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Social Information “Nudges”: An Experiment with Multiple Group References
journal contribution
posted on 2017-03-31, 15:37 authored by Shaun Hargreaves Heap, Abhijit Ramanlingam, David Rojo ArjonaSocial information “nudges” concerning how others perform typically boost individual performances in experiments with one group reference point. However, in many natural settings, sometimes due to policy, there are several such group reference points. We address the complications that such multiple group social information might introduce through an experiment. The boost to average performance is significant and comparable to the one group case. Between-group inequality does not change. Individual inequality falls, however, because the boost is largest among the pre-“nudge” very poor performers. Finally, the boost to average performance is highest when individuals freely choose their group affiliations.
Funding
Hargreaves Heap’s work was supported by the Economic and Social Science Research Council through the Network for Integrated Behavioural Science (Grant reference ES/K002201/1). Funding from the School of Economics, University of East Anglia and the Department of Political Economy, King’s College London is gratefully acknowledged.
History
Citation
Southern Economic Journal, 2017Author affiliation
/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, ARTS AND HUMANITIES/Department of EconomicsVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)