Pub Date : 2025-09-01DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102436
Yuan Ma, Haiying Wang
With the rapid economic development, environmental problems are expanding. Consumers’ green consumption behavior is significant for carbon reduction. Green advertisements play an indispensable role in stimulating consumers’ green consumption behavior. “What to say” and “to whom” of green advertising is very important. The above questions are discussed from the perspectives of green advertising appeal and consumers’ money resources scarcity. The interaction effects of green advertising appeal (self-interest vs. altruism) and monetary resource perception (scarcity vs. abundance) on consumers’ green purchase intention are tested through experimental design. It is found that consumers who perceive scarcity of monetary resources are more likely to be impressed by the self-interested appeal of green advertisements, while the altruistic appeal of green advertisements has a better persuasive effect on consumers who perceive abundance of monetary resources.
{"title":"The interaction effect of green advertising appeal and monetary resource perception on consumers’ green purchase intention","authors":"Yuan Ma, Haiying Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102436","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102436","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the rapid economic development, environmental problems are expanding. Consumers’ green consumption behavior is significant for carbon reduction. Green advertisements play an indispensable role in stimulating consumers’ green consumption behavior. “What to say” and “to whom” of green advertising is very important. The above questions are discussed from the perspectives of green advertising appeal and consumers’ money resources scarcity. The interaction effects of green advertising appeal (self-interest vs. altruism) and monetary resource perception (scarcity vs. abundance) on consumers’ green purchase intention are tested through experimental design. It is found that consumers who perceive scarcity of monetary resources are more likely to be impressed by the self-interested appeal of green advertisements, while the altruistic appeal of green advertisements has a better persuasive effect on consumers who perceive abundance of monetary resources.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 102436"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144987892","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}
We experimentally examine how bargainers’ social preferences shape a powerless third party’s well-being when they can appropriate and redistribute its endowment. We explore two sources of social preferences: the feature of our taking game that enables bargainers to unilaterally enforce fairness without the fear of efficiency loss, and four non-monetary interventions aimed at increasing bargainers’ moral costs. We find that fewer than 10 percent of proposals are fair to the third party, yet around 40 percent of bargaining outcomes are fair — mainly because over 80 percent of those fair outcomes result from responders rejecting proposals unfair to the third party. This highlights the importance of unilateral enforcement in promoting fairness. In contrast, non-monetary interventions show minimal impact, suggesting a need for more effective design, possibly involving public visibility or stronger normative framing. Overall, the findings emphasize the role of institutions that enable individuals to ensure fairness for vulnerable parties without sacrificing efficiency.
{"title":"Bargaining over taking from a powerless third party: The role of social preferences","authors":"Haimanti Bhattacharya , Subhasish Dugar , Sumit Sarkar","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102429","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102429","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We experimentally examine how bargainers’ social preferences shape a powerless third party’s well-being when they can appropriate and redistribute its endowment. We explore two sources of social preferences: the feature of our taking game that enables bargainers to unilaterally enforce fairness without the fear of efficiency loss, and four non-monetary interventions aimed at increasing bargainers’ moral costs. We find that fewer than 10 percent of proposals are fair to the third party, yet around 40 percent of bargaining outcomes are fair — mainly because over 80 percent of those fair outcomes result from responders rejecting proposals unfair to the third party. This highlights the importance of unilateral enforcement in promoting fairness. In contrast, non-monetary interventions show minimal impact, suggesting a need for more effective design, possibly involving public visibility or stronger normative framing. Overall, the findings emphasize the role of institutions that enable individuals to ensure fairness for vulnerable parties without sacrificing efficiency.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Article 102429"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145018393","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 : 2025-08-26DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102434
Assi Okara , Massimiliano Tani , Linguère Mously Mbaye
We investigate whether having a daughter in a patriarchal society gives fathers a reason to reject prevailing social norms favouring gender discrimination against women. In particular, we develop a utility (rather than behavioural) model to frame the problem and derive hypotheses that can be empirically tested using cross-sectional data from the Senegal 2023 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). We find that fathering daughters can positively influence men’s attitudes toward gender equity. In particular, men with daughters exhibit more positive attitudes toward women compared to their peers without daughters. This finding is robust across various sub-samples, particularly regarding violence-related outcome variables.
{"title":"Rowing with and against the flow: Fatherhood of daughters and perception about women","authors":"Assi Okara , Massimiliano Tani , Linguère Mously Mbaye","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102434","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102434","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We investigate whether having a daughter in a patriarchal society gives fathers a reason to reject prevailing social norms favouring gender discrimination against women. In particular, we develop a utility (rather than behavioural) model to frame the problem and derive hypotheses that can be empirically tested using cross-sectional data from the Senegal 2023 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). We find that fathering daughters can positively influence men’s attitudes toward gender equity. In particular, men with daughters exhibit more positive attitudes toward women compared to their peers without daughters. This finding is robust across various sub-samples, particularly regarding violence-related outcome variables.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 102434"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144917419","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 : 2025-08-26DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102433
Bin Huang , Massimiliano Tani , Lei Xu , Yu Zhu
We study the impact of higher education (HE) on marriage incidence using the 2017 China Household Finance Survey. Taking advantage of the dramatic HE expansion which increased annual college enrolment by 5-fold in the decade starting in 1999, we explore the effect of education on marriage outcomes by instrumenting years of schooling using the interaction of childhood urban hukou status and a set of time dummy and trend variables capturing the exposure to the expansion. This approach is analogous to a difference-in-differences estimator using rural students as a control for any common time trend. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the 2SLS results suggest that increased education induced by the HE expansion leads to higher marriage rates. These positive effects tend to be larger for women living in coastal areas or larger cities. The estimates are robust to alternative specifications, age range, the age cut-offs for childhood hukou status and controls for birth cohort-city specific sex ratios. Our findings imply that the strong negative relationship observed between college education and marriage outcomes for women is likely driven by educational assortative mating due to persistent gender norms in favour of status hypergamy, which prevents the Chinese marriage market from adjusting to the reversed gender gap in HE post-expansion.
{"title":"Does college education make women less likely to marry? evidence from the Chinese higher education expansion","authors":"Bin Huang , Massimiliano Tani , Lei Xu , Yu Zhu","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102433","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102433","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We study the impact of higher education (HE) on marriage incidence using the 2017 China Household Finance Survey. Taking advantage of the dramatic HE expansion which increased annual college enrolment by 5-fold in the decade starting in 1999, we explore the effect of education on marriage outcomes by instrumenting years of schooling using the interaction of childhood urban <em>hukou</em> status and a set of time dummy and trend variables capturing the exposure to the expansion. This approach is analogous to a difference-in-differences estimator using rural students as a control for any common time trend. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the 2SLS results suggest that increased education induced by the HE expansion leads to higher marriage rates. These positive effects tend to be larger for women living in coastal areas or larger cities. The estimates are robust to alternative specifications, age range, the age cut-offs for childhood <em>hukou</em> status and controls for birth cohort-city specific sex ratios. Our findings imply that the strong negative relationship observed between college education and marriage outcomes for women is likely driven by educational assortative mating due to persistent gender norms in favour of <em>status hypergamy</em>, which prevents the Chinese marriage market from adjusting to the reversed gender gap in HE post-expansion.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 102433"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144911585","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 : 2025-08-22DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102430
Guy Barokas , Oded Ravid
This study uses an online experiment to explore the effect of belongingness in promoting honesty and how this is affected by gender. Each participant in the treatment group was assigned to the subgroup with which they most closely identified, while participants in control group they were randomly assigned to non-identified subgroups. Participants reported the outcomes of unmonitored die rolls, with honesty incentivized by collective bonuses. The results show that the treatment group experienced a stronger sense of belonging and reported more honestly than the control group, confirming the overall effect of belongingness on truthfulness. We also identified a correlation between the degree of belongingness and honesty across subgroups. A post hoc analysis of gender variations revealed that women demonstrated a stronger sense of belonging and a higher level of honesty. Notably, while the effect of belongingness on honesty was significant among women, it was not statistically significant for men. These findings highlight belongingness as a key factor in ethical behavior, particularly for women, with implications for policy design in many contexts.
{"title":"The impact of a sense of belonging on truth-telling and the role of gender","authors":"Guy Barokas , Oded Ravid","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102430","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102430","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study uses an online experiment to explore the effect of belongingness in promoting honesty and how this is affected by gender. Each participant in the treatment group was assigned to the subgroup with which they most closely identified, while participants in control group they were randomly assigned to non-identified subgroups. Participants reported the outcomes of unmonitored die rolls, with honesty incentivized by collective bonuses. The results show that the treatment group experienced a stronger sense of belonging and reported more honestly than the control group, confirming the overall effect of belongingness on truthfulness. We also identified a correlation between the degree of belongingness and honesty across subgroups. A post hoc analysis of gender variations revealed that women demonstrated a stronger sense of belonging and a higher level of honesty. Notably, while the effect of belongingness on honesty was significant among women, it was not statistically significant for men. These findings highlight belongingness as a key factor in ethical behavior, particularly for women, with implications for policy design in many contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 102430"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144908522","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 : 2025-08-14DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102427
Musa Hasen Ahmed , Wondimagegn Mesfin Tesfaye
We examine the link between road accessibility and the use of maternal healthcare services in Ethiopia. Using a quasi-experimental design, we compare maternal health outcomes in villages before and after road construction alongside control villages without such infrastructure. Our analysis suggests that rural road development is associated with increased utilization of maternal healthcare services during the prenatal stage. However, we did not observe significant associations during the birth or postnatal stages. Using data collected before the commencement of the road expansion program, we confirm that the observed association between road access and maternal healthcare utilization can be attributed to the road infrastructure rather than to pre-existing conditions in the villages.
{"title":"Infrastructure-driven healthcare advancements: Rural Roads and Maternal Health in Ethiopia","authors":"Musa Hasen Ahmed , Wondimagegn Mesfin Tesfaye","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102427","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102427","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We examine the link between road accessibility and the use of maternal healthcare services in Ethiopia. Using a quasi-experimental design, we compare maternal health outcomes in villages before and after road construction alongside control villages without such infrastructure. Our analysis suggests that rural road development is associated with increased utilization of maternal healthcare services during the prenatal stage. However, we did not observe significant associations during the birth or postnatal stages. Using data collected before the commencement of the road expansion program, we confirm that the observed association between road access and maternal healthcare utilization can be attributed to the road infrastructure rather than to pre-existing conditions in the villages.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 102427"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144908620","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 : 2025-08-14DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102428
Yuta Kittaka , Ryo Mikami , Natsumi Shimada
This paper summarizes the leading search experiment designs and conducts an experiment to compare searcher behavior under the various search designs. We categorize existing experiment designs as passive, quasi-active, and active according to the degree of flexibility in decision-making regarding the search. Despite the experimental designs being based on an identical model, our experimental results indicate that there are significant differences in participants’ behavior across designs. The average number of searches was the highest and closest to the theory-predicted value in the active design. In contrast, participants searched significantly less in the quasi-active and passive designs compared with the active design. These results suggest that the widely accepted design, which requires participants to make decisions based on a given offer rather than choosing among potential alternatives themselves, may have unexpected effects on participants’ behavior. Furthermore, we found that participants’ risk aversion had a significant effect only in the passive design, implying that differences in out-of-model factors across designs (e.g., the timing of decision-making and recall settings) might influence behavior through risk preferences. We also provide other methodological implications for future experiments.
{"title":"Behavioral changes in different designs of search experiments","authors":"Yuta Kittaka , Ryo Mikami , Natsumi Shimada","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102428","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102428","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper summarizes the leading search experiment designs and conducts an experiment to compare searcher behavior under the various search designs. We categorize existing experiment designs as passive, quasi-active, and active according to the degree of flexibility in decision-making regarding the search. Despite the experimental designs being based on an identical model, our experimental results indicate that there are significant differences in participants’ behavior across designs. The average number of searches was the highest and closest to the theory-predicted value in the active design. In contrast, participants searched significantly less in the quasi-active and passive designs compared with the active design. These results suggest that the widely accepted design, which requires participants to make decisions based on a given offer rather than choosing among potential alternatives themselves, may have unexpected effects on participants’ behavior. Furthermore, we found that participants’ risk aversion had a significant effect only in the passive design, implying that differences in out-of-model factors across designs (e.g., the timing of decision-making and recall settings) might influence behavior through risk preferences. We also provide other methodological implications for future experiments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 102428"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144893215","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 : 2025-08-05DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102425
Anne Carpenter
{"title":"","authors":"Anne Carpenter","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102425","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102425","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 102425"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144880122","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 : 2025-07-30DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102398
Philipp Chapkovski , Francesco Cordoni , Caterina Giannetti , Fabrizio Lillo
We explore cross-impact in a hybrid experimental market with human and artificial agents, varying liquidity across treatments. In treatment Separated participants hold distinct portfolios for two stocks, while in Integrated they hold a unique portfolio, i.e., can freely move capital between assets. Larger bubbles and asymmetric cross-market impact occur with unique portfolios and decreasing value asset. When comparing experimental and synthetic data, cross-impact is attributed to human players, especially when stock values are close to each other. Artificial players also react to human presence, contributing to cross-impact.
{"title":"Cross−impact and price bubbles in hybrid financial markets","authors":"Philipp Chapkovski , Francesco Cordoni , Caterina Giannetti , Fabrizio Lillo","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102398","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102398","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We explore cross-impact in a hybrid experimental market with human and artificial agents, varying liquidity across treatments. In treatment <em>Separated</em> participants hold distinct portfolios for two stocks, while in <em>Integrated</em> they hold a unique portfolio, i.e., can freely move capital between assets. Larger bubbles and asymmetric cross-market impact occur with unique portfolios and decreasing value asset. When comparing experimental and synthetic data, cross-impact is attributed to human players, especially when stock values are close to each other. Artificial players also react to human presence, contributing to cross-impact.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 102398"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144770710","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 : 2025-07-27DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102396
Antonio Alfonso , Pablo Brañas-Garza , Diego Jorrat , Benjamin Prissé , María José Vázquez-De Francisco
This study investigates gender differences in time and risk preferences and how this difference evolves during adolescence. Using a sample of 4,830 non-self-selected teenagers from 207 classes across 22 Spanish schools, we provide a detailed analysis of how boys and girls differ – or not – in economic preferences, and how these preferences change as they grow older. Our large and rich dataset includes information on class attributes, social networks, and friends’ preferences, allowing us to control for a wide range of potentially confounding variables. We find no significant gender differences in patience or risk attitudes at younger ages. However, we find that older adolescents tend to exhibit different patterns than younger ones—girls in higher grades show more nuanced time preferences, and boys in higher grades appear more risk averse than girls. These patterns are shaped by cognitive abilities and the social environment within classrooms. Our findings underscore the importance of considering gender-specific developmental trajectories when studying economic preferences during adolescence.
{"title":"The baking of preferences throughout the high school","authors":"Antonio Alfonso , Pablo Brañas-Garza , Diego Jorrat , Benjamin Prissé , María José Vázquez-De Francisco","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102396","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102396","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates gender differences in time and risk preferences and how this difference evolves during adolescence. Using a sample of 4,830 non-self-selected teenagers from 207 classes across 22 Spanish schools, we provide a detailed analysis of how boys and girls differ – or not – in economic preferences, and how these preferences change as they grow older. Our large and rich dataset includes information on class attributes, social networks, and friends’ preferences, allowing us to control for a wide range of potentially confounding variables. We find no significant gender differences in patience or risk attitudes at younger ages. However, we find that older adolescents tend to exhibit different patterns than younger ones—girls in higher grades show more nuanced time preferences, and boys in higher grades appear more risk averse than girls. These patterns are shaped by cognitive abilities and the social environment within classrooms. Our findings underscore the importance of considering gender-specific developmental trajectories when studying economic preferences during adolescence.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"118 ","pages":"Article 102396"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144771837","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}