Experimental and Behavioural Economics
Experimental and Behavioural Economics
The Experimental and Behavioural Economics Research Group (EBERG) draws its membership from economists based at the Economics Department at Warwick who work in the fields of Experimental Economics, Behavioural Economics and/or Subjective Wellbeing (“Happiness Economics”). Experimental methods are used in many fields of economics, including behavioural economics, public economics, labour economics, political economy, game theory, and financial economics. Behavioural economics is an attempt to understand decision-making in the context of the many psychological, cognitive and emotional factors that influence behaviour. Behavioural economists typically build on traditional economic models with insights from psychology or neuroscience. Since behavioural economics concerns the underlying motivations for behaviour it can be hard (though not impossible) to find data to support or develop behavioural theories without the use of experimental methods which explains the close relationship between the two fields.
Experimental and behavioural research are fundamentally interdisciplinary and this is reflected in the fact that the group is linked to other similar groups across the University of Warwick and beyond. DR@W is the overarching interdisciplinary group of all behavioural scientists in Warwick which, together with EBERG, also takes members from the Behavioural Science Group at Warwick Business School and behavioural and experimental psychologists based in the Psychology Department, and hosts a weekly seminar, the DR@W Forum. Many members of EBERG are also affiliated with Bridges, an interdisciplinary centre that includes behavioural and experimental work in its remit that also hosts regular seminars and workshops. Behaviour, Brain and Society is one of the University of Warwick’s global research priorities (GRPs) and the co-ordinator of EBERG sits on the board of the GRP. Several group members are actively involved in the ESRC CAGE centre. Theme 3 of CAGE is led by the co-ordinator of EBERG and has a special focus on subjective wellbeing.
People
Academics
Academics associated with the Reseach Group Name research group are:
Events
DR@W Forum: Loukas Balafoutas (Exeter)
Reducing crime is a key policy objective, yet high rates of recidivism raise questions about the effectiveness of imprisonment as a deterrent. While prisons may discourage future offending through punishment, they may also function as “schools of crime” by facilitating the transmission of criminal knowledge, norms, and behaviors. This paper examines how prison networks shape inmates’ behavior using data from 490 inmates in two Spanish prisons. We elicit inmates’ networks and link them to experimentally measured outcomes capturing altruism, cooperation, aggression, cheating, and risk attitudes. A conceptual framework based on social norms predicts that peer effects influence behavior and vary with inmates’ centrality within the network. To identify peer effects, we combine network data with an instrumental variable approach and exploit random assignment to discussion groups that generate exogenous variation in social interactions. The results of IV estimation reveal strong and consistently positive peer effects across all behavioral measures, and this is supported by additional evidence from naturally occurring behaviors. Random assignment to discussion groups produces smaller peer effects, limited to altruism and cooperation. Contrary to our hypotheses, we find no evidence that inmates’ network centrality moderates peer effects. The findings contribute to the literature on crime, social networks, and correctional policy by providing novel evidence on the micro-foundations of peer influence during incarceration.