Lab and framed lab versus natural experiments: Evidence from a risky choice experiment

Some recent papers have studied data from TV game shows to examine the behaviour of individuals towards risk. It is generally agreed that data from these shows are useful in detecting individual risk aversion in the field, with both “real life” subjects and incentives. Field experiments also include some interesting reality features that could affect individuals’ behaviour and possibly lead to different findings. This paper aims at investigating lab versus field evidence in risk taking attitudes, especially controlling for framing effects. To assess whether the behaviour of subjects in the field is consistent with that of experimental subjects, we designed an experiment to mimic (with experimental rewards and subjects) the rules of a well-known Italian TV game show, Affari Tuoi, in two different settings: a traditional lab setting, where the game was played individually (109 subjects) (Treatment 1); and a framed lab, in which the experiment was replicated in the Italian public television (RAI) studio where the show was actually recorded, with a smaller sample of undergraduate students (33) and in the presence of an audience (Treatment 2). Our comparison between the two different settings aims at establishing whether the presence of an audience, or of a situation that reproduces the stress that contestants must experience in the TV studio, can affect experimental subjects’ choices. We did not find any significant evidence of framing effects: students behave in a similar way in the two lab settings, responding essentially to incentives. Comparing the risk attitudes shown by experimental subjects in the two lab treatments with those exhibited by the contestants in the field, we found that contestants in the TV show are generally more risk averse than students in the lab.     

THE ESSENCE OF THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL

In a lecture in November 2008, Professor Huerta de Soto set out the key contributions of the Austrian School to economic thought.     

Exchange Rate Management and the External Debt Burden: The Case of the Philippines

The paper develops a simple macroeconomic model which is then estimated for the Philippines. Econometric evidence shows that Philippines monetary authorities have been reluctant to allow a real devaluation, because of a large public external debt and for the fear of fueling inflation. Simulations show that, while an overvalued exchange rate may bring some benefits in the form of lower inflation and improved budgetary performance, its current account costs may be significant. Brady-like deals can reduce fiscal imbalances, limit the sensitivity of fiscal aggregates to the exchange rate, and increase the benefits of a more aggressive exchange rate policy.     

Rethinking the import-productivity nexus for Italian manufacturing

We provide evidence on the firm level productivity effects of imports of intermediates. By exploiting a large panel of Italian manufacturing firms, we are able to separately explore the role of importing from high and low income countries. Importing does not permanently affect the firm productivity growth. This finding holds both when we test for the import entry by means of Propensity Score Matching techniques and when we analyse the import intensity within a dynamic panel data model framework. On the contrary, we confirm the existence of self-selection into importing. Also, our evidence supports the learning-by-exporting effects in Italian manufacturing and we prove that this result is robust to the control of firm import activity.     

Imports,Exports and the Firm Product Scope: Evidence From Turkey

By exploiting an original firm‐product level dataset for Turkish manufacturing, ‐way trading on firm product scope and innovation in a multiple treatment setting. Our evidence points at the prominent role of exporting, while no effect is found for importing only. Nonetheless, we corroborate existing evidence on the virtuous nexus between the two international activities and add to the literature by showing that joint firm involvement in exporting and importing fosters product innovation and quality upgrading.     

Ein Modell für existenzsichernde Beschäftigung

Die hohe Langzeit-Arbeitslosigkeit ist nach wie vor ein schwerwiegendes wirtschaftspolitisches Problem. Die aktuellen Regelungen an der Schnittstelle zwischen Transferund Arbeitseinkommen haben bisher nur unzureichend zu seiner L?sung beigetragen. Die verschiedenen diskutierten Kombilohnmodelle sind dagegen oft nicht praxistauglich. Die Autoren stellen hier das Modell für eine existenzsichernde Besch?ftigung des Bundesministeriums für Arbeit und Technologie vor. Dr. Walther Otremba, 55, ist Staatssekret?r im Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie; Dr. Daniela B?nstrup, 34, ist dort Referentin im Referat für Arbeitsmarktpolitik.     

Job mobility and the gender wage gap in Italy

This paper investigates the contribution of gender differences in job mobility to the emergence of a gender wage gap in the Italian labour market. We show that over the first 10 years of labour market experience job mobility accounts for up to 30% of total log wage growth for men and only 8.3% for women, and that this difference is mainly due to differences in returns to mobility. The gender mobility gap is robust to the inclusion of individual, job and firm characteristics, to different ways of accounting for individual unobserved heterogeneity, and is mainly found for voluntary job moves. Looking at the characteristics of the jobs and the firms' workers move to, we find that moves to larger firms represent by far the main source of gender differences in returns to mobility. We offer two possible explanations for this finding; one which involves differences in bargaining behaviour and one which relates to the theory of compensating differentials.