Lab Experiments in Development

Brandon Williams

Development Economics

October 24, 2024

Lab Experiments in Development

Development Economics

October 24, 2024

Levitt and List (2007)

While few scientists would argue that observation influences whether Uranium-239 would emit beta particles and turn into Neptunium, human behavior may be sensitive to a variety of factors that systematically vary between the lab and the outside world.

Lab Experiments in Development

Development Economics

October 24, 2024

Levitt and List (2007)

  • To what extent do lab experiments reflect the real world?
  • Lab behavior influenced not just by incentives but also:
    1. Moral and ethical consideration
    2. Nature and extent of scrutiny of one's actions by others
    3. Context in which the decision is embedded
    4. Self-selection of the individuals making the decisions
    5. Stakes of the game

Lab Experiments in Development

Development Economics

October 24, 2024

Levitt and List (2007)

  • To what extent do lab experiments reflect the real world?
  • Lab behavior influenced not just by incentives but also:
    1. Moral and ethical consideration
      • People know they are being studied in a lab
      • May skew choices towards a moral judgment
    2. Nature and extent of scrutiny of one's actions by others
      • Anonymity to researchers and to other subjects
    3. Context in which the decision is embedded
      • Not completely controlled by the researcher
    4. Self-selection of the individuals making the decisions
      • Non-representative samples of the population
    5. Stakes of the game
      • Low stakes in the lab may inflate non-financial concerns

Lab Experiments in Development

Development Economics

October 24, 2024

Ethnic Preferences (2015)

  • Study of the strength of ethnic preferences in Kenya
    • The Kikuyu and Luo ethnic rivalry has played an important role in Kenyan politics and society for decades
    • Most prominently in political violence after 2007 election
  • Widely believed that these divides are strong and negative
  • Participants play traditional economics lab games that involve altruism or trust
    • Dictator game
    • Public goods game
    • Choose-Your-Dicatator
  • Little reason to believe that their own group is the person they are playing against (but they only know home region)
  • Primed on ethnicity or egoism
  • Results indicate little to no evidence of coethnic bias

Lab Experiments in Development

Development Economics

October 24, 2024

Ethnic Preferences (2015)

u_i(t)=(1-t_i)-\frac{(t_i-m_i)^2}{2b_i(1+n_jq_i)}

transfer

fairness ideal

egoism

ethnic indicator

ethnic bias

Lab Experiments in Development

Development Economics

October 24, 2024

Ethnic Preferences (2015)

Lab Experiments in Development

Development Economics

October 24, 2024

Ethnic Preferences (2015)