This paper addresses the external validity of experiments investigating the characteristics of altruism in the voluntary provision of public goods. We conduct two related experiments that allow us to examine whether individuals who act more altruistically in the context-free environment are also...

The importance of stressing the realism or policy relevance of a contingent valuation (CV) survey is commonly recognized by CV researchers. This paper focuses on the relationship between the probability that a subject's response will result in "real" consequences and the subject's accurate...

Internal Revenue Code guarantees privacy of taxpayer information in the administration of the U.S. income tax. Many state and local governments also support the confidentiality of taxpayer data. However, given the growth in on–line tax filing and reports of breaches in confidentiality of...

This article tests whether the use of endogenous risk categorization by insurers enables consumers to make better-informed decisions even if they do not choose to purchase insurance. We do so by adding a simple insurance market to an experimental test of optimal (Bayesian) updating. In some...

This paper reports a new experimental test of prospect theoryâ??s reflection effect. We conduct a sequence of experiments that allow us to directly compare choices under reflected gains and losses where real and hypothetical payoffs range from several dollars to over $100. Lotteries with...

An increase in the common marginal value of a public good has two effects: it increases the benefit of a contribution to others, and it reduces the net cost of making a contribution. These two effects can be decomposed by letting a contribution have an "internal" return for oneself that differs...