Essays in behavioral economics

In this work we conduct an experimental analysis on different behavioral models of economic choice. In particular, we analyze the role of overconfidence in shaping the beliefs of economics agents about the future path of their consumption or investment. We discuss the relevance of this bias in expectation formation both from a static and from a dynamic point of view and we analyze the effect of possible interventions aimed to achieve some policy goals. The methodology we follow is both theoretical and empirical. In particular, we make large use of controlled economic field experiments in order to test the predictions of the theoretical models we propose. In the second part of the thesis we discuss the role of cognition and personality in affecting economic preferences and choices. In this way we make a bridge between established psychological research and novel findings in economics. Finally, we conduct a field study on the role of incentives on education. We design different incentive schemes and we test, on randomized groups of students, their effectiveness in improving academic performance.

Assessing Household Food Waste in Italy: A Methodology for Detecting Drivers and Quantities

It has been estimated that one third of edible food destined for human consumption is lost or wasted along the food supply chain globally. Much of the waste comes from Global North, where consumers are considered as the bigger contributors. Different studies tried to analyze and estimate the Household Food Waste (HFW), especially in UK and Northern Europe. The result is that accurate studies at national level exist only in UK, Finland and Norway while no such studies are available in Italy, except for survey- based researches. Though, there is a widespread awareness that such methods might be not able to estimate Food Waste. Results emerging from literature clearly suggest that survey estimate inferior amounts of Food Waste as a result, if compared to waste sorting and weighting analysis or to diary studies. The hypothesis that household food waste is under-estimated when gathered through questionnaires has been enquired into. First, a literature review of behavioral economics and heuristics has been proposed; then, a literature review of the sector listing the existing methodologies to gather national data on Household Food Waste has been illustrated. Finally, a pilot experiment to test a mixed methodology is proposed. While literature suggests that four specific cognitive biases might be able to affect the reliability of answers in questionnaires, results of the present experiment clearly indicate that there is a relevant difference between how much the individual thinks to waste and he/she actually does. The result is a mixed methodology based on questionnaire, diary and waste sorting, able to overcome the cons of each single method.

Essays in Behavioral Personnel Economics

The thesis contemplates 4 papers and its main goal is to provide evidence on the prominent impact that behavioral analysis can play into the personnel economics domain.The research tool prevalently used in the thesis is the experimental analysis.The first paper provide laboratory evidence on how the standard screening model–based on the assumption that the pecuniary dimension represents the main workers’choice variable–fails when intrinsic motivation is introduced into the analysis.The second paper explores workers’ behavioral reactions when dealing with supervisors that may incur in errors in the assessment of their job performance.In particular,deserving agents that have exerted high effort may not be rewarded(Type-I errors)and undeserving agents that have exerted low effort may be rewarded(Type-II errors).Although a standard neoclassical model predicts both errors to be equally detrimental for effort provision,this prediction fails when tested through a laboratory experiment.Findings from this study suggest how failing to reward deserving agents is significantly more detrimental than rewarding undeserving agents.The third paper investigates the performance of two antithetic non-monetary incentive schemes on schooling achievement.The study is conducted through a field experiment.Students randomized to the main treatments have been incentivized to cooperate or to compete in order to earn additional exam points.Consistently with the theoretical model proposed in the paper,the level of effort in the competitive scheme proved to be higher than in the cooperative setting.Interestingly however,this result is characterized by a strong gender effect.The fourth paper exploits a natural experiment setting generated by the credit crunch occurred in the UK in the2007.The economic turmoil has negatively influenced the private sector,while public sector employees have not been directly hit by the crisis.This shock–through the rise of the unemployment rate and the increasing labor market uncertainty–has generated an exogenous variation in the opportunity cost of maternity leave in private sector labor force.This paper identifies the different responses.

Social Welfare and Behavioral Public Policies

In this work I discuss several key aspects of welfare economics and policy analysis and I propose two original contributions to the growing field of behavioral public policymaking. After providing a historical perspective of welfare economics and an overview of policy analysis processes in the introductory chapter, in chapter 2 I discuss a debated issue of policymaking, the choice of the social welfare function. I contribute to this debate by proposing an original methodological contribution based on the analysis of the quantitative relationship among different social welfare functional forms commonly used by policy analysts. In chapter 3 I then discuss a behavioral policy to contrast indirect tax evasion based on the use of lotteries. I show that the predictions of my model based on non-expected utility are consistent with observed, and so far unexplained, empirical evidence of the policy success. Finally, in chapter 4 I investigate by mean of a laboratory experiment the effects of social influence on the individual likelihood to engage in altruistic punishment. I show that bystanders’ decision to engage in punishment is influenced by the punishment behavior of their peers and I suggest ways to enact behavioral policies that exploit this finding.

Essays in Health Economics

In the first chapter we develop a theoretical model investigating food consumption and body weight with a novel assumption regarding human caloric expenditure (i.e. metabolism), in order to investigate why individuals can be rationally trapped in an excessive weight equilibrium and why they struggle to lose weight even when offered incentives for weight-loss. This assumption allows the theoretical model to have multiple equilibria and to provide an explanation for why losing weight is so difficult even in the presence of incentives, without relying on rational addiction, time-inconsistency preferences or bounded rationality. In addition to this result we are able to characterize under which circumstances a temporary incentive can create a persistent weight loss. In the second chapter we investigate the possible contributions that social norms and peer effects had on the spread of obesity. In recent literature peer effects and social norms have been characterized as important pathways for the biological and behavioral spread of body weight, along with decreased food prices and physical activity. We add to this literature by proposing a novel concept of social norm related to what we define as social distortion in weight perception. The theoretical model shows that, in equilibrium, the effect of an increase in peers' weight on i's weight is unrelated to health concerns while it is mainly associated with social concerns. Using regional data from England we prove that such social component is significant in influencing individual weight. In the last chapter we investigate the relationship between body weight and employment probability. Using a semi-parametric regression we show that men and women employment probability do not follow a linear relationship with body mass index (BMI) but rather an inverted U-shaped one, peaking at a BMI way over the clinical threshold for overweight.

Essays in Gender Economics

This thesis consists of three papers on gender economics. Chapter 1 studies whether people dislike collaborating with someone who corrects them and whether the dislike is stronger when that person is a woman. Having a good relationship with colleagues is integral in group work, potentially leading to successful collaborations. However, there are occasions when people have to correct their colleagues. Using a quasi-laboratory experiment, I find that people, including those with high productivity, are less willing to collaborate with a person who has corrected them even if the correction improves group performance. In addition, I find suggestive evidence that men respond more negatively to women’s corrections, which is not driven by their beliefs about the difference in women’s and men’s abilities. These findings suggest that there is a behavioral bias in group work that distorts the optimal selection of talents and penalizes those who correct others’ mistakes, and the distortion may be stronger when women correct men. Chapter 2 studies the role of gender and cognitive skills on other peoples’ generosity. Using a novel experimental design where I exogenously vary gender and cognitive skills and sufficiently powered analysis, I find neither the two attributes nor their interactions affect other people’s generosity; if anything, people are more generous to women with high potential. Chapter 3 studies how increased legal tolerance toward domestic violence affects married women’s welfare using the domestic violence decriminalization bill introduced to the Russian national congress in 2016. Using difference-in-differences and flexibly controlling for macroeconomic shocks, I find that the bill decreased married women’s life satisfaction and increased depression, especially among those with a college degree and a highly qualified white-collar occupation supposed to be more sensitive to gender regressive atmosphere. Consistent with this conjecture, people became more tolerant toward general and domestic violence after the bill.