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BEHAVIORAL & EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS ABSTRACTS"The Effects of Smoking in Young Adulthood on Smoking and Health Later in Life: Evidence Based on the Vietnam Era Draft Lottery"
DANIEL EISENBERG, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - School of Public Health An important, unresolved question for health policymakers and consumers is whether cigarette smoking in young adulthood has significant lasting effects into later adulthood. The Vietnam era draft lottery offers an opportunity to address this question, because it randomly assigned young men to be more likely to experience conditions favoring cigarette consumption, including highly subsidized prices. Using this natural experiment, we find that military service increased the probability of smoking by 35 percentage points as of 1978-80, when men in the relevant cohorts were aged 25-30, but later in adulthood this effect was substantially attenuated and did not lead to large negative health effects. "Are Women More Credit Constrained? Experimental Evidence on Gender and Microenterprise Returns"
SURESH DE MEL, University of Peradeniya This paper analyzes data from a randomized experiment on mean returns to capital in Sri Lankan micro-enterprises. The findings show greater returns among men than among women; indeed, returns were not different from zero for women. The authors explore different explanations for the lower returns among female owners, and find no evidence that the gender gap is explained by differences in ability, risk aversion, or entrepreneurial attitudes. Differential access to unpaid family labor and social constraints limiting sales to local areas are not important. However, there is evidence that women invested grants differently from men. A smaller share of the smaller grants remained in the female-owned enterprises, and men were more likely to spend the grant on working capital and women on equipment. The gender gap is largest when male-dominated sectors are compared with female-dominated sectors, although female returns are lower than male returns even for females working in the same industries as men. The authors examine the heterogeneity of returns to determine whether any group of businesses owned by women benefit from easing capital constraints. The results suggest there is a large group of high-return male owners and a smaller group of poor, high-ability, female owners who might benefit from more access to capital. "Does Irritation Induced by Charitable Direct Mailings Reduce Donations?"
MEREL VAN DIEPEN, Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) Charities mainly rely on direct mailings to attract the attention of potential donators. Individuals may feel irritated by these mailings, in particular when they receive many mailings. We study the consequences of perceived irritation on stated behavior and on actual behavior. Target selection by charities likely results in good donators receiving many mailings and hence they might also be most irritated. Therefore, irritation with direct mailings might be endogenously determined. To create exogenous variation in irritation, we design a unique controlled field experiment in cooperation with five of the largest charities in the Netherlands. Our analysis reveals that direct mailings do result in irritation, but surprisingly this affects neither stated nor actual donating behavior. "Honesty on the Streets - A Natural Field Experiment on Newspaper Purchasing"
GERALD J. PRUCKNER, University Linz - Department of Economics A publisher uses an honor system for selling a newspaper in the street. The customers are supposed to pay, but they can also pay less than the price or not pay at all. We conduct an experiment to study honesty in this market. The results show that appealing to honesty increases payments, whereas reminding the customers of the legal norm has no effect. Furthermore, appealing to honesty does not affect the behavior of the dishonest. These findings suggest that some people have internalized an honesty norm, whereas others have not, and that the willingness to pay to obey the norm differs among individuals. In a follow-up survey study we find that honesty is associated with family characteristics, self-esteem, social connectedness, trust in the legal system, and compliance with tax regulations. | ||||||||||
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Solicitation of Abstracts
The SSRN Behavioral & Experimental Economics eJournal distributes working papers and accepted paper abstracts covering various aspects of behavioral and experimental economics. The objective of this eJournal is to foster insight into the cognitive and affective (emotional) factors that influence the human judgment and decision making process. The discipline of behavioral economics focuses on why individuals make decisions which appear to reflect bounded rationality, quasi rationality, and irrational behavior. This eJournal disseminates research that integrates the methods used in behavioral decision theory with the ones long established in traditional economics.
Distribution ServicesIf your Institution is interested in learning more about increasing readership for its research by becoming a Partner in Publishing or starting a Research Paper Series, please email: Management@SSRN.com. Distributed by:DirectorsERN SUBJECT MATTER EJOURNALS MARTIN S. FELDSTEIN MICHAEL C. JENSEN Please contact us at the above addresses with your comments, questions or suggestions for ERN-Sub. Advisory BoardBehavioral & Experimental Economics MORRIS ALTMAN GERRIT ANTONIDES OFER H. AZAR COLIN CAMERER WERNER F.M. DEBONDT CATHERINE C. ECKEL RICHARD FRANK URI GNEEZY CLAIRE A. HILL CATHLEEN A. JOHNSON DANIEL KAHNEMAN BIJOU YANG LESTER JOHN A. LIST GEORGE LOEWENSTEIN ROBERT J. OXOBY JOOST M.E. PENNINGS MICHAEL J. ROSZKOWSKI HUGH SCHWARTZ ANDREI SHLEIFER PAUL SLOVIC GLENN E. SNELBECKER CASS R. SUNSTEIN RICHARD H. THALER JOHN F. TOMER PAUL J. ZAK JASON ZWEIG
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