Water is a classic common pool resource, especially during drought. This paper studies the impact of changing storage levels on urban water usage in the context of a prolonged drought and an extensive public information campaign which emphasized communal responsibility for maintaining ‘dam...

Demand management has been of interest in dry climates such as Australia, Spain and the Western United States for decades. It is particularly important to understand policy options during drought conditions, as drought periods have a disproportionate effect on supply infrastructure decisions....

To avoid conflicts often associated with mandatory regulations, it is crucial to motivate and incentivize forest owners to participate in voluntary conservation programs. To investigate forest owner preferences and willingness to accept compensation (WTA) to participate, we conduct a contingent...

Individuals with a preference for keeping moral obligations may dislike learning that voluntary contributions are socially valuable: Such informa- tion can trigger unpleasant feelings of cognitive dissonance. I show that if initial beliefs about the social value of contributions are sufficiently...

<Para ID="Par1">The present paper investigates the factors affecting water utility companies’ decision to implement public information campaigns aimed at promoting sustainable water use and reducing household water consumption. We have analyzed 114 Italian water utility companies. For each we hand-collected...</para>

Objective: To examine whether individuals who learn that voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) partially reduces female-to-male HIV transmission erroneously infer a reduction in male-to-female HIV transmission risk. Design: Cluster randomised controlled trial. Methods: In 2008, information...

This paper revisits the question of framing and the provision of public goods. It also addresses the question, is giving in Dictator Games an expression of altruism or an artefact of experimentation? What is unique about this paper is that we employ a “real donation” lab experiment in a...

This paper revisits the question of “warm glow” vs. „cold prickle” and the provision of public goods. It also addresses the question, is giving in Dictator Games an expression of altruism or an artifact of experimentation? What is unique about this paper is that we employ a “real...

This paper presents results from a modified dictator experiment aimed at distinguishing and quantifying intrinsic motivations for giving. We employ an experimental design with three treatments that vary the recipient (experimenter, charity) and amount passed (fixed, varying). We find giving to...

Using a newly collected dataset on inquisitorial activity for seven regions, fourteen provinces and 947 municipalities, I analyze the long-term economic consequences of the Spanish Inquisition (1478-1834). I show that inquisitorial activity is negatively associated to regional and provincial...