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Field experiments are popular again in policy circles. There are various types of field experiments, with complementary strengths and weaknesses for different policy questions. There is also a lot of needless hype about what field...
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Field experiments are popular again in policy circles. There are various types of field experiments, with complementary strengths and weaknesses for different policy questions. There is also a lot of needless hype about what field experiments can do. More balance in our use of field experiments is called for.
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Abstract Nothing is known about the effectiveness of defaults when moving the target outcomes requires substantial effort. We conduct two field experiments to investigate how defaults fare in such situations: we change the univers...
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Abstract Nothing is known about the effectiveness of defaults when moving the target outcomes requires substantial effort. We conduct two field experiments to investigate how defaults fare in such situations: we change the university exam sign-up procedure in two study programs to “opt-out” (a) for a single exam, and (b) for many exams. Both interventions increase task uptake (exam sign-up). Concerning the outcomes which require effort, we find no effects for many exams. For a single exam, the opt-out increases task completion (exam participation) in the study program where the default arguably entails stronger endorsement. Within this program, the effects on successful task completion (exam passing) are heterogeneous: treated students who in the past were willing to communicate with the university (responsive individuals) invest more effort into exam preparation and are more likely to pass the exam than their control counterparts.For non-responsive individuals, we find increased sign-ups but no effects on the target outcomes. Defaults can thus be effective and may be an attractive policy option even when the target outcome requires substantial effort provision. It is, however crucial that the interventions target the appropriate individuals.
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We start with the premise that the greater use of field experiments in policy would lead to the more efficient use of scarce resources. This paper asks why field experiments are not used as widely as they could be and considers wh...
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We start with the premise that the greater use of field experiments in policy would lead to the more efficient use of scarce resources. This paper asks why field experiments are not used as widely as they could be and considers what can be done to increase their use. We review the most commonly encountered hurdles in getting field experiments to be taken seriously by policy-makers. We begin with some common misconceptions about ethics and logistics and then illustrate two advances-the integration of field experiments with cost-effectiveness analysis and wellbeing measures-that can be highlighted in order to get policy-makers excited about the idea of rolling out field experiments. We provide a hands-on roadmap of the points at which key concepts and practical solutions should be introduced in order to get a field experiment up and running for policy purposes.
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The establishment of desirable social norms is an integral part of a well-functioning civil society. While recent evidence has demonstrated that social comparison can affect behavior in a variety of contexts, it is not clear what ...
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The establishment of desirable social norms is an integral part of a well-functioning civil society. While recent evidence has demonstrated that social comparison can affect behavior in a variety of contexts, it is not clear what type of comparative social information is most effective. Using a large-scale field experiment to study driving practices, we sent text messages containing different types of social information to drivers in Tsingtao, China. We find two types of social information to be particularly effective in reducing traffic violations: the driving behavior of those similar to oneself and the driving behavior of those with high-status cars. Our results indicate that the combination of descriptive norms with social status is a cost-effective yet powerful intervention for establishing better driving behavior in emerging markets. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Internet is a very attractive technology for the implementation of experiments, both in order to obtain larger and more diverse samples and as a field of economic research in its own right. This paper reports on an experiment perf...
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Internet is a very attractive technology for the implementation of experiments, both in order to obtain larger and more diverse samples and as a field of economic research in its own right. This paper reports on an experiment performed both online and in the laboratory, designed to strengthen the internal validity of decisions elicited over the Internet. We use the same subject pool, the same monetary stakes and the same decision interface, and control the assignment of subjects between the Internet and a traditional university laboratory. We apply the comparison to the elicitation of social preferences in a Public Good game, a dictator game, an ultimatum bargaining game and a trust game, coupled with an elicitation of risk aversion. This comparison concludes in favor of the reliability of behaviors elicited through the Internet. We moreover find a strong overall parallelism in the preferences elicited in the two settings. The paper also reports some quantitative differences in the point estimates, which always go in the direction of more other-regarding decisions from online subjects. This observation challenges either the predictions of social distance theory or the generally assumed increased social distance in internet interactions.
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We investigate the potential for targeted treatment assignment rules to improve the performance of a large-scale behavioral intervention to encourage households to conserve energy. We derive treatment rules based on observable hou...
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We investigate the potential for targeted treatment assignment rules to improve the performance of a large-scale behavioral intervention to encourage households to conserve energy. We derive treatment rules based on observable household characteristics that maximize the expected benefits of the intervention. Targeting treatment using transparent and easily implemented rules could yield significant gains; the energy savings from optimal treatment assignments are predicted to be double those achieved by the intervention as implemented. Predicted cost savings from targeting are even larger. Our results underscore the potential for targeted treatment assignment to generate significant benefits in many domains.
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Electoral fraud is a common problem in young democracies. Election observers constitute one possible remedy. Yet, quantitative evidence of the causal effects of different types of observers is scarce. Data on the random assignment...
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Electoral fraud is a common problem in young democracies. Election observers constitute one possible remedy. Yet, quantitative evidence of the causal effects of different types of observers is scarce. Data on the random assignment of observers during Mozambique's 2009 general elections are used to estimate the impact that observers have on electoral results. We are able to distinguish between domestic observers that stayed in the same ballot table for the whole of the election day, who were deployed countrywide, and international observers that circulated across a number of ballot locations, assigned within selected districts. We show that the presence of domestic observers reduced voter turnout and increased the share of blank votes countrywide. This suggests a reduction of ballot fraud activities. For the selected districts in which international observers were active findings are less clear, as we do not find ballot fraud-reducing effects for any of the two types of observers. A possible interpretation is that local politicians anticipate the presence of international electoral observers in convenient districts or use different fraudulent strategies. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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The popularity of field experiments that utilize some form of random evaluation seems to be correlated with increased methodological intolerance. Since correlation is not causation, it may be useful to examine what this intoleranc...
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The popularity of field experiments that utilize some form of random evaluation seems to be correlated with increased methodological intolerance. Since correlation is not causation, it may be useful to examine what this intolerance is, why it seems tohave developed and how it can be defused. The intolerance takes at least four, related forms. First, there is an identification of the notion of an experiment with the use of some randomization. This is actually just a simple semantic confusion, but colors debate on many other issues. Second, there is an aggressive disconnect from theory, whether it be economic theory or econometric theory. Third, there is unquestioned worship to a narrow concept of causality defined solely in terms of things that canbe directly observed. Finally, there is a dismissal of the role of laboratory experiments. I argue against all the four positions.
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This paper evaluates a series of programs run by a company called OPOWER to send Home Energy Report letters to residential utility customers comparing their electricity use to that of their neighbors. Using data from randomized na...
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This paper evaluates a series of programs run by a company called OPOWER to send Home Energy Report letters to residential utility customers comparing their electricity use to that of their neighbors. Using data from randomized natural field experiments at 600,000 treatment and control households across the United States, 1 estimate that the average program reduces energy consumption by 2.0%. The program provides additional evidence that non-price interventions can substantially and cost effectively change consumer behavior: the effect is equivalent to that of a short-run electricity price increase of 11 to 20%, and the cost effectiveness compares favorably to that of traditional energy conservation programs. Perhaps because the treatment included descriptive social norms, effects are heterogeneous: households in the highest decile of pre-treatment consumption decrease usage by 6.3%, while consumption by the lowest decile decreases by only 0.3%. A regression discontinuity design shows that different categories of "injunctive norms" played an insignificant role in encouraging relatively low users not to increase usage.
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Despite the increasing connectivity between consumers and the large volume of social shares supported by digital technologies, there is an absence of research systematically investigating how firms can design promotional incentive...
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Despite the increasing connectivity between consumers and the large volume of social shares supported by digital technologies, there is an absence of research systematically investigating how firms can design promotional incentives that jointly consider their consumers as both purchasers and sharers. In this study, we examine whether and how firms can leverage consumers' social connections and engage consumers to share promotional incentives. In collaboration with a leading online deal platform, we report a large-scale randomized field experiment to test the effectiveness of different incentive designs (varying in the shareability and scarcity of promotion codes) in driving social sharing senders' purchases and successful referrals. We find that the different incentive designs have distinct impacts on the purchase and referral outcomes. Specifically, providing senders with one non-shareable promo code significantly increases their own purchase likelihood, compared to the other experimental groups. In contrast, senders who receive one shareable promo code are less likely to purchase themselves yet are more likely to make successful referrals. Surprisingly, the incentive design with two promo codes containing one non-shareable code and one shareable code increases neither the senders' purchases nor their successful referrals. Managerially, we estimate that although the one non-shareable promo code group derives the highest net revenue for the experimental period, the one shareable promo code group derives the highest customer lifetime value for the firm from the new customers acquired through the successful referrals. We further conducted two online experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk that replicate the field experiment's findings and explore the underlying mechanisms of the observed relationships. We find that exclusivity perception and social motives triggered by the incentive designs with one promo code mediate their effects on senders' self-purchases and successful referrals, respectively, and explain the ineffectiveness of two promo codes. Our study contributes to the bodies of literature on IT-enabled social sharing and social promotions, providing implications for firms on how to design promotional incentives that accommodate the dual role of consumers as purchasers and sharers.
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