Digital Commons Network^™

Essays On The Economic Impact Of Conflict On Communities And Individuals, Melissa Rose Trussell

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation uses varying approaches to examine effects of war on communities and individuals in developing countries, specifically in Liberia, West Africa. The first essay, based on work published jointly with Robert E. Moore in 2012, uses a case study of Saclepea, Liberia, to illustrate the role that an appropriately designed local economic development (LED) plan can play in a rural African community emerging from crisis. This case demonstrates the need for the involvement and cooperation of many parties. Clear understanding of the stage of assistance helps to define the role of each entity. This case confirms that local participation …

Essays Using Experimental Methods To Answer Social Choice, Evana Afreen

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation includes three chapters that utilize experimental methods to answer questions relating to social choices. Social choice is a broad category that can incorporate an individual’s choices when it comes to charitable giving, providing a public good or creating externalities through one’s choices.

In the first chapter “To Be or Not To Be Corrupt: An Experimental Study on Bribery” I designed a modified version of the bribery game used in Abbink et al. (2002) to study whether information on the prevalence of bribery activity within the experimental environment has an effect on behavior. In addition it also tests whether …

Organ Donation, Trust And Reciprocity, Danyang Li

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three chapters that focus on topics in fields of experimental economics and health economics.

The first chapter, “Do I Care if You Know I Betrayed You?” , examines how concern for others’ disutility from betrayal can affect the decision to repay trust in the trust game. We use a laboratory experiment to compare trustees’ behavior when betrayal is obfuscated to an identical monetary payoffs situation where betrayal is revealed. We find that more trustees choose to defect in our experiment when betrayal is obfuscated than when it is revealed. Our result suggests that concern for betrayal …

Experiments On Redistribution, Trust, And Entitlements, Daniel T. Hall

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation comprises three essays. The unifying theme is experiments used as the empirical methodology. Each essay is an independent study, but aspects of behavior related to cooperation, trust, and entitlement are present in each essay. The first essay looks at the efficiency-equality tradeoff of increasing redistribution in a small group setting. Subjects generate a stronger sense of entitlement to their labor earnings by performing a real effort task. Subjects must trust other members of their group to work in order to keep labor a profitable activity under higher levels of redistribution. We find a significant efficiency-equality tradeoff explained by …