{"title":"Overconfidence and performance: Evidence from a simple real-effort task","authors":"Vipul Bhatt , Angela M. Smith","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102330","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102330","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using a simple real-effort counting task and frequency-based prediction elicitation, we document significant absolute and relative overconfidence for a diverse subject pool. Consistent with the Dunning–Kruger effect, an inverse relationship exists between task performance and overconfidence such that low (high) performing individuals exhibit significantly more (less) overconfidence. This relationship holds for absolute overconfidence even after accounting for better-than-average effect and regression-to-the mean and can potentially explain the lack of absolute overconfidence reported in some economic studies. Further, we find negligible correlation between our task-based measures and survey-based overconfidence measures commonly used in psychology studies, indicating these two methodologies may capture different behavioral phenomena.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 102330"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143163718","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}
Simon Mathex, Lisette Hafkamp Ibanez, Raphaële Préget
{"title":"Behavioral rebound effect and moral compensation: An online experiment","authors":"Simon Mathex, Lisette Hafkamp Ibanez, Raphaële Préget","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102347","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2025.102347","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates the behavioral rebound effect as defined by Dorner (2019) in an analytical framework where individuals have environmental preferences. We also study the impact of moral compensation (moral licensing and moral cleansing) on pro-environmental behavior. We propose a theoretical model that integrates behavioral and emotional factors and we conduct an online experiment with 1622 subjects to test our hypotheses. Our findings indicate that a decrease in the marginal damage of a polluting good leads to a decrease in individual’s pro-environmental behavior. This result confirms the existence of the behavioral rebound effect. Additionally, our results show that the moral cleansing effect positively influences pro-environmental behavior, especially among individuals with the strongest environmental attitudes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"115 ","pages":"Article 102347"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143261716","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}
{"title":"Related examinations and tax compliance","authors":"Seiyoun Kim , Puneet Arora","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102326","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102326","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>One of the Internal Revenue Services' methods for audit is to pick individuals engaged in transactions with other taxpayers whose tax returns were selected for audit. Such related examination in the audit procedure introduces an externality where one's actions can potentially harm others. It can induce a different tax compliance behavior compared to the purely random audit mechanism. We propose a Simplified Related Examinations (SRE) audit mechanism and study its effectiveness against the Random Audit (RA) mechanism using a laboratory experiment. Our findings reveal that the SRE treatment significantly increases overall tax compliance and tax compliance at the extensive margin. We also analyze how varying factors like social distance, group size, and audit rate impact this effect.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 102326"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143163536","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}
Rimvydas Baltaduonis , Jūratė Jaraitė , Andrius Kažukauskas
{"title":"Behavioral interventions and market efficiency: The case of a volatile retail electricity market","authors":"Rimvydas Baltaduonis , Jūratė Jaraitė , Andrius Kažukauskas","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102328","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102328","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Numerous field experiments have demonstrated that various monetary and informational incentives encourage demand response by increasing awareness about peak electricity prices and potentially inefficient energy use. However, very little is known about the effects of such interventions on overall market efficiency. We conducted a laboratory experiment with 200 participants to test the effects of different interventions on consumer decisions and overall market efficiency in a market reminiscent of a retail electricity market. We investigate two types of incentives—monetary information in the form of notifications about surge prices and non-monetary informational incentives in the form of peer comparisons—separately and together. We find that notifications about surge prices are effective interventions for reducing resource use and increasing market efficiency during surge-price periods. During these periods, the combination of peak-price notifications and peer-comparison information exhibits the highest efficiency.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 102328"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143163538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
E. Muñoz-Muñoz , E. Crespo-Cebada , A.S. Mirón-Sanguino , C. Díaz-Caro
{"title":"Investors personality correlates with sustainability preferences in investment – A choice experiment with Spanish investors","authors":"E. Muñoz-Muñoz , E. Crespo-Cebada , A.S. Mirón-Sanguino , C. Díaz-Caro","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102332","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102332","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>According to behavioral economics, investors’ decisions are influenced by factors beyond rational reasoning, such as an investor's personality. This paper explores the relationships between personality, using the Big Five personality traits framework, and the willingness to invest in assets that contribute to achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs), more specifically, sustainable finances. The study also analyzes the relationship between personality traits and risk aversion. To this end, 1,357 investors in Spain were surveyed through an online questionnaire combining a choice experiment and a personality assessment. The main conclusion of our study is that personality traits are associated with the characteristics of investment products preferred by the sampled investors.. This relationship is quantified through the analysis of a willingness to pay (WTP) for various investment attributes. While all personality traits are linked to risk aversion and a willingness to invest in sustainable companies, our WTP analysis highlights differences in the extent to which investors are willing to forgo profitability to contribute to the SDGs. Although we find heterogeneous behavior among investors, the agreeableness trait emerges as the most concerned with sustainability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 102332"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143163715","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}
{"title":"Do emotional carryover effects carry over?","authors":"Nikhil Masters , Tim Lloyd , Chris Starmer","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102312","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102312","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Existing research has demonstrated carryover effects whereby emotions generated in one context influence decisions in other, unrelated ones. We examine the carryover effect in relation to valuations of risky and ambiguous lotteries with a novel focus on the comparison of carryovers arising from a targeted stimulus (designed to elicit a specific emotion) with those arising from a naturalistic stimulus (designed to produce a more complex emotional response). We find carryover effects using both types of stimuli, but they are stronger for the naturalistic stimulus and in the context of ambiguity, providing a proof of concept that carryover effects can be observed when moving away from highly stylised settings. These effects are also gender specific with only males being susceptible. To probe the emotional foundations of the carryover effect, we conduct analysis relating individual self-reports of emotions to valuation behaviour. Our results cast doubt on some previously claimed links between specific incidental emotions and risk taking.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 102312"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143163539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The impact of board games on the financial literacy of public-school students","authors":"Rômulo César Reisdorfer-da-Silva , Kalinca Léia Becker , Kelmara Mendes Vieira","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102331","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102331","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the impact of using a board game as an educational tool to teach financial concepts in school environments. Adopting a quasi-experimental methodology, the study implemented the game in classrooms and measured its impact on students' financial literacy, financial knowledge, financial behavior and financial attitude using the propensity score matching technique, focusing on the immediate learning outcomes from the board game intervention. The results obtained indicate an increase in the financial literacy and all its dimensions of the students who took part in the board game lessons, demonstrating the effectiveness of this methodology. These findings have significant implications for financial education in schools, suggesting that more interactive teaching methods, such as board games, may be more effective in promoting financial literacy among young people, impacting from financial knowledge to financial behavior and attitude.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 102331"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143163545","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}
{"title":"Instinctiveness and reflexivity in behavioural type variability","authors":"Gianna Lotito , Matteo Migheli , Guido Ortona","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102322","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102322","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Experimental economics uses response times (RTs) to evaluate the instinctiveness of choices and behaviours. The experiment proposed in this paper seeks to provide further results about the correlation between RTs and behaviours. We use a repeated public goods game with random re-matching to study (1) the relationship between response times and the stability of individual behavioural types and (2) the relationship between RTs and contribution variability. We identify three behavioural types in a public goods game - free-riders, unconditional cooperators, and conditional cooperators. To define RTs in a round, we use two distinct measures: the time the subject takes to review the previous round's results and the time the subject takes to choose the contribution to the public good in that round. Experimental evidence suggests that longer RTs are linked to higher variability in both behavioural types and contributions in a public goods game. The results show that conditional cooperation is the most reflexive choice: 1) the time used to see the results of the previous round correlates positively with behavioural type variation; 2) the subjects switching from free-riding to conditional cooperation spend more time than the others also when choosing the amount of their contribution to the public good.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 102322"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143163537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sebastian Anti , Andrew W. Nutting , Andrew E. Sfekas
{"title":"The effects of large-scale, racially-charged violence on labor productivity and racial identity: The riots of 1967–68 and outcomes in Major League Baseball","authors":"Sebastian Anti , Andrew W. Nutting , Andrew E. Sfekas","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102324","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102324","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many major race riots occurred in 1967–68. We investigate whether these riots affected individual labor productivity by studying 240,408 plate appearances from Major League Baseball games in those years. Stacked difference-in-difference and two-way-fixed effects difference-in-difference estimations show that batters, but not pitchers, experienced significantly worsened productivity after major riots in their teams’ home cities. In addition, two-way-fixed effects difference-in-difference estimations show evidence of worsened productivity of pitchers after riots near their birthplaces, and that white batters whose teams’ cities had undergone major riots were hit by fewer pitches from white pitchers. However, these latter results are not robust to stacked difference-in-difference estimators. We discuss these differences in the paper.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 102324"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143163541","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}
{"title":"Social learning under ambiguity—An experimental study","authors":"Sara le Roux , Fabian Bopp","doi":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102323","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.socec.2024.102323","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many behaviours spread through contact with others. The extent to which people adopt observed behaviour can critically affect whether policymakers are successful when introducing new initiatives. In many situations, people can either make decisions based on their own intuitive signals or follow a social signal. Depending on the quality of the signals, one might be more informative than the other. This study aims to better understand how people use social information to learn in ambiguous situations, when both the private and the social signal are not perfectly informative. We conduct an experimental study that observes whether people are prone to imitate others in risky and ambiguous environments. We find that individuals do learn from social information and that this learning is robust and not significantly affected by ambiguity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51637,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 102323"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143163719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}