Andrea Burro

Job Market Paper

Self-Esteem and Procrastination: Evidence from a Field Experiment (draft available upon request)

Abstract: Commitment devices are a common solution for procrastination, yet evidence on their effectiveness is mixed. The theory of self-handicapping procrastination points to a different cause: people procrastinate to protect their self-image, because failure after low effort can be attributed to effort rather than ability. This tendency is stronger for people with low self-esteem, so raising self-esteem should reduce procrastination. I test this mechanism in a field experiment with 2,774 university students. Students are randomly assigned to a self-esteem booster that provides a positive message about their study time, a goal-setting intervention, an information treatment that reports the same study time as the booster without the positive message, or a control group, with treatments delivered through weekly notifications in a learning app. Using a novel high-frequency dataset from the app, I find that the booster increases overall study effort during the academic year, and more study effort in every day of the week. The goal-setting and information interventions have no significant effect, so the result comes from the positive message rather than from information on study time. The effect on study effort persists in the following semester, after the intervention ends, which suggests habit formation. Survey evidence supports the mechanism: students in the booster group report higher self-esteem and lower procrastination.

Presented at: Ph.D. Seminar, St. Gallen; EER Summer School in Experimental and Behavioral Economics, Rome; The Chicago School in Experimental Economics, Chicago; Advances with Field Experiments (AFE) Conference, Chicago; North-American Economic Science Association (ESA) Meeting, Tucson; Behavioral Economics Lab Group, Chicago Booth; University of Chicago Experimental Group, Chicago; Economics Brown Bag Seminar, St. Gallen; SKILS Seminar, Laax; Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab, Chicago Harris; LEAP Lunch Seminar, Bocconi University; Milan PhD Economics Workshop, Bocconi University; Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES) Annual Congress, St. Gallen; European Economic Association (EEA) Meeting, Dublin; European Association for Labour Economists (EALE) Conference, Barcelona; European Economic Science Association (ESA) Meeting, Barcelona; Swiss Education Network Workshop, St. Gallen; Innovation Growth Lab (IGL) (scheduled); Economics Brown Bag Seminar, Lugano (scheduled)

Working Papers

The Thin Line: AI Performance Evaluation and Risk Taking (draft available upon request)

Abstract: How does replacing human evaluators with AI affect workers’ risk taking? I exploit the staggered adoption of Electronic Line Calling (ELC) in professional tennis, a technology that replaces potentially biased human line judges with an accurate automated camera system, in a sample of 13,073 matches, 552 players, and 94 tournaments from 2021 to 2025. Using a fixed-effects design that isolates within-player variation across tournaments with different ELC status, I study the impact of ELC on serve risk taking. I find that ELC reduces the ace rate by 0.50 percentage points (7% of the control mean), the double-fault rate by 0.15 percentage points (4% of the control mean), and raises the first-serve-in rate by 0.39 percentage points (1% of the control mean). Players also react by adjusting the direction of their serves. A model in which human leniency acts as insurance for aggressive play rationalizes these findings and implies that the precision gains from AI monitoring may come at the cost of discouraging productive but risky behavior.

Presented at: PhD Seminar, Bocconi University

Work in Progress

Intergenerational mobility: the role of peers in higher education,

with Elisabeth Essbaumer and Beatrix Eugster (data collection in progress)

On the Mechanisms of Ability Peer Effects,

with Beatrix Eugster and Valentina Sontheim (data collection in progress)

In or Out? Goals and Productivity,

with Jeremia Stalder (pilot concluded)

Digital Cupid? Dating Apps, Mental Health, Beliefs and Sorting: Evidence from a Field Experiment,

with Matteo Fossi (pilot in progress)

Loneliness and Time Preferences,

with Giovanni Burro (pilot concluded)

Publications

Are European cities achieving emission reduction commitments? A comparative analysis under the Covenant of Mayors initiative, 

with Benedetta Lucchitta , Valentina Palermo, Giulia Melica, Tania Molteni, Paolo Bertoldi, Edoardo Croci

Helyon, Volume 10, Issue 1, January 2024

Article on unibocconi.it