Although contests are recognized theoretically as a highly effective method of motivation, the competitive nature of contests may generate unintended negative effects on social interactions in more general settings beyond contests. Using a laboratory experiment of real effort tasks with...

We examine the effect of contract-based incentives on the performance of NBA players using data from the 2004-05 to 2014-15 seasons. We find support for a contract year effect, meaning that players in the last season of their current contract improve their performance in order to secure better...

Major natural disasters are often life-changing events, capable of potentially altering the economic behavior of those who experience it first-hand. We investigate the impact of experiencing a major earthquake on individuals’ investment and consumption expenditure shares using the major...

We study a hierarchical Bayesian persuasion game with a sender, a receiver, and several potential intermediaries, generalizing the framework of Kamenica and Gentzkow (2011). The sender must be persuasive through a hierarchy of intermediaries to reach the final receiver, whose action affects all...

When interacting with others, individuals are often known to adjust their behavior based on the gender characteristics of the other person. Information about another person’s gender tends to influence both behavior towards that individual, as well as expectations about that individual’s...

Reference-dependent utility has been shown to have a significant influence on housing market activity. Sellers facing a nominal loss on their home due to market conditions, tend to inflate the asking price and thus the transaction price of their home, indicative of loss aversion. However, the...

The effects of asymmetric information are often difficult to detect empirically, such as in insurance settings. We show that allowing for reference-dependent preferences can assist with this empirical challenge. Using detailed auto insurance claims data, we show that policyholders exhibit...

Commuting to work by shared bicycle is an increasingly popular transportation option. We examine the trip data from Citibike, the shared bicycle program of New York City, restricting analysis to morning rides into the Wall Street area, a destination for which workers are likely to be sensitive...

How can a government regulate an existing transportation monopoly based on features of the transport market and route structures? We analyze the government's regulatory problem from the perspective of two possible strategies: partially publicizing the existing monopolist, and entering the...