Job Market Paper

Deck, C., Khadka, P. & Razzolini, L. (2025). “Strategic Manipulation of Emotions.” Submitted to Experimental Economics.

Abstract: Previous studies have shown emotions can impact a wide array of economic behaviors. However,

that work has focused on exogenous manipulation of emotions. This paper investigates strategic

emotions’ manipulation using an investment game. In this sequential game, trust is costly but

increases the amount of money the trusted player has to allocate. Before deciding how much to

trust the other player, trustors watch a video that is intended to place them in either a happy,

excited, or neutral emotional state. For some trustors the video is chosen at random, but for others

the video is selected by the trustee. Neither the actual video trustors watch, nor their emotions as

measured using facial expression analysis are found to affect trust; however, the source of the

manipulation attempt does. Trust is significantly lower when the intended emotional state of the

trustor is a strategic choice by the trustee.

Publications                                                                                   

·   Yucel, A., Moore, L., Khadka, P. & Lee, J. (2024) “New Evidence on the Convergence of Incomes Among OECD Countries” Digital Economy and Sustainable Development.

Research in Progress

• Khadka, P., Pate, J. & Razzolini, L. (2025). “Perception vs. Reality: Actual and Estimated Dishonesty Across Professions.”

• Deck, C., Khadka, P. & Razzolini, L. (2025). “Transforming Emotions to Confidence.”

• Eynon, C., Jindapon, P., Khadka. & Razzolini, L. (2025). “Emotions and Communication in Economic Decisions.”

• Babin, J.J., Feld, T. & Khadka, P., (2021). “Ultimatum Bargaining with Earned Endowments in Framed vs Non-Framed scenarios.”

• Ghimire, S.  & Khadka, P. (2019). “Caste-Based Occupational Segregation and Wage Differentials in Nepal.”