Behavioural Development Economics: Lessons from Field Labs in the Developing World

Abstract

Explanations of poverty, growth and development depend on the assumptions made about individual preferences and the willingness to engage in strategic behaviour. Economic experiments, especially those conducted in the field, have begun to paint a picture of economic agents in developing communities that is at variance with the traditional portrait. We review this growing literature with an eye towards preference-related experiments conducted in the field. We also offer lessons on what development economists might learn from experiments. We conclude by sharing our thoughts on how to conduct experiments in the field and then offer a few ideas for future research.

Using crowdsourced online experiments to study context-dependency of behavior

“…Camerer and Fehr, 2004;Wells and Rand, 2013). Indeed, responders from both student pools and non-standard samples frequently decline low offers (Camerer, 2003;Cardenas and Carpenter, 2008). We interpret rejection as informal sanctioning of norm violations: Responders' behavior indicates willingness to reciprocate negatively giving up their own profits to enforce normative principles (Camerer and Fehr, 2004;Rauhut and Winter, 2010).…”

“…individual motivations not restricted to one's own well-being but including the well-being of others (Camerer and Fehr, 2004). Marginal totals are well-documented for various populations (Camerer, 2003;Cardenas and Carpenter, 2008;Henrich et al, 2010) and stake levels (Camerer and Hogarth, 1999;Carpenter et al, 2005). Each protocol is easily understandable by participants of different social backgrounds and training.…”

“…Cardenas and Carpenter, 2008;Forsythe et al, 1994; Sefton 1992) but does not affect proposer behavior in the UG (e.g. Cameron, 1999;Carpenter et al, 2005;Hoffman et al, 1996).…”

“…The last 15 years have seen a sharp increase in experiments conducted at multiple locations including developing countries and small-scale societies (see Cardenas and Carpenter, 2008 for an overview). Above all Henrich et al (2005Henrich et al ( , 2010 have added to our understanding of culturally molded decision-making and its interaction with socio-economic development.…”

“…However, cross-regional comparisons for estimating effects of living conditions and cultural patterns on economic behavior have run into obstacles due to limited transferability of standardized decision situations into parallel laboratory set-ups (e.g. Baumard and Sperber, 2010;Cardenas and Carpenter, 2008). Our online design circumvents these methodological challenges by transporting a homogeneous decision situation into variable living conditions and social contexts.…”