【本期整理:王爭】
Journal of Economic Psychology
Volume 80, October 2020
經濟心理學(JoEP)2020年10月目錄
The benefits of joint and separate financial management of couples
W. Fred van Raaij, Gerrit Antonides, I. Manon de Groot
夫妻共同管理財務和分別管理財務的益處
Abstract
Financial management differs across households with consequences for financial outcomes and well-being of partners in households. A large-sample study has been performed, investigating the relationship between financial management of households and the occurrence of financial problems. To our knowledge, this is the first study on this relationship. Data from both partners was collected on having joint and separate bank accounts, on financial decision making, on drivers of financial management, and on financial outcomes. Based on the data, four financial management styles were derived: syncratic/joint, male-dominant, female-dominant, and autonomous financial management. In the syncratic style, partners have a joint bank account and take most financial decisions together. In the male/female-dominant styles, one partner (husband or wife) takes the main financial decisions. In the autonomous style, both partners have their own bank accounts and make their own decisions. As a conclusion, we find that syncratic financial management and having a joint instead of a separate bank account correlates with fewer financial problems, as compared with male-dominant money management and having separate bank accounts. Deciding together as partners is beneficial for the quality of financial management and for avoiding financial problems.
Positive affect and pro-environmental behavior: A preregistered experiment
積極情緒和親環境行為:一項預註冊實驗
Florian Lange, Siegfried Dewitte
Abstract
In recent years, correlational evidence has accumulated in support of a positive relationship between positive affect and pro-environmental behavior. In contrast, it remains unclear whether the induction of positive affect can causally promote pro-environmental behavior. Previous attempts to examine the effects of experimental affect induction were constrained by the difficulty to study pro-environmental behavior under controlled laboratory conditions. Here, we address this limitation by examining the effect of a validated affect-induction procedure on a recently validated laboratory measure of pro-environmental behavior. Participants in our preregistered experiment (N = 178) watched and rated video clips pretested to induce either positive or neutral affect before completing 24 trials on the Pro-Environmental Behavior Task (PEBT). Results did not reveal any evidence in support of a positive effect of positive affect on PEBT behavior. This result illustrates the need for further systematic and cumulative research on the complex relationship between affect and pro-environmental behavior.
The effect of education, income inequality and merit on inequality acceptance
Abigail Barr, Luis Miller
教育,收入不平等和績效對不平等接受的影響
Abstract
A large number of observational and experimental studies have explored the determinants of individual preferences for redistribution. In general, inequalities are more likely to be accepted by people of higher socioeconomic status, in richer societies and when inequalities are perceived as justifiable owing to differences in productivity. Almås et al. (2020) show that in a relatively unequal society (the United States), the highly educated accept inequality significantly more than the less educated, whereas, in a relatively equal society (Norway), the less educated accept inequality more, but not significantly more, than the highly educated. Here, we replicate this finding using data from experiments conducted in four locations across three countries all distinct from the ones studied by Almås et al. However, a closer look at the data indicates that the origin of the interaction effect varies depending on which societies one compares. Data for Norway and the United States indicate that meritocratic values among the highly educated are less prevalent in more equal societies and that this is the driver of the triple interaction effect. In contrast, in our data the interaction effects have multiple drivers.
Impact of inflated perceptions of financial literacy on financial decision making
Bhanu Balasubramnian, Carol Springer Sargent
對金融知識的過度感知對財務決策的影響
Abstract
We examine whether inflated perceptions of financial literacy affect financial decision making. Gaps between objective financial literacy and self-reported (perceived) financial literacy (blind spots) predict 19 financial behaviors better than age, gender, income, ethnicity, marital status, self-employment status, and general education levels. Only two predictors, perceived financial literacy and financial education, carried similar levels of predictive power on financial behaviors. Those with inflated perceptions of financial literacy are more likely to miss mortgage payments, receive a collection call, use informal debt, and have poor banking behavior. Those without blind spots make better financial decisions. The differences between those with and without blind spots are more pronounced among individuals with higher education and income.
Gender differences in risk behavior and the link to household effects and individual wealth
Ling Yee Khor, Orkhan Sariyev, Tim Loos
風險行為中的性別差異及其與家庭效應、個人財富的聯繫
Abstract
This study examined the differences in risk behavior between men and women using a household survey that captured the risk preferences of two members in a household and recorded wealth at the individual level instead of the usual approach of representing wealth at the household level. After controlling for commonly used explanatory variables, such as gender, education, age, and wealth, household fixed effects explain about 15% of the variation in risk behavior. This highlights the magnitude of household effects in shaping one’s risk behavior. In general, females in the study area are more risk averse than males based on a risk game with real payout. The gender differences disappear when focusing on only the top land owners. However, even in those cases, females consider themselves more risk averse, supporting results from previous studies that link culture and societal norms to the gender differences in risk behavior.
Why is dishonesty difficult to mitigate? The interaction between descriptive norm and monetary incentive
Arnab Mitra, Quazi Shahriar
為什麼不誠實行為很難緩解? 描述性規範與貨幣激勵的交互作用
Abstract
We examine whether changes in perceived norm of dishonesty can offset the effects of changes in benefit from the dishonest action. We find partial support for the hypothesis in laboratory experiments on lying behavior in a cheap-talk sender-receiver game, conducted in two countries. In the experiments, we vary benefit from lying and shift senders』 norm perception by providing them information on lying from prior sessions. The findings suggest that senders adjust their perceived norm as expected, but they respond to norm in a somewhat self-serving manner. Specifically, when benefit from lying is lowered but senders are induced to believe in a higher norm of lying, they lie significantly more than when norm is not intervened. However, when benefit from lying is raised, our intervention to shift perceived norm of lying downward succeeds in altering senders』 belief as intended, but does not lower lying significantly. The results can be conceived as an indirect evidence of the challenge in curbing dishonesty by reducing private pecuniary gains in a society with a culture of dishonesty, while suggesting that even societies with history of low dishonesty may succumb to dishonesty when pecuniary incentives for dishonesty rise.
Intra-household arrangements: How important are they in terms of male-female subjective well-being?
Elena Bárcena-Martín, Maite Blázquez, Ana I. Moro-Egido
家庭內部安排:對男女性主觀幸福感來講,這些安排有多重要?
Abstract
This paper aims to analyze the impact of different intra-household arrangements, defined in terms of income pooling and decision-making responsibilities, on individual subjective well-being in a number of European countries. Using the EU-SILC 2010 module on intra-household sharing of resources and self-assessed health, as a dimension of subjective well-being, we find that the relationship between self-reported health and family arrangements differs by gender and area of decision. The results provide interesting insights on the potential determinants of individual self-assessed health that go beyond the standard ones. In particular, we identify higher levels of males』 and females』 self-assessed health connected to them controlling or sharing financial decisions. Moreover, males』 self-assessed health is positively linked to female making domestic decisions, and negatively if decisions are of financial type; whereas females』 self-assessed health is positively associated to them taking domestic decisions only in households where incomes are not fully pooled. Thus, our findings might be of help for politicians to design the most effective policies intended to improve individual standards of living and to reduce social inequalities.
Blown off-course? Weight gain among the economically insecure during the great recession
偏離航道?經濟不安全的人在經濟衰退時期體重會增加
Barry Watson, Angela Daley, Nicholas Rohde, Lars Osberg
This paper adds to the 「costs of recessions」 literature by examining whether the Great Recession caused an increase in body mass index (BMI) among economically insecure working age adults. Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) design and two panels of the Canadian National Population Health Survey, we compare the pre-recession era (2004–2005) with the Great Recession (2008–2009). In addition to stratifying by gender, quantile regressions examine BMI changes at different points along the outcome distribution, and we extend our DiD model to examine how effects vary across income, education, and age. Our results suggest that the increased economic stress of job insecurity or joblessness during the Great Recession caused a 2-point increase in BMI for females, and a 3-point increase for males aged 45–64. Results weakly suggest that lower educated males who were economically insecure during the Great Recession also gained 3 BMI points. For working age Canadians of average height, this translates to a 12 and 20 lb (5.44 and 9.07 kilogram) increase for vulnerable females and males respectively.
Gender attitudes in the Arab region – The role of framing and priming effects
Ann-Kristin Reitmann, Micheline Goedhuys, Michael Grimm, Eleonora E.M. Nillesen
阿拉伯地區的性別觀念——框架效應和啟動效應的作用
Abstract
Most evidence on survey response effects is based in the Western world. We use data from two randomized experiments built into a nation-wide representative household survey in Tunisia to analyze the effects of framing and priming on responses to gender attitudes in the Arab context. Our first experiment shows that questions on attitudes towards decision-making power when framed in an equality frame reduce responses in favor of gender inequality. In our second experiment we find that responses to attitudes towards domestic violence are susceptible to an audio primer. Oral statistical information about the incidence of domestic violence in Tunisia increases disapproval of domestic violence among the male subsample further, but does not affect women. In terms of impact heterogeneity, we find mixed results for treatment interventions interacting with the gender of the interviewer and the interviewer’s perceived religiosity.
本期編輯:竇東徽