Research

Abstract

In this paper, we report on two experimental studies that examine the impact of social distance on delegation and uncover the behavioural mechanisms driving delegation in a principal-agent setting. Study 1 shows that reducing the social distance makes principals less likely to delegate. In a separate study, we offer evidence that directed altruism is a better candidate for explaining delegation decisions. Our findings have implications for the underlying sources of pro-social behaviour in organisational settings where managers make their decisions through hiring external agents. 

This paper examines the impact of a recent increase in the value of healthy start vouchers (HSV) on the purchase of healthy items, using a large and representative sample of 13 million shopping basket transactions from a major UK food retailer. We use a difference-in-differences (DiD) approach to show that a £1.15 increase in voucher values increased spending on fruits and vegetables (F&V) for single voucher users by 32p and for two voucher users by 77p. For all eligible items, the increase in the value of the vouchers increased spending by 31p for single voucher users and by 89p for two voucher users. Our analysis of the marginal propensity to consume (MPC) indicates that consumers treat vouchers similarly to cash transfers of the same value. We also find that the effects of the HSV program are greater in more deprived areas and areas with lower pre-change expenditure on eligible items, indicating potential benefits for reducing health inequalities. Our results have implications for the effectiveness of targeted benefit programs, such as the UK HSV program, in promoting healthy food choices.

We conduct a correspondence study to assess the extent of labour market discrimination between British and non-British (EU) nationals in the UK hospitality sector during the Brexit implementation period. The timing of our study provides a unique window into hiring decisions during a time of political uncertainty and potentially increased anti-immigrant sentiment in the UK. We explore the roles of applicant quality, nationality, and residency, and whether these interact with details of the job advertised, or with regional characteristics. Overall, our findings suggest that EU job applicants faced few obstacles in the UK hospitality sector during the Brexit negotiations. The limited discriminatory behaviour that we observe varies spatially and is mostly evident in lower invitation premia for high quality applicants from Eastern Europe.

We ask whether extrinsic motivations are crowding out intrinsic motivations to donate. We use an online experiment with two treatments. Our first treatment varies whether participants choose whether to either donate (costly action), pledge (cheap talk), or donate and pledge to a cause. We conjecture that the opportunity to share a pledge without donating is sufficient to satisfy image concerns, resulting in lower donations. Our second treatment aims at disentangling the mechanisms driving this behaviour. Our second treatment varies whether actions are unobserved (self image concerns), observed after others have made their decisions (social image concerns), or observed before others have made their decisions (signalling). We conjecture that the substitution effect away from donations will be more pronounced when social image and signalling motives are active. Our results will provide evidence for campaign managers and charity organisations on whether extrinsic motivations, such as sharing your pledge to a cause on social media, can crowd out intrinsic motivations to donate and whether the lost donations in this setting can be recovered by allowing pledges only after donations.

Everyday life often entails decisions made on behalf of others, particularly in healthcare settings where surrogates navigate critical choices such as cancer treatment, psychiatric care referrals, amputations, and end-of-life decisions. This research analyses the underlying incentive structures in medical surrogate decisions, focusing on three key decision-makers: the patient's family, medical practitioners, and appointed attorneys.

This study is conducted in two phases. In the initial phase, we conduct a survey among healthcare professionals and "regular" respondents to understand the incentive structures guiding each type of surrogate decision-maker. In particular, we test the frequency of surrogate decisions for serious medical treatments, the rationales behind decision delegation, the financial burden of the treatment outcomes, the potential risk of mortality and the impacts of several other sociodemographic indicators. In the second phase of the study, we design an experiment to test how the patients' choice of surrogates and how the surrogate's decisions change when the incentive structure for each decision maker is revealed. 

Our empirical analysis from the initial phase indicates that a significant proportion of critical medical decisions are delegated to surrogates. Furthermore, we observe noteworthy differences in decision priorities between patients and the three distinct categories of surrogates: family members, medical practitioners, and appointed attorneys. Additionally, our findings shed light on individuals' awareness of hospital protocols and their tendency to seek advice when faced with medical dilemmas.

The findings from this survey will serve as a foundation for the second phase of the study, and the refinement of an economic model of incentives and decision motivations in medical surrogate scenarios. These findings will have significant policy implications that can help hospitals and policymakers provide better care for incapacitated patients.

Food labelling policies such as front-of-pack labelling provide nutritional information and encourage healthier purchasing behaviours. Given the increased use of online food shopping, it is important to investigate the impact of enabling improved access to nutritional labels on an online platform. In this study, we explore the impact of varying access to nutritional labels on online purchasing behaviour. Using laboratory experiments we investigate the effect of offering mandatory access versus optional access to nutritional labels, both before and after the selection decision (i.e. deciding what items to add to the basket). An online store platform was designed to display a selection of food products. University students were invited to participate in the laboratory experiment and were told they had a fixed endowment that they could use to select and purchase products. At the end of the experiment, the participants were able to take the selected items home.  The students were randomly assigned to two scenarios. In the first scenario, they were given the choice to view the nutritional labels for any item displayed. In the second scenario, the nutritional labels were displayed for all items (unable to select which items). For both these scenarios, the students were offered the nutritional information either before they selected items for their basket, or after they had selected items.  All four conditions were compared to a baseline condition replicating the status quo in online shopping platforms, requiring participants to actively select an item and scroll to access its nutritional label.

Participants were also offered the opportunity to substitute chosen items with healthier alternatives before finalising their purchasing decisions. This treatment was referred to as the ‘swap treatment’. We also collected data on participants' satisfaction and emotional responses to their choices.

We anticipate that, in comparison to the baseline, participants will have an increased tendency to purchase healthier items in all treatment conditions. We will explore the impact of having the nutritional information made available for only some items versus all items and the impact of offering this information before or after product selection.  We hypothesize observing a greater proportion of participants substituting unhealthy items with healthier alternatives as the exposure to nutritional information increases. We will also explore the impact of having autonomy over how to receive nutritional information.  The results will help inform nutrition policy within an online food shopping environment.