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Foretelling What Makes People Pay: Predicting the Results of Field Experiments on TV Fee Enforcement

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  • Katerina Chadimova
  • Jana Cahlikova
  • Lubomir Cingl

Abstract

One of the current challenges in ï¬ eld experimentation is creating an efficient design including individual treatments. Ideally, a pilot should be run in advance, but when a pilot is not feasible, any information about the effectiveness of potential treatments’ to researchers is highly valuable. We run a laboratory experiment in which we forecast results of two large-scale ï¬ eld experiments focused on TV license fee collection to evaluate the extent to which it is possible to predict ï¬ eld experiment results using a non-expert subject pool. Our main result is that forecasters were relatively conservative regarding the absolute effectiveness of the treatments, but in most cases they correctly predicted the relative effectiveness. Our results suggest that, despite the artiï¬ ciality of laboratory environments, forecasts generated there may provide valuable estimates of the effectiveness of treatments.

Suggested Citation

  • Katerina Chadimova & Jana Cahlikova & Lubomir Cingl, 2019. "Foretelling What Makes People Pay: Predicting the Results of Field Experiments on TV Fee Enforcement," Working Papers tax-mpg-rps-2019-15_1, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance.
    • Handle: RePEc:mpi:wpaper:tax-mpg-rps-2019-15_1
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    lab experiments; forecasting experimental results; ï¬ eld experiments; behavioral economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles

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