A SUMMARY OF PAPERS ON FIELDEXPERIMENTS.COM: ALL FIELD EXPERIMENTS POSTED

By:	John List
Date:	2019
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feb:artefa:00650&r=ltv

Do Economic Recessions ‘Squeeze the Middle-Class’?

By:	Alberto Batinti; Joan Costa-Font
Abstract:	We examine whether economic downturns reshape the distribution of population income giving rise to a “middle-class squeeze.” We test this hypothesis using alternative definitions of middle-class, such as income-based measures from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and perceived measures from the Integrated Values Study (IVS). Our findings suggest that, although recessions do not produce a middle-class squeeze overall, the unanticipated shocks resulting from the Great Recession did. Furthermore, we find that recessions increase the share of the population that regards itself as ‘middle-class.’ Estimates are heterogeneous to the baseline unemployment at the time of a recession, country spending on social protection, to middle-class measures and definitions.
JEL:	F22 I30 J64
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lis:liswps:757&r=ltv

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The Effects of Status Mobility and Group Identity on Trust

By:	Suchon, Rémi (University of Lyon 2); Villeval, Marie Claire (CNRS, GATE)
Abstract:	In a laboratory experiment we test the interaction effects of status and group identity on interpersonal trust. Natural group identity is generated by school affiliation. Status (expert or agent) is awarded based on relative performance in a math quiz that is ex ante less favorable to the subjects from one group. We find that “promoted” trustors (individuals from the disadvantaged group that nevertheless achieve the status of expert) trust less both in-group and out-group trustees, compared to the other members of their group. Rather than playing against the effects of natural group identity, status promotion singles-out individuals. In contrast, trustworthiness is not affected by status and there is no evidence that interacting with promoted individuals impacts trust or trustworthiness.
Keywords:	trust, status, group identity, social mobility, experiment
JEL:	C92 D91 J62
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12086&r=ltv

New ways to measure well-being? A first joint analysis of subjective and objective measures

By:	Andrén, Daniela (Örebro University School of Business); Clark, Andrew E. (Paris School of Economics); D’Ambrosio, Conchita (Université du Luxembourg); Karlsson, Sune (Örebro University School of Business); Pettersson, Nicklas (Örebro University School of Business)
Abstract:	Our study is, to our knowledge, the first joint analysis of subjective and objective measures of well-being. Using a rich longitudinal data from the mothers pregnancy until adulthood for a birth cohort of children who attended school in Örebro during the 1960s, we analyse in a first step how subjective (self-assessed) and objective (cortisol-based) measures of well-being are related to each other. In a second step, life-course models for these two measures are estimated and compared with each other. Despite the fact that our analysis is largely exploratory, our results suggest interesting possibilities to use objective measures to measure well-being, even though this may imply a greater degree of complexity.
Keywords:	subjective and objective well-being; general life satisfaction; cortisol; birth-cohort data; adult; child and birth outcomes; multivariate imputation
JEL:	A12 D60 I31
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2018_013&r=ltv

When do populations polarize? An explanation

By:	Jean-Pierre Benoît; Juan Dubra
Abstract:	Numerous experiments demonstrate attitude polarization. For instance, Lord, Ross & Lepper presented subjects with the same mixed evidence on the deterrent effect of the death penalty. Both believers and skeptics of its deterrent effect became more convinced of their views; that is, the population polarized. However, not all experiments find this attitude polarization. We propose a theory of rational updating that accounts for both the positive and negative experimental findings. This is in contrast to existing theories, which predict either too much or too little polarization
Keywords:	Attitude Polarization; Confirmation Bias; Bayesian Decision Making

The Wrong Kind of AI? Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Labor Demand

By:	Acemoglu, Daron (MIT); Restrepo, Pascual (Boston University)
Abstract:	Artificial Intelligence is set to influence every aspect of our lives, not least the way production is organized. AI, as a technology platform, can automate tasks previously performed by labor or create new tasks and activities in which humans can be productively employed. Recent technological change has been biased towards automation, with insufficient focus on creating new tasks where labor can be productively employed. The consequences of this choice have been stagnating labor demand, declining labor share in national income, rising inequality and lower productivity growth. The current tendency is to develop AI in the direction of further automation, but this might mean missing out on the promise of the “right” kind of AI with better economic and social outcomes.
Keywords:	automation, artificial intelligence, jobs, inequality, innovation, labor demand, productivity, tasks, technology, wages
JEL:	J23 J24
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12292&r=ltv

Wages, Experience and Training of Women over the Lifecycle

By:	Richard Blundell; Monica Costa Dias; David A. Goll; Costas Meghir
Abstract:	We investigate the role of training in reducing the gender wage gap using the UK-BHPS which contains detailed records of training. Using policy changes over an 18 year period we identify the impact of training and work experience on wages, earnings and employment. Based on a lifecycle model and using reforms as a source of exogenous variation we evaluate the role of formal training and experience in defining the evolution of wages and employment careers, conditional on education. Training is potentially important in compensating for the effects of children, especially for women who left education after completing high school.
JEL:	H2 J16 J22 J24 J3 J31
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25776&r=ltv

The demand for bad policy when voters underappreciate equilibrium effects

By:	Dal Bó, Ernesto; Dal Bó, Pedro; Eyster, Erik
Abstract:	Most of the political-economy literature blames inefficient policies on institutions or politicians’ motives to supply bad policy, but voters may themselves be partially responsible by demanding bad policy. In this paper, we posit that voters may systematically err when assessing potential changes in policy by underappreciating how new policies lead to new equilibrium behavior. This biases voters towards policy changes that create direct benefits – welfare would rise if behavior were held constant – even if those reforms ultimately reduce welfare because people adjust behavior. Conversely, voters are biased against policies that impose direct costs even if they induce larger indirect benefits. Using a lab experiment, we find that a majority of subjects vote against policies that, while inflicting direct costs, would help them to overcome social dilemmas and thereby increase welfare. Subjects also support policies that, while producing direct benefits, create social dilemmas and ultimately hurt welfare. Both mistakes arise because subjects fail to fully anticipate the equilibrium effects of new policies. More precisely, we establish that subjects systematically underappreciate the extent to which policy changes will affect the behavior of other people, and that these mistaken beliefs exert a causal effect on the demand for bad policy.
Keywords:	voting; reform; political failure; endogenous policy; experiment
JEL:	C9 D7
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:74455&r=ltv

Economic inequality and subjective well-being across the world

By:	D’Ambrosio Conchita; Clark Andrew
Abstract:	We here use repeated cross-section data from the Afrobarometer, Asianbarometer Latinobarometer, and Eurobarometer to analyse the variables that are correlated with both current and future evaluations of standards of living. These are related not only to an individual’s own economic resources but also to the country distribution of resources.We consider resource comparisons (the gap in resources between richer and poorer individuals) and the normative evaluation of distribution (conditional on these gaps), given by the Gini coefficient. The ‘typical’ pattern of a negative effect of gaps on the better-off but a positive effect of gaps on the worse-off is found only in Europe: gaps for the better-off in Africa and Central and Latin America have no correlation with current life evaluations and are associated with more positive expectations of the future.Equally, there is no positive estimated coefficient for gaps to the worse-off in Asia. The Gini coefficient is negatively correlated with current life evaluation only in Asia, and is insignificant everywhere else. On the contrary, future life evaluations are more positive in more unequal countries in Africa and Central and Latin America.The relationship between the distribution of resources and measures of individual well-being over time is far from universal.
Keywords:	Relative deprivation,WIID,Baromters,Gini coefficient,Inequality,Living conditions
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2018-170&r=ltv