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On Uneven Expected Earnings in the Lab

Author

Listed:
  • Jade Wong

    (Australian School of Business, the University of New South Wales)

  • Andreas Ortmann

    (School of Economics, Australian School of Business, the University of New South WalesAuthor-Name: Craig Freedman)

Abstract

We discuss ways to cope with uneven expected lab earnings that are the likely results of role assignments. We identify three problems associated with uneven earnings in the lab: of social preferences, of low marginal return for effort, and of perceived deception. Mining the opinions of respondents from the Economic Science Association’s (ESA) discussion list, the literature, and drawing on our own experience, we present five responses experimenters can use to mitigate the three problems. We discuss the merits and drawbacks of each strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Jade Wong & Andreas Ortmann, 2014. "On Uneven Expected Earnings in the Lab," Discussion Papers 2014-07, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    • Handle: RePEc:swe:wpaper:2014-07
    as

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    File URL: http://research.economics.unsw.edu.au/RePEc/papers/2014-07.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Voslinsky, Alisa & Azar, Ofer H., 2021. "Incentives in experimental economics," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 93(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    uneven expected lab earnings; social preferences; preferences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior

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