Behavioral Economics Commons^™

Essays On Political Economy And Behavior, Seth Emblem

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays which focus on the intersection of political economy and behavioral economics. I am interested in understanding how people behave in politically adjacent areas so that we can find the policy interventions that can best address the issues that arise from these areas. To do so, I utilize incentivized survey instruments and laboratory experiments to study how people behave in these settings. In Chapter 1, I examine the question of how people respond to standard political surveys and whether these surveys reflect people’s genuine beliefs regarding factual political questions. Responses to standard political surveys suggest …

Essays In Advertising, Regulation And Consumer Naivety, Aastha Gupta

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays that focus on the theoretical analysis of regulation of firm’s communication regarding the quality of its product and the impact of such regulation on market outcome.

The first essay, “Advertising Through Influencers and Disclosure Regulation”, focuses on the recent FTC regulations which require mandatory disclosure of all paid advertising content through social media influencers. This chapter investigates the impact of this disclosure policy on market outcomes when the influencer has the expertise to evaluate product quality and influence the beliefs of both potential buyers as well as the firm. In markets where the influencers …

Other-Regarding Expert Behavior - Economics Experiments, Erik Darwin Hille

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes two experiments where experts are facing other-regarding versus self-interested choices on behalf of their clients. The experimental models isolate and examine singular aspects of the complex varied transactions that transpire between experts and their clients every day. Prior literature modeling experts in dictator games or expert advice games shows that given a clear choice with direct culpability that experts are willing to make “fair” other regarding decisions that sacrifice some of their own monetary outcome to increase the outcome for others. However, in these same experiments with the same subject, experts are willing to hide behind many …

Essays On Issues In Management And Gender, Priyanka Chakraborty

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three empirical essays that focus on the intersection of management, gender issues and education. I am interested in finding policy interventions that promote healthy, efficient and more inclusive workplaces. To do so, I study the micro and behavioral aspects of labor markets using different methodologies. In Chapters 1 and 2, I study two key features in management, namely mentorship and leadership. Both have an economic impact on individual employee outcomes as well as organizational performance. I examine advice giving in mentoring relations in my job market paper and leadership decisions, performance and styles of men and …

Three Essays On Incentive Mechanisms, Kuangli Xie

Economics Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I use both theoretical and experimental methods to investigate incentive mechanisms of the sort commonly used by firms and governments. I have finished three chapters, two of which focus on how firms choose the appropriate incentive mechanisms to motivate their employees and the other one investigates how governments design mechanisms to improve social welfare. Chapter two provides a novel explanations why stock options are widely used in executive incentive contracts. Chapter three titled ``Ask Your Workers to Report Frequently, But Not Too Often'' studies how having employees reporting their progress to supervisors affects the employees' work effort. …