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Kossuth Cabrejos, Jorge Lajos (2022) Essays in applied and experimental behavioural science. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3782168
Abstract
This thesis comprises three essays on Applied and Experimental Behavioural Science. Broadly, it explores topics in the behavioural sciences related to gender differences in decision-making under incomplete information, income-rank social comparisons and their relationship with income-based subjective wellbeing, and emotional hedging – betting against the occurrence of desired outcomes. Causal analysis is achieved by using state-of-the-art experimental and quasi-experimental methodologies.
In Chapter 1, my co-author and I compare decisions by female and male judges in child support trials with complete and incomplete information where a randomly assigned judge decides on the father’s income allocation to children. We contribute to the literature on gender differences in judicial decision-making, but also to a novel literature that attempts not only to detect outcome disparities, but also to study the reasoning behind these differences in decision-making processes. We find that female judges set lower awards in both cases in comparison to male judges. However, the gender gap under incomplete information is around two thirds the size of that under complete information. In exploring mechanisms underlying this difference, we propose a simple framework to elicit judges’ beliefs about the unknown income in such cases by using their judicial behaviour in cases where income is known. We find that female judges estimate that the unknown income is higher. Thus, gender differences in estimated beliefs act as a countervailing force and explain the attenuation of judges’ gender differences in decisions under incomplete information.
In Chapter 2, I estimate the direct and indirect effects - through changes in absolute income and income rank - of the Peruvian “JUNTOS” Programme on Income Satisfaction. Causal identification comes from a difference-in-differences analysis that exploits the variation in the rollout of the programme in different districts at different times, together with its eligibility criterion: a poverty score calculated ad hoc for JUNTOS. The degree to which JUNTOS is perceived to be satisfactory is important for two reasons. First, while a cash transfer will certainly increase income levels, it might not be enough to improve the provision of a minimum desired amount of goods and services. Second, measures of income satisfaction might provide better accounts of welfare inequality for policymakers to follow, since they are closer to people’s intuitive feelings about inequality. I find that JUNTOS only affects Income Satisfaction indirectly through changes in absolute income and income rank, results that do not support a strong income rank hypothesis (absolute income is a stronger determinant of income satisfaction than income rank). They also suggest neighbours are the most important reference group and show that social comparisons (based on income rank) only appear for those above the poverty line.
Finally, in Chapter 3, my co-authors and I study whether people gain significant emotional benefits from not engaging in emotional hedging – deciding to bet against the occurrence of a desired outcome. While there is plenty of evidence of people being strongly averse to emotional hedging – which suggests a possible violation of the standard utility theories, since they would be avoiding minimizing gains and losses -, surprisingly little is known about the success of either strategy – hedging versus not hedging – at maximizing experienced utility during as well as following the realization of the outcome. After six rounds of a lab-in-the-field experiment during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, we find, first, that only a minority of subjects choose to bet against the success of the England football team in the tournament. We also find that betting for England to win produces a sharp and significant decline in happiness when England loses their matches. Conversely, post-match happiness was more stable for those who hedged regardless of the expected match outcome. These results suggested that, despite hedging being a more efficient strategy in monetary and affective terms, people did not engage in it.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HG Finance H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Human behavior, Decision making, Decision making -- Sex differences, Judicial process -- Sex differences, Child support, Income -- Psychological aspects, Hedging (Finance) -- Psychological aspects, Well-being, Utility theory | ||||
Official Date: | April 2022 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Warwick Business School | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Chater, Nick ; Powdthavee, Nick | ||||
Sponsors: | University of Warwick. Chancellor’s International Scholarship | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | v, 130 leaves : illustrations, charts | ||||
Language: | eng |
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