In experimental economics there exists a lively debate about the independence of observations. Although opinions on the issue differ widely, all concerns regard the independence of subjects’ behavior within one session or experiment. This paper attempts to shed some light on the independence of observations between experiments, if they are generated by the same subjects. We analyze experiments ...

The focus of this paper is the endogenous formation of peer groups. In our model, agents choose peers before making contributions to public projects, and they differ in how much they value one project relative to another. Thus, the group’s preference composition affects the type of contributions made. We characterize stable groups and find that they must be sufficiently homogeneous. We also pro...

This short paper discusses majority and minority views in economics regarding the value of neuroscience for economics – and thus the value of the neuroeconomics research program. It argues that neuroeconomics’ reception ultimately depends on whether economists adopt a philosophy of science thinking closer to what exists in other sciences. It then argues that an inadvertent a product of this deb...

The ability to accurately assess others’ intents, beliefs, and emotions – called Theory of Mind (ToM) – is conjectured to be important for social cooperation. We study the role of ToM ability in fostering cooperation in the simultaneous and sequential prisoners dilemma (PD) games. Our norm-based model predicts that high ToM ability individuals will believe in more cooperation and cooperate at h...

We experimentally investigate information aggregation through majority voting when some voters are biased. In such situations, majority voting can have a “dark side,”that is, result in groups making choices inferior to those made by individuals acting alone. In line with theoretical predictions, information on the popularity of policy choices is beneficial when a minority of voters is biased, b...

This paper explores the consequences of cognitive dissonance, coupled with timeinconsistent preferences, in an intertemporal decision problem with two distinct goals: acting decisively on early information (vision) and adjusting flexibly to late information (flexibility). The decision maker considered here is capable of manipulating information to serve her self-interests, but a tradeoff betwee...

A relevance, distinctiveness and plausibility (RDP) analysis is a conceptual framework that can be used to identify when potential confounds are a problem for interpreting experimental results. We illustrate this analysis using the creation or enhancement of natural group identity by the means of priming manipulations as employed in the experiments of five target papers. Such priming manipulati...

This article provides an axiomatic characterization of quasi-hyperbolic discounting and a more general class of semi-hyperbolic preferences. We impose consistency restrictions directly on the intertemporal trade-offs by relying on what we call ‘‘annuity compensations.’’ Our axiomatization leads naturally to an experimental design that disentangles discounting from the elasticity of intertempora...

Imperfect information and inattention to energy costs are important potential motivations for energy efficiency standards and subsidies. We evaluate these motivations in the lightbulb market using a theoretical model and two randomized experiments. We derive welfare effects as functions of reduced-form sufficient statistics capturing economic and psychological parameters, which we estimate usin...

Poverty remains one of the most pressing problems facing the world. In this paper, I review evidence suggesting that poverty has particular neurobiological consequences, and that these consequences in turn lead to suboptimal economic behaviors which exacerbate and perpetuate poverty. Speci cally, I argue that poverty raises levels of the stress hormone cortisol, causes dysregulation and altered...