest contributors. Second, we investigate the effect of imposing a cost on viewing contributors. Recognizing all contributors significantly increases contributions relative to the baseline, even when viewing contributors' information is costly. This effect holds even though the identities of contributors are viewed less than ten percent of the time. Recognizing only highest contributors does not increase contributions compared to not recognizing contributors, but recognizing only lowest contributors is as effective as recognizing all contributors. These findings support our conjecture that aversion from shame is a more powerful motivator for giving than anticipation of prestige.
Anya Samek,
Roman Sheremeta
Cited by*: 19 Downloads*: 4
We experimentally investigate the impact of recognizing contributors on public good contributions. We vary recognizing all, highest or lowest contributors. Consistent with previous studies, recognizing all contributors significantly increases contributions relative to the baseline. Recognizing only the highest contributors does not increase contributions compared to not recognizing contributors, while recognizing only the lowest contributors is as effective as recognizing all contributors. These findings support our conjecture that aversion from shame is a more powerful motivator for giving than anticipation of prestige.
Snigdha Gupta,
Maggie C. Kane,
John A List,
Liz Sablich,
Lauren Supplee,
Dana L Suskind
Cited by*: None Downloads*: None
Recommendations for Mitigating Threats to Scaling
Amanda Kowalski
Cited by*: None Downloads*: None
A headline result from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment is that emergency room (ER) utilization increased. A seemingly contradictory result from the Massachusetts health reform is that ER utilization decreased. I reconcile both results by identifying treatment effect heterogeneity within the Oregon experiment and extrapolating it to Massachusetts. Even though Oregon compliers increased their ER utilization, they were adversely selected relative to Oregon never takers, who would have decreased their ER utilization. Massachusetts expanded coverage from a higher level to healthier compliers. Therefore, Massachusetts compliers are comparable to a subset of Oregon never takers, which can reconcile the results.
Daniel J Benjamin,
James O Berger,
Magnus Johannesson,
Brian A Nosek,
E. J Wagenmakers,
Richard Berk,
Kenneth A Bollen,
Bjorn Brembs,
Lawrence Brown,
Colin F Camerer,
David Cesarini,
Christopher D. Chambers,
Merlise Clyde,
Thomas D Cook,
Paul De Boeck,
Zoltan Dienes,
Anna Dreber,
Kenny Easwaran,
Charles Efferson,
Ernst Fehr,
Fiona Fidler,
Andy P. Field,
Malcom Forster,
Edward I. George,
Tarun Ramadorai,
Richard Gonzalez,
Steven Goodman,
Edwin Green,
Donald P Green,
Anthony Greenwald,
Jarrod D. Hadfield,
Larry V. Hedges,
Leonhard Held,
Teck Hau Ho,
Herbert Hoijtink,
James Holland Jones,
Daniel J Hruschka,
Kosuke Imai,
Guido Imbens,
John P.A. Ioannidis,
Minjeong Jeon,
Michael Kirchler,
David Laibson ,
John A List,
Roderick Little,
Arthur Lupia,
Edouard Machery,
Scott E. Maxwell,
Michael McCarthy,
Don Moore,
Stephen L. Morgan,
Marcus Munafo,
Shinichi Nakagawa,
Brendan Nyhan,
Timothy H Parker,
Luis Pericchi,
Marco Perugini,
Jeff Rouder,
Judith Rousseau,
Victoria Savalei,
Felix D. Schonbrodt,
Thomas Sellke,
Betsy Sinclair,
Dustin Tingley,
Trisha Van Zandt,
Simine Vazire,
Duncan J. Watts,
Christopher Winship,
Robert L. Wolpert,
Yu Xie,
Cristobal Young,
Jonathan Zinman,
Valen E. Johnson
Cited by*: 1 Downloads*: 965
We propose to change the default P-value threshold for statistical significance for claims of new discoveries from 0.05 to 0.005.
Claude Montmarquette,
Jean-Louis Rulliere,
Marie-Claire Villeval,
Romain Zeiliger
Cited by*: 10 Downloads*: 5
After a merger, company officials face the challenge of making compensation schemes uniform and of redesigning teams with managers from companies with different incentives, work habits and recruiting methods. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between executive pay and performance after a merger by dissociating the respective influence of shifts, which occur in both compensation incentives and team composition. The results of a real effort experiment conducted with managers within a large pharmaceutical company not only show that changes in compensation incentives affect performance but also suggest that the sorting effect of incentives in the previous companies impact cooperation and efficiency after the merger. Replicating this experiment with students showed differences in strategy rather than in substance between the two groups of subjects with managers appearing performance driven while students are more cost driven.
Julian Conrads,
Tommaso Reggiani,
Rainer M Rilke
Cited by*: 0 Downloads*: 51
Ambiguity about the chances of winning represents a key aspect in lotteries. By means of a controlled field experiment, we exogenously vary the degree of ambiguity about the winning chances of lotteries organized to incentivize the contribution for a public good. In one treatment, people have been simply informed about the maximum number of potential participants (i.e. the number of lottery tickets released). In a second treatment, this information has been omitted as in all traditional lotteries. Our general finding shows that simply reducing the degree of ambiguity of the lottery leads to a sizable and significant increase (67%) in the participation rate. This result is robust to alternative prize configurations.
Christopher Blattman,
Julian C. Jamison,
Margaret Sheridan
Cited by*: 0 Downloads*: 40
We show that a number of "non cognitive" skills and preferences, including patience and identity, are malleable in adults, and that investments in them reduce crime and violence. We recruited criminally-engaged men and randomized half to eight weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy designed to foster self-regulation, patience, and a noncriminal identity and lifestyle. We also randomized $200 grants. Cash alone and therapy alone initially reduced crime and violence, but effects dissipated over time. When cash followed therapy, crime and violence decreased dramatically for at least a year. We hypothesize that cash reinforced therapy's impacts by prolonging learning-by-doing, lifestyle changes, and self-investment.
Christopher Blattman,
Julian C. Jamison,
Margaret Sheridan
Cited by*: 0 Downloads*: 26
We show that a number of "non cognitive" skills and preferences, including patience and identity, are malleable in adults, and that investments in them reduce crime and violence. We recruited criminally-engaged men and randomized half to eight weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy designed to foster self-regulation, patience, and a noncriminal identity and lifestyle. We also randomized $200 grants. Cash alone and therapy alone initially reduced crime and violence, but effects dissipated over time. When cash followed therapy, crime and violence decreased dramatically for at least a year. We hypothesize that cash reinforced therapy's impacts by prolonging learning-by-doing, lifestyle changes, and self-investment.
Juan-Camilo Cardenas
Cited by*: 0 Downloads*: 13
The internalization of external costs arising from a group dilemma between the individual and social interests require the design of institutions through the market, the state or self-governance that are able to induce in the agents a change in their pecuniary and non-material incentives so that their choices are socially desirable. The conventional approach in the economic analysis of the enforcement of the law based mostly on the work of Becker is based on the postulate that those not complying with the law are rationally perceiving a greater benefit from doing so if compared to the expected cost of the sanction by the state, that is the value of the sanction for the law violator multiplied by the probability of detection. Through a series of economic experiments we explore this hypothesis for the case of a typical public good or resource extraction where there is a group externality, and an external regulation that is partially enforced. The results suggest that the strategic response by the agents to the different expected costs of the sanction confirm only partially the hypothesis in the sense that the differences are less than proportional to the differences to the expected costs for the regulated agents. Further, when the results here are compared to exact replications of the experiments with people in the field that face these kinds of dilemmas, the differences in individual behavior across levels of expected costs virtually vanish. It is suggested here that along with the material costs for violators, the individuals may incorporate additional elements in their cognitive process which are consistent with findings from experimental and behavioral economics studies.
Erwin Bulte,
John A List,
Mark Strazicich
Cited by*: 17 Downloads*: 2
Recent empirical work suggests that (i) incomes are converging through time, and (ii) income and pollution levels are linked. This paper weds these two literatures by examining the spatial and temporal distribution of pollution. After establishing that theoretical predictions about whether pollution will converge are critically linked to certain structural parameters, we explore pollution convergence using state-level data on two important pollutants-nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides-from 1929 to 1999. We find stronger evidence of converging emission rates during the federal pollution control years (1970-1999) than during the local control years (1929-1969). These results suggest that income convergence alone may not be sufficient to induce convergence of pollutant emissions.
Pascaline Dupas
Cited by*: 5 Downloads*: 10
An information campaign that provided Kenyan teenagers in randomly selected schools with the information that HIV prevalence was much higher among adult men and their partners than among teenage boys led to a 65% decrease in the incidence of pregnancies by adult partners among teenage girls in the treatment group relative to the comparison. This suggests a large reduction in the incidence of unprotected cross-generational sex. The information campaign did not increase pregnancies among teenage couples. These results suggest that the behavioral choices of teenagers are responsive to information on the relative risks of different varieties of a risky activity. Policies that focus only on the elimination of a risky activity and do not address risk reduction strategies may be ignoring a margin on which they can have substantial impact.
Bradley J Ruffle,
Richard Sosis
Cited by*: 24 Downloads*: 13
No abstract available
Abhijit Banerjee,
Shawn Cole,
Esther Duflo,
Leigh Linden
Cited by*: 25 Downloads*: 14
This paper presents the results of two randomized experiments conducted in schools in urban India. A remedial education program hired young women to teach students lagging behind in basic literacy and numeracy skills. It increased average test scores of all children in treatment schools by 0.28 standard deviation, mostly due to large gains experienced by children at the bottom of the test-score distribution. A computer-assisted learning program focusing on math increased math scores by 0.47 standard deviation. One year after the programs were over, initial gains remained significant for targeted children, but they faded to about 0.10 standard deviation.
Uri Gneezy,
Moshe Hoffman,
John A List
Cited by*: 0 Downloads*: 0
We therefore agree with the sentiments of Bailey et al. (1) and
Daly (2): Our study should not be viewed as the definitive study
on this topic but as a proof of concept, which should propel
researchers to exploit this unique sample to its fullest advantage.
Further research using noncognitive measures, as well as alternative
spatial measures would prove invaluable in addressing
some of the shortcomings pointed out by Bailey et al. (1) and
Daly (2). Moreover, such research would reveal the generality of
our results and could focus activist efforts on traits that are most
amenable to nurture. Also, if the measures are chosen to be
more or less gender-dimorphic and more or less influenced by
motivation, stereotype threat, and training, for example, this
research, in addition to addressing some of the astute criticisms
of Bailey et al. (1) and Daly (2), could also reveal mechanism,
which would likewise be invaluable for focusing activists' efforts.
We welcome collaboration with psychologists and anthropologists,
such as the experts to whom this letter replies, to help
us develop such measures of spatial and nonspatial cognitive
abilities that are easy to explain and quick to implement, to take
full advantage of this unique sample.
Eliot Abrams,
Jonathan Libgober,
John A List
Cited by*: None Downloads*: None
The past few decades have ushered in an experimental revolution in economics whereby scholars are now much more likely to generate their own data. While there are virtues associated with this movement, there are concomitant difficulties. Several scientific disciplines, including economics, have launched research registries in an effort to attenuate key inferential issues. This study assesses registries both empirically and theoretically, with a special focus on the AEA registry. We find that over 90% of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in economics do not register, only 50% of the RCTs that register do so before the intervention begins, and the majority of these preregistrations are not detailed enough to significantly aid inference. Our empirical analysis further shows that using other scientific registries as aspirational examples is misguided, as their perceived success in tackling the main issues is largely a myth. In light of these facts, we advance a simple economic model to explore potential improvements. A key insight from the model is that removal of the (current) option to register completed RCTs could increase the fraction of trials that register. We also argue that linking IRB applications to registrations could further increase registry effectiveness.
Kuan-Ming Chen,
Min Ding,
John A List,
Magne Mogstad
Cited by*: None Downloads*: None
Recent changes in labor arrangements have increased interest in estimating and understanding the value of job flexibility. We leverage a large natural field experiment at Uber to create exogenous variation in expected market wages across individuals and over time. Combining this experiment with high frequency panel data on wages and individual work decisions, we document how labor supply responds to exogenous changes in expected market wages in a setting with virtually no restrictions on drive labor allocation. We find that there is i) systematic heterogeneity in labor supply responses both across drivers and within a driver over time, ii) significant fixed costs of beginning a shift, and iii) high rider demand when it is costly for drivers to work. These three findings motivate a model of labor supply with heterogeneous preferences over work schedules, adjustment costs, and statistical dependence between market wages and the costs of driving. We recover the labor supply elasticities and reservation wages of this dynamic labor supply model via a combination of experimental estimates and other data moments. We then perform counterfactual analyses that allow us to examine how preference heterogeneity and adjustment costs influence the responses of workers' to wage incentives as well as infer drivers' willingness to pay for the ability to customize and adjust their work schedule. We also show that a static approach to the driver's dynamic problem delivers materially different estimates of workers' labor supply elasticities and their value of job flexibility.
Sarah Lichtenstein,
Paul Slovic
Cited by*: 37 Downloads*: 43
The present report describes an expanded replication of the previous experiments in a nonlaboratory real-play setting unique to the experimental literature on decision processes - a casino in downtown Las Vegas.