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Motivating Innovation: The Effect of Loss Aversion on the Willingness to Persist

Author

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  • Yaroslav Rosokha

    (Purdue University)

  • Kenneth Younge

    (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)

Abstract

We investigate the willingness of individuals to persist at exploration when confronted by prolonged periods of negative feedback. We design a two-dimensional maze game and run a series of randomized experiments with human subjects in the game. Our results suggest individuals explore more when they are reminded of the incremental cost of their actions, a result that extends prior research on loss aversion and prospect theory to environments characterized by model uncertainty. In addition, we run simulations based on a model of reinforcement learning that extend beyond two-period models of decision making to account for repeated behavior in longer-running, dynamic contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Yaroslav Rosokha & Kenneth Younge, 2020. "Motivating Innovation: The Effect of Loss Aversion on the Willingness to Persist," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(3), pages 569-582, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:102:y:2020:i:3:p:569-582
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Dexiang Yang & Qin Yang & Lei Zhang, 2023. "Operational Decisions on Remanufacturing under the Product Innovation Race," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-18, March.
    3. Marcela Ibanez & Sebastian O. Schneider, 2021. "Income Risk, Precautionary Saving, and Loss Aversion – An Empirical Test," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2021_06, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    4. Tingyu Zhou & John M Clapp & Ran Lu‐Andrews, 2022. "Examining omitted variable bias in anchoring premium estimates: Evidence based on assessed value," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 50(3), pages 789-828, September.
    5. Karthik Kannan & Vandith Pamuru & Yaroslav Rosokha, 2023. "Analyzing Frictions in Generalized Second-Price Auction Markets," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(4), pages 1437-1454, December.
    6. Charles A. Holt & Sean P. Sullivan, 2023. "Permutation tests for experimental data," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 26(4), pages 775-812, September.

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