We develop a decision framework with imperfect information to analyze the effects of transaction costs on the tendency for individuals to remain with a default option. We demonstrate how transaction costs can be a more important source of such default effects than commonly thought. A further,...

We provide an examination of the linkage between environmental regulation stringency and the demand for and supply of abatement goods and services. To that end we construct a five-equation simultaneous model that links environmental regulation stringency to abatement output through various...

In many countries, spouses routinely hide income, consumption and assets from one another. In this paper, I provide a theoretical model in which hiding is costly and only some expenditure can be hidden. I characterise the set of ex ante Pareto efficient allocations and show by means of extended...

Based on a survey conducted with evacuees from the Fukushima radiation-affected region of Japan we examine intentions to return, eventually to the family homes. Many respondents do not intend to return, particularly those with children, but higher income households and those who evacuated to the...

Experiments with family groups are rare, but since many decisions are taken at the household level or occur within the household it is an important area to investigate. I discuss some of the methodological challenges involved in doing experiments with couples and families and consider major...

Ethical goods are increasingly available in markets for conventional goods giving pro-ethically motivated consumers a convenient option to contribute to public goods. In a previous experiment we explored the behavioural relevance of impure public goods in a within-subject setting and observed...

Experiments measuring risk and time preferences in developing countries have tended to have relatively small samples and geographically concentrated sampling. This large-scale field experiment uses a Holt-Laury mechanism to elicit the preferences of 1289 randomly selected subjects from 94...

This paper examines the incidence of public education subsidies in Ghana. Since the late 1990s, Ghana’s government has increasingly recognised human capital as a cornerstone to alleviating poverty and income inequality, causing dramatic increases of government expenditures to the education...

According to some simple models of the household, parental transfers should equalize measured risk attitudes amongst family members. We explore the theory behind this notion and then use a Holt-Laury mechanism to compare attitudes to risk amongst 412 teenage children and their parents in 38...

Using samples of polygamous and non-polygamous households from villages in rural areas south of Kano, Northern Nigeria we test basic theories of household behaviour. Husbands and wives play two variants of a voluntary contributions game in which endowments are private knowledge, but...