Pub Date : 2025-10-25DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102472
Zacharias Maniadis
Scientists are under pressure to adhere to best practices for enhancing reproducibility, such as preregistration and data sharing. This tendency will certainly increase with the unfolding reforms in researcher assessment, and it brings new challenges. Heterogeneity in the amenability of different domains to reproducibility-enhancing practices raises an issue of possible inequity: will different scientific domains bear disparate adjustment costs? Is this justified and efficient? To illustrate the problem, we consider recent concerns expressed by experimental economists, namely that they are unfairly burdened relative to other economics domains. Our analysis indicates that such fairness concerns may have merit, but only insofar as research assessment does not fully internalize the costs of adjusting to new practices.
{"title":"Best practices for reproducibility, research assessment reforms, and implications for experimental economists","authors":"Zacharias Maniadis","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102472","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102472","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Scientists are under pressure to adhere to best practices for enhancing reproducibility, such as preregistration and data sharing. This tendency will certainly increase with the unfolding reforms in researcher assessment, and it brings new challenges. Heterogeneity in the amenability of different domains to reproducibility-enhancing practices raises an issue of possible inequity: will different scientific domains bear disparate adjustment costs? Is this justified and efficient? To illustrate the problem, we consider recent concerns expressed by experimental economists, namely that they are unfairly burdened relative to other economics domains. Our analysis indicates that such fairness concerns may have merit, but only insofar as research assessment does not fully internalize the costs of adjusting to new practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102472"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145528423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-24DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102470
Yuki Higuchi , Vu Hoang Nam , Tetsushi Sonobe
Coordination is crucial for effective collective action; however, it is often challenging to achieve. Understanding the factors that facilitate coordination is particularly relevant for firms that require coordinated efforts for efficient production. In this study, we conducted an incentivized four-person minimum effort game involving 45 Vietnamese firms. Although games have been widely studied, they are typically conducted in laboratory settings. This study is the first to implement the game in real firms, where we invited an owner-manager and three randomly selected workers from each firm. In this game, the payoff depends positively on the minimum effort of the four players and negatively on their own efforts. During the first five rounds, when communication was prohibited, all firms were trapped in coordination failure, with low effort being made. However, when communication was allowed, many firms achieved a Pareto-efficient equilibrium with the highest level of effort in the subsequent five rounds. Importantly, firms that frequently communicate in their daily operations were more likely to achieve successful coordination. Workers in such firms adhere to the owner-manager’s suggestions regarding their level of effort. These findings highlight the importance of communication in facilitating coordination among firms.
{"title":"Communication and coordination in firms:A lab-in-the-field experiment with small manufacturers in Vietnam","authors":"Yuki Higuchi , Vu Hoang Nam , Tetsushi Sonobe","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102470","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102470","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Coordination is crucial for effective collective action; however, it is often challenging to achieve. Understanding the factors that facilitate coordination is particularly relevant for firms that require coordinated efforts for efficient production. In this study, we conducted an incentivized four-person minimum effort game involving 45 Vietnamese firms. Although games have been widely studied, they are typically conducted in laboratory settings. This study is the first to implement the game in real firms, where we invited an owner-manager and three randomly selected workers from each firm. In this game, the payoff depends positively on the minimum effort of the four players and negatively on their own efforts. During the first five rounds, when communication was prohibited, all firms were trapped in coordination failure, with low effort being made. However, when communication was allowed, many firms achieved a Pareto-efficient equilibrium with the highest level of effort in the subsequent five rounds. Importantly, firms that frequently communicate in their daily operations were more likely to achieve successful coordination. Workers in such firms adhere to the owner-manager’s suggestions regarding their level of effort. These findings highlight the importance of communication in facilitating coordination among firms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102470"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145465650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-22DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102463
Noémi Berlin , Tarek Jaber-Lopez , Moustapha Sarr
In a lab-in-the-field experiment, we investigate the influence of social norms on 300 parents’ beliefs regarding the nutritional quality of food items and their subsequent food choices. We use a 3 × 2 between-subject experimental design where we vary two factors: 1 — the social norm provided to parents: a descriptive norm (what other parents choose) vs. an injunctive norm (what other parents approve of), and 2 — the recipient of the food decisions made by parents: their own child vs. an unknown child. Parents participate in a two-stage process. In the first stage, we elicit their beliefs regarding the nutritional quality of various food items and ask them to make a food basket without specific information. In the second stage, based on their assigned treatment, they receive specific information and repeat the belief elicitation and the food basket selection tasks. We find that only the descriptive norm significantly reduces parents’ overestimation rate of items’ nutritional quality. Injunctive norm significantly improves the nutritional quality of both, the parent’s and child’s baskets. Descriptive norm significantly improves the nutritional quality of child’s baskets only when parents are choosing for unknown child.
{"title":"The effect of social norms on parents’ beliefs and food choices: Evidence from a lab-in-the-field experiment","authors":"Noémi Berlin , Tarek Jaber-Lopez , Moustapha Sarr","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102463","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102463","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In a lab-in-the-field experiment, we investigate the influence of social norms on 300 parents’ beliefs regarding the nutritional quality of food items and their subsequent food choices. We use a 3 × 2 between-subject experimental design where we vary two factors: 1 — the social norm provided to parents: a <em>descriptive norm</em> (what other parents choose) vs. an <em>injunctive norm</em> (what other parents approve of), and 2 — the recipient of the food decisions made by parents: their own child vs. an unknown child. Parents participate in a two-stage process. In the first stage, we elicit their beliefs regarding the nutritional quality of various food items and ask them to make a food basket without specific information. In the second stage, based on their assigned treatment, they receive specific information and repeat the belief elicitation and the food basket selection tasks. We find that only the <em>descriptive norm</em> significantly reduces parents’ overestimation rate of items’ nutritional quality. <em>Injunctive norm</em> significantly improves the nutritional quality of both, the parent’s and child’s baskets. <em>Descriptive norm</em> significantly improves the nutritional quality of child’s baskets only when parents are choosing for unknown child.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102463"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145361961","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-21DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102469
Sana Khalil
This paper examines how gender and residential socioeconomic status shape hiring outcomes in Karachi’s information technology sector. Employers in Pakistan can openly state preferences regarding gender, residential location, and other characteristics, but the majority in the information technology sector choose not to do so. This creates an opportunity to examine whether discrimination persists when such biases are not explicitly stated.
An analysis of explicitly gender-targeted job ads shows that men are preferred over women across most occupations, even in traditionally pink-collar roles. Moreover, results from a resume audit experiment, submitting 2,032 applications to 508 full-time job openings, show that men receive more callbacks for job interviews than women, even in the absence of explicit gender preferences in job ads.
The study also indicates a significant premium favoring candidates from high-income areas, who receive 45 % more callbacks than applicants from low-income neighborhoods. This advantage remains robust even after controlling for commuting distance.
Qualitative interviews with human resource officials suggest that employers associate productivity with both gender and neighborhood socioeconomic status. Residential address acts as a proxy for class background and signals education, skills, and perceived “fit” in professional settings. These perceptions may reinforce stereotypes, disadvantaging women and candidates from low-income backgrounds.
{"title":"Gender and neighborhood penalties in Karachi’s information technology sector","authors":"Sana Khalil","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102469","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102469","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines how gender and residential socioeconomic status shape hiring outcomes in Karachi’s information technology sector. Employers in Pakistan can openly state preferences regarding gender, residential location, and other characteristics, but the majority in the information technology sector choose not to do so. This creates an opportunity to examine whether discrimination persists when such biases are not explicitly stated.</div><div>An analysis of explicitly gender-targeted job ads shows that men are preferred over women across most occupations, even in traditionally pink-collar roles. Moreover, results from a resume audit experiment, submitting 2,032 applications to 508 full-time job openings, show that men receive more callbacks for job interviews than women, even in the absence of explicit gender preferences in job ads.</div><div>The study also indicates a significant premium favoring candidates from high-income areas, who receive 45 % more callbacks than applicants from low-income neighborhoods. This advantage remains robust even after controlling for commuting distance.</div><div>Qualitative interviews with human resource officials suggest that employers associate productivity with both gender and neighborhood socioeconomic status. Residential address acts as a proxy for class background and signals education, skills, and perceived “fit” in professional settings. These perceptions may reinforce stereotypes, disadvantaging women and candidates from low-income backgrounds.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102469"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145416181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-20DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102468
Taehyun Lee , Almas Heshmati
This study investigates the relationship between household debt and the Big Five personality traits using data from the Korea Labor and Income Panel Study. The extensive and intensive margins of debt participation are analyzed through regression analysis. To address potential sample selection bias from non-random missing data, a Heckman selection model is employed. The results indicate that openness is negatively associated with the probability of debt-holding, while conscientiousness is positively associated. To enhance causal interpretation, panel models are additionally estimated, treating personality traits as predetermined. While personality traits do not significantly predict year-on-year changes in debt amounts, they remain a relevant predictor of debt participation. These findings suggest that personality-based financial profiling may help identify households more prone to incurring debt. The results are interpreted in the light of South Korea’s cultural context, particularly the influence of Chemyeon (social face), and compared with findings from Western societies.
{"title":"The relationship between household debt and the Big Five personality traits","authors":"Taehyun Lee , Almas Heshmati","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102468","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102468","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the relationship between household debt and the Big Five personality traits using data from the Korea Labor and Income Panel Study. The extensive and intensive margins of debt participation are analyzed through regression analysis. To address potential sample selection bias from non-random missing data, a Heckman selection model is employed. The results indicate that openness is negatively associated with the probability of debt-holding, while conscientiousness is positively associated. To enhance causal interpretation, panel models are additionally estimated, treating personality traits as predetermined. While personality traits do not significantly predict year-on-year changes in debt amounts, they remain a relevant predictor of debt participation. These findings suggest that personality-based financial profiling may help identify households more prone to incurring debt. The results are interpreted in the light of South Korea’s cultural context, particularly the influence of <em>Chemyeon</em> (social face), and compared with findings from Western societies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102468"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145361960","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-20DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102464
Valeria Faralla , Alessandro Innocenti
In a laboratory experiment, this study investigates the effectiveness of different behavioural interventions designed to promote climate-friendly behaviours within the framework of a public good game. The results show that educative nudging, which involves providing information-based cues to encourage contribution levels, significantly increased participant cooperation levels. In contrast, non-educative nudges, a classical default option, and boosting techniques proved less effective in fostering collaborative behaviour. While participants generally perceived educational interventions favourably, their acceptability declined when considering real-life applications, and the acceptability of nudging/boosting instruments in experimental and real-life contexts was not significant in terms of contributions to the game. The study also finds that individuals with stronger environmental values were more inclined to contribute to the public good. These results underscore the importance of effectiveness and ethical concerns regarding the acceptability of behavioural interventions in decision-making, suggesting the need for further research to refine these approaches and enhance their long-term impact in real-world settings.
{"title":"Evaluating behavioural strategies for environmental cooperation: Evidence from a public goods game","authors":"Valeria Faralla , Alessandro Innocenti","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102464","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102464","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In a laboratory experiment, this study investigates the effectiveness of different behavioural interventions designed to promote climate-friendly behaviours within the framework of a public good game. The results show that educative nudging, which involves providing information-based cues to encourage contribution levels, significantly increased participant cooperation levels. In contrast, non-educative nudges, a classical default option, and boosting techniques proved less effective in fostering collaborative behaviour. While participants generally perceived educational interventions favourably, their acceptability declined when considering real-life applications, and the acceptability of nudging/boosting instruments in experimental and real-life contexts was not significant in terms of contributions to the game. The study also finds that individuals with stronger environmental values were more inclined to contribute to the public good. These results underscore the importance of effectiveness and ethical concerns regarding the acceptability of behavioural interventions in decision-making, suggesting the need for further research to refine these approaches and enhance their long-term impact in real-world settings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102464"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145415086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-16DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102465
Madison Ashworth , Linda Thunström , Klaas van't Veld , Robin A. Thompson , David Johnson
Substance use disorder (SUD) is a public health and economic crisis in the United States, yet funding for recovery services remains limited. We designed an experiment to examine whether presenting people in SUD recovery as having high or low agency impacts how much donors give in support of SUD recovery, and how donors allocate donations across paternalistic and non-paternalistic aid. Participants in our experiment could donate up to $100 to paternalistic and non-paternalistic SUD recovery support (aid to a recovery house and direct aid to those with SUD, respectively). We found that participants donated about $40 to SUD recovery, of which two-thirds was allocated to recovery houses (paternalistic aid). Both the low and high agency treatments increased recovery house donations, and the high agency treatment significantly increased overall donation amounts. In a follow-up experiment, we tested two additional treatments to rule out alternative explanations (besides agency) for our treatment effects, namely empathy towards residents (tested for by eliminating the description of the residents) and perceived recovery housing effectiveness (tested for by using an agency neutral description). The follow-up experiment replicated the main findings and the agency neutral treatment weakly increased overall donations in support of SUD recovery. These findings suggest that donors have strong preferences for providing paternalistic rather than non-paternalistic aid when supporting a stigmatized population. They also suggest that communicating characteristics of a stigmatized population may help increase donations, particularly if beneficiaries’ positive characteristics (such as agency) are emphasized and donors have the option to provide paternalistic aid.
{"title":"Perceived agency and paternalism: Increasing support for people with substance use disorder","authors":"Madison Ashworth , Linda Thunström , Klaas van't Veld , Robin A. Thompson , David Johnson","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102465","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102465","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Substance use disorder (SUD) is a public health and economic crisis in the United States, yet funding for recovery services remains limited. We designed an experiment to examine whether presenting people in SUD recovery as having high or low agency impacts how much donors give in support of SUD recovery, and how donors allocate donations across paternalistic and non-paternalistic aid. Participants in our experiment could donate up to $100 to paternalistic and non-paternalistic SUD recovery support (aid to a recovery house and direct aid to those with SUD, respectively). We found that participants donated about $40 to SUD recovery, of which two-thirds was allocated to recovery houses (paternalistic aid). Both the low and high agency treatments increased recovery house donations, and the high agency treatment significantly increased overall donation amounts. In a follow-up experiment, we tested two additional treatments to rule out alternative explanations (besides agency) for our treatment effects, namely empathy towards residents (tested for by eliminating the description of the residents) and perceived recovery housing effectiveness (tested for by using an agency neutral description). The follow-up experiment replicated the main findings and the agency neutral treatment weakly increased overall donations in support of SUD recovery. These findings suggest that donors have strong preferences for providing paternalistic rather than non-paternalistic aid when supporting a stigmatized population. They also suggest that communicating characteristics of a stigmatized population may help increase donations, particularly if beneficiaries’ positive characteristics (such as agency) are emphasized and donors have the option to provide paternalistic aid.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102465"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145361962","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper explores the challenges that insurance purchasers face when selecting from multiple distribution channels and their impact on insurance demand optimality. It investigates the choice between independently assessing various insurance contracts or relying on potentially dishonest intermediaries. We use a lab experiment mimicking real-world insurance distribution channels with varying informational frameworks, where information is gathered in exchange for search costs. Search costs deter some individuals from thorough exploration, preventing them from finding optimal contracts. However, suboptimality in choices also arises for those exploring extensively, due to choice overload. Lastly, some individuals prefer to delegate to intermediaries, but intermediaries are likely to deviate from optimal advice due to their own financial incentives. Overall, we find that brokers yield the highest rate of optimal choices, but these choices also come at a higher cost.
{"title":"Search costs, choice overload, and intermediary deviation: Barriers to optimal insurance choices in multi-distribution channel setting","authors":"Claire Mouminoux , Jean-Louis Rullière , Stéphane Loisel","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102458","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102458","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores the challenges that insurance purchasers face when selecting from multiple distribution channels and their impact on insurance demand optimality. It investigates the choice between independently assessing various insurance contracts or relying on potentially dishonest intermediaries. We use a lab experiment mimicking real-world insurance distribution channels with varying informational frameworks, where information is gathered in exchange for search costs. Search costs deter some individuals from thorough exploration, preventing them from finding optimal contracts. However, suboptimality in choices also arises for those exploring extensively, due to choice overload. Lastly, some individuals prefer to delegate to intermediaries, but intermediaries are likely to deviate from optimal advice due to their own financial incentives. Overall, we find that brokers yield the highest rate of optimal choices, but these choices also come at a higher cost.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102458"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145319915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-13DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102462
Xinyu Wang, Yinyu Zhao, Zemiao Xi
Food consumption is one of the main sources of global carbon emissions, and promoting low-carbon food consumption is seen as a key strategy for sustainable development. This study conducted a randomized controlled trial with 1388 Chinese university students in 2024, using the contingent valuation method and interval regression model to explore how peer effects affect consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for low-carbon milk. The study reveals an asymmetric peer effect on WTP for low-carbon milk, with positive influence being more pronounced than negative. The information intervention enhanced the positive peer effect and mitigated the negative peer effect, but stand-alone information showed no significant impact. Heterogeneous effects were observed across SN levels. Given that peer effects may be an essential driver of low-carbon food consumption, it is recommended that public policy consider its catalytic role.
{"title":"Assessing the peer effects on willingness to pay for low-carbon food: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial","authors":"Xinyu Wang, Yinyu Zhao, Zemiao Xi","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102462","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102462","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Food consumption is one of the main sources of global carbon emissions, and promoting low-carbon food consumption is seen as a key strategy for sustainable development. This study conducted a randomized controlled trial with 1388 Chinese university students in 2024, using the contingent valuation method and interval regression model to explore how peer effects affect consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for low-carbon milk. The study reveals an asymmetric peer effect on WTP for low-carbon milk, with positive influence being more pronounced than negative. The information intervention enhanced the positive peer effect and mitigated the negative peer effect, but stand-alone information showed no significant impact. Heterogeneous effects were observed across SN levels. Given that peer effects may be an essential driver of low-carbon food consumption, it is recommended that public policy consider its catalytic role.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102462"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145319918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-11DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102457
Esther Schuch , Maria Apergi , Luis Correa Lindarte
The sustainable development goals (SDGs) aim for universal access to affordable and reliable clean energy by 2030, but especially in rural areas this has not been achieved yet. Small scale electricity theft is one of the major obstacles to achieving electrification access in many countries of the Global South. Electricity theft has been associated with a number of different factors such as poverty, quality of electricity services, and social norms. Electricity theft causes problems that not only affect the electricity providers but have negative effects on whole communities. Combating electricity theft effectively requires a better understanding of the underlying causes. To analyse the role of dishonesty in electricity theft, we use the die-in-a-cup game to establish the prevalence of dishonest behaviour within Puebloviejo, Magdalena, a community in Colombia. We combine the game with a survey-based social norm elicitation to identify the predominant social norms. We find that acceptance of electricity theft is conditional on the reason, with poverty being the justification with the highest support. We find clear differences of dishonesty between people condoning or opposing electricity theft, with people condoning electricity theft being more honest.
{"title":"The honest (electricity) thief—Experimental evidence on the relationship between electricity theft and social norms","authors":"Esther Schuch , Maria Apergi , Luis Correa Lindarte","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102457","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102457","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The sustainable development goals (SDGs) aim for universal access to affordable and reliable clean energy by 2030, but especially in rural areas this has not been achieved yet. Small scale electricity theft is one of the major obstacles to achieving electrification access in many countries of the Global South. Electricity theft has been associated with a number of different factors such as poverty, quality of electricity services, and social norms. Electricity theft causes problems that not only affect the electricity providers but have negative effects on whole communities. Combating electricity theft effectively requires a better understanding of the underlying causes. To analyse the role of dishonesty in electricity theft, we use the die-in-a-cup game to establish the prevalence of dishonest behaviour within Puebloviejo, Magdalena, a community in Colombia. We combine the game with a survey-based social norm elicitation to identify the predominant social norms. We find that acceptance of electricity theft is conditional on the reason, with poverty being the justification with the highest support. We find clear differences of dishonesty between people condoning or opposing electricity theft, with people condoning electricity theft being more honest.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102457"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145319914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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