Major Papers

Abstract

Behavior within an experiment is generally explained by either a pure profit motive or a response to the context of the experiment which is likely driven by different factors such as individuals' environmental friendliness. Are participants in laboratory experiments responding to the context of the experimental setting and not merely to a profit motive? Using a preliminary analysis, I draw evidence from data collected in a two-stage laboratory experiment designed and conducted by Palm-Forster et al. (In Press) at the University of Delaware. In the first stage of the experiment, participants performed a series of tasks concerning their tradeoffs between monetary profits and environmental friendliness. In the second stage, participants made a choice of donating to a large environmental organization. In total, 156 undergraduate students participated in the experiment. The analysis in this paper provides preliminary results that need to be verified in future research after overcoming key model specification issues.

Primary Advisor

Dr. Tongzhe Li

Program Reader

Dr. Marcelo Arbex

Additional committee member(s)

Dr. Leah Palm-Forster

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Economics

Document Type

Major Research Paper

Convocation Year

2018

Share

COinS