Experimental evidence on choices related to dietary habits, anticipated discrimination and charitable contributions

Abstract

This thesis studies the effect of different economic incentives on subjects’ decisions within three different settings: i) labor markets, ii) charitable giving, and iii) dietary habits. The first two chapters involve real effort task laboratory experiments, whereas chapter three is a field experiment. The variables studied include, among others, subjects’ performance, choices under potential discrimination, and children’s responsiveness to a new system of food assessment. The analysis was carried out through non-parametric tests, microeconomic modelling and econometric regressions. Chapter one studies experimentally whether potential perceived discrimination affects decisions in a labor-market setting with different stereotypes. Participants are assigned to a seven-person group and randomly allocated a role as a firm or worker. In each group, there are five workers and two firms. The only information firms have about each worker is a self-selected avatar (male, female or neutral) representing a worker’s gender. Each firm then decides which worker to hire. Depending on the treatment workers are informed about the task to be performed, either math-related, emotion-related, or they will receive no information at all. Results show that female workers react to potential discrimination when they know the task is math-related, but not otherwise. Men choose similar avatar patterns regardless of the task. Men do perform at much higher levels in the math-related task, but there is no difference in performance in the emotion-recognition task, where there is a strong female stereotype. In chapter two I look at group identity as a trigger to increase charitable giving. Although group identity has been studied under different related settings, like ingroup/out-group interactions or in Public Goods Games, little has been said on its effect on charitable behavior. With that objective in mind, I conduct a 2x2 laboratory experiment in which subjects do a real effort task to generate money with the possibility of donating part, all, or none of that money to a charity. Depending on the treatment, the real effort task is done individually or in groups of four people. I also vary whether the donation –which is made privately and individually regardless of the treatment– is either transferred as a single individual donation or added to the rest of group members ‘contributions and thus, transferred as a group donation. Results indicate that doing the task in groups increases the intensive and extensive margins of charitable giving for both individual and group donations. Results also show that donating as part of a group has an effect on the amount donated only when group identity was previously enhanced. Finally, chapter three roots within the literature on children’s healthy dietary habits and incentives to improve their choices. In particular, the field experiment studies the effect of non-monetary incentivize for children to make healthier food choices at school. Previous interventions have typically paid participants for their participation, but this often may not be feasible, neither sustainable in the long run. We introduce a system in which food items are graded based on their nutritional value, involving parents or classmates as change agents by providing them with information regarding the food choices of their children or friends. We find parents’ involvement in the decision process to be particularly beneficial in boosting healthy food choices, with very strong results that persist months after the intervention.