Essays on Experimental Economics

Der Ausgangspunkt dieser Dissertation ist der Gedanke, dass es in dem Interesse der Gesellschaft ist, prosoziales Verhalten zu fördern. Weitaus fraglicher ist, welche Strategien geeignet sind, um dieses Ziel zu erreichen. In dieser Arbeit betrachte ich drei Maßnahmen: Die Einführung von Reputationssystemen, die Möglichkeit Agenten direkt aufzufordern, sich prosozial zu verhalten, und ein Taking-Frame. Dafür habe ich Laborexperimente durchgeführt, die so gestaltet sind, dass sie das Verständnis für den Einfluss dieser drei Strategien vertiefen kann. In der ersten Studie, die in gemeinsamer Arbeit mit Claudia Keser erstellt wurde, analysieren wir, ob der förderliche Einfluss von Reputationssystemen auf prosoziales Verhalten durch einen Positive Bias im Bewertungsverhalten beeinflusst wird. In der zweiten Studie präsentiere ich ein Experiment, das den Einfluss der Wiederholung von Spendenanfragen testet. In der dritten Studie, die in gemeinsamer Arbeit mit Claudia Keser erstellt wurde, untersuchen wir die Interkation zwischen einem Taking-Frame und Information bezüglich der empfangenden Wohltätigkeitsorganisation. Ich finde, dass der positive Einfluss der drei Maßnahmen (Reputationssysteme, Spendenanfragen und Taking-Frame) auf prosoziales Verhalten im gewissen Maß robust ist. Sogar ein verzerrtes System erzeugt hohes Vertrauen und starke Vertrauenswürdigkeit. Die Wiederholung von Spendenanfragen führt zu einem leichten Anstieg von Spenden, besonders durch jene, die gerne wiederholt spenden. Der Taking-Frame hat einen positiven Einfluss auf Spenden, sogar wenn umfangreiche Information bezüglich der Rezipientin angeboten ist. Nichtsdestoweniger, sollten Marktdesigner*innen, Fundraiser*innen und Politiker*innen aufmerksam die institutionelle Umgebung beachten, in der die Strategien angewandt werden, wenn sie eine Erwartung bezüglich des Einflusses der Maßnahmen auf prosoziales Verhalten formulieren.The starting point of this dissertation is the idea that it is in the interest of society to foster prosocial behavior. Far more debatable is which strategies are suitable to promote prosocial behavior. In this thesis, I consider three measures: the implementation of a reputation system, asking agents directly to act prosocially, and a taking frame. I run laboratory experiments that are designed to deepen the understanding of the impact of these three strategies. In Study 1, which is joint work with Claudia Keser, we analyze if the fostering impact of reputation systems on prosocial behavior is mitigated by a positive bias in rating giving. In Study 2, I report on an experiment that tests the impact of a repetition of donation requests. In Study 3, which is joint work with Claudia Keser, we study the interaction between a taking frame and information about the receiving charity. I find that the positive impact of the three measures (reputation systems, donation requests, and the taking frame) on prosocial behavior is to some extent robust. Even a distorted reputation system yields substantial trust and trustworthiness. Repeating donation requests leads to some slight increase in charitable giving, especially driven by those who like to donate repeatedly. The taking frame has a positive impact on donations, even when extensive information about the recipient is provided. Nevertheless, market designers, fundraisers, and policy makers should carefully consider the institutional environment within which the strategies are applied when forming their expectation about the impact of the measures on prosocial behavior.2021-04-2

The role of volunteered geographic information in land administration systems in developing countries

PhD ThesisDeveloping countries, especially in Africa are faced with a lack of formally registered land. Available limited records are outdated, inaccurate and unreliable, which makes it a challenge to properly administer and manage land and its resources. Moreover, limited maintenance budgets prevalent in these countries make it difficult for organizations to conduct regular systematic updates of geographic information. Despite these challenges, geographic information still forms a major component for effective land administration. For a land administration system (LAS) to remain useful, it must reflect realities on the ground, and this can only be achieved if land information is reported regularly. However, if changes in land are not captured in properly administered land registers, LAS lose societal relevance and are eventually replaced by informal systems. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) can address these LAS challenges by providing timely, affordable, up-to-date, flexible, and fit for purpose (FFP) land information to support the limited current systems. Nonetheless, the involvement of volunteers, who in most cases are untrained or non-experts in handling geographic information, implies that VGI can be of varying quality. Thus, VGI is characterised by unstructured, heterogeneous, unreliable data which makes data integration for value-added purposes difficult to effect. These quality challenges can make land authorities reluctant to incorporate the contributed datasets into their official databases. This research has developed an innovative approach for establishing the quality and credibility of VGI such that it can be considered in LAS on an FFP basis. However, verifying volunteer efforts can be difficult without reference to ground truth, which is prevalent in many developing countries. Therefore, a novel Trust and Reputation Modelling (TRM) methodology is proposed as a suitable technique to effect such VGI validation. TRM relies on a view that the public can police themselves in establishing ‘proxy’ measures of VGI quality and credibility of volunteers, thus facilitating VGI to be used on an FFP basis in LAS. The output of this research is a conceptual participatory framework for an FFP land administration based on VGI. The framework outlines major aspects (social, legal, technical, and institutional) necessary for establishing a participatory FFP LAS in developing countries.University of Botswan