Research
My research has explored different areas. My economic experiments aim to understand human behavior and decision making, and the properties of various institutions. I have used field experiments to investigate how new policies can affect economic development through changes in behavior. I use controlled laboratory experiments to understand decision-making and strategic behavior in different social and institutional settings and the dynamics and performance of alternative market mechanisms. One of my current research areas focuses on how we measure social norms and the role of social norms on behavior.
Social Norms, Trust & Pro-Social Behavior
“Social Norms and Dishonesty across Societies” with Benjamin Beranek, Lucas Rentschler and Jonathan Schulz (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(31), 2022)
“Measuring Norms: Assessing the threat of Social Desirability Bias to the Bicchieri and Xiao elicitation method” with Francesco Bogliacino and Erik Kimbrough (Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 222)
“Measuring Norms: A Comparison of the Descriptive and Predictive Power of Three Methods” with Francesco Bogliacino and Erik Kimbrough (Working Paper)
“Eliciting Normative Expectations with the Coordination Game Allowing for Neutral Report” with Francesco Bogliacino and Erik Kimbrough (Working Paper)
“Interactions in a High Immigration Context” with Francisco B. Galarza and Javier Torres (Accepted, LAER)
“Trust and Cooperation” with Praveen Kujal and Gabriele Camera (Working Paper)
“COVID, Negative Income Shocks and Trust” with Mariana Blanco (Working Paper)
“Norms, Transgressions and Sanctions: Social distance across Societies” with Lucas Rentschler and Jonathan Schulz
“Norms and Cooperation in the Long Run” with Gabriele Camera and Praveen Kujal
Remittances & Migration
“Channeling Remittances to Education: A Field Experiment Among Migrants from El Salvador,” with Dean Yang and Catherine Ambler (American Economic Journal: Applied Economics , 7(2), 2015)
“Savings in Transnational Households: A Field Experiment Among Migrants from El Salvador” with Dean Yang, Nava Ashraf, and Claudia Martinez (Review of Economics and Statistics, 97(2), 2015)
“The Impact of Remittance Fees on Remittance Flows: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment,” with Claudia Martínez and Dean Yang (Working Paper)
“Remittance Responses to Temporary Discounts: A Field Experiment among Central American Migrants”, with Catherine Ambler and Dean Yang (Working Paper)
“Interactions in a High Immigration Context” with Francisco B. Galarza and Javier Torres (Accepted, LAER)
Information, Behavior & Mechanisms
“Does free information provision crowd out costly information acquisition? It’s a matter of timing” with Andrei Gomberg, Alexander Elbittar and Lucas Rentschler (Games and Economic Behavior, 141, 2023)
“Relative Feedback Response in Competitive Environments” with Rimvydas Baltaduonis, Haylee Downey, Kristian Fors and Lucas Rentschler (Accepted, Review of Behavioral Economics)
“Endogenous Entry in Contests with Incomplete Information: Theory and Experiments," with Lucas Rentschler (European Journal of Political Economy, 60, 2019)
“Valuation Structure in Incomplete Information Contests: Experimental Evidence,” with Lucas Rentschler and Rimvydas Baltaduonis. (Public Choice, 179(3-4), 2019)
“Auctions with Endogenous Participation and an Uncertain Number of Bidders: Experimental Evidence” with Lucas Rentschler (Experimental Economics, 21(4), 2018)
“Informed Entry in Auctions” with Hernan Bejarano and Lucas Rentschler (International Journal of Game Theory, 47(1), 2018)
“Valuation Structure in First Price and Least Revenue Auctions: An Experimental Investigation,” with Rimvydas Baltaduonis and Lucas Rentschler (Experimental Economics, 17(1), 2014)
Intertemporal Choice and Decisions under Risk & Uncertainty
“Time Preferences and Retirement Fund Choices” with Mariana Blanco
“Intertemporal Choice Experiments and Large Stakes Behavior” with Szabolcs Blazsek, Lucas Rentschler and Charles Sprenger (Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 196, 2022 )
“Smoothing, Discounting and Demand for Intra-Household Control for Recipients of Conditional Cash Transfersc” with Szabolcs Blazsek, Lucas Rentschler and Betzy Sandoval (Journal of Applied Economics, 22(1) 2019)
“Discounting and Digit Ratio: Low 2D:4D Predicts Patience for a Sample of Females” with Lucas Rentschler (Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 11, 2018)
“Off the Charts: Massive Unexplained Heterogeneity in a Global Study of Ambiguity Attitudes” with Olivier l’Haridon, Ferdinand Vieider, Agustinus Bandur, Alexis Belianin, Lubomírm Cingl, Amit Kothiyal, and Peter Martinsson (Review of Economics and Statistics, 100(4), 2018)
“Risk Preferences and Prenatal Exposure to Sex Hormones for Ladinos” with Rimvydas Baltaduonis and Lucas Rentschler (PLoS ONE, 9(8), 2014)
Other Research
“Improving Equity in Education through Youth Mentoring: An Evaluation of a Randomized Intervention in Colombia” with Diego Amador, Sebastian Fehrler, Urs Fischbacher, Anna Hochleitner, Andrés Moya, Guido Schwerdt, and Angélica Serrano (data collection ongoing) AEA RCT pre-registration
“Re-Trading, Price Discovery and Efficiency under Alternative Exchange Institutions” with David Porter and Vernon Smith