Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-77). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 19, 2009) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Economics, June 2000. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-92).

Contrairement à l'hypothèse conventionnelle d'égoïsme avancée par la théorie standard, il est largement reconnu que les gens se comportent systématiquement de manière prosociale et, en outre, que la propension à le faire est sensible à plusieurs éléments du contexte décisionnel, qui autrefois étaient systématiquement relégués au second plan. Notre thèse s'intéresse particulièrement au fait que les préférences sociales constituent des éléments contextuels décisifs et examine la mesure dans laquelle les normes sociales peuvent expliquer des déviations comportementales qui autrement pourraient sembler irrationnelles. Dans un contexte où les budgets publics sont limités et ou les défis sociaux et environnementaux sont de plus en plus pressants, les interventions basées sur des approches comportementales peuvent constituer des instruments politiques attrayants, notamment du fait de leur moindre coût en comparaison des mesures basées sur descontraintes réglementaires et/ou sur des incitations économiques. Étant donné que les normes sociales peuvent être un déterminant important des performances globales d'une société dans des domaines très variés, nous étudions plusieurs aspects liés à la conception optimale de ces interventions comportementales qui exploitent les considérations normatives, ainsi que de la dynamique entre les normes sociales et les mesures institutionnelles formelles. Nous réalisons également une revue de la littérature relative à l'impact des interventions basées sur les normes sociales sur les comportementsenvironnementaux ainsi qu'aux mécanismes théoriques sous-jacents permettant d'expliciter le le rôle de ces normes dans le processus décisionnel. / A growing body of empirical evidence demonstrates that decision-making is embedded within complex personal, cognitive, and social contexts that call for a richer understanding of behavior than that described by traditional neoclassical economic theory. Contrary to the conventional selfishness assumption advanced by standard theory, it has now been established that people systematically behave in prosocial ways and furthermore, that the propensity to do so is sensitive to a variety of elements of decision context that have historically been considered irrelevant. We examine the assumptions that social preferences are outcome-regarding and consistent, and the extent to which social norms may be implicated in the divergences from these assumptions.This work has a strong applied focus. In an environment of limited public budgets and increasingly pressing social and environmental challenges, interventions based on behavioral insights can be appealing policy instruments, as they are often more economical than traditional command-and-control or incentive-based tools, and have the potential to generate reliable and immediate behavior change. Given that social norms can be an important determinant of aggregate societal outcomes in a diverse range of contexts, we investigate several aspects of the optimal design of behavioral interventions that leverage normative considerations, as well as the dynamics between social norms and formal institutional measures. These works are complemented by a review of the literature regarding the impact of social norm interventions on proenvironmental behaviors and of several theoretical accounts of the role that social norms play in the decision-making process.Through the use of both laboratory and online experiments (via Amazon Mechanical Turk and the NSF-funded Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences), the experimental studies that comprise the thesis examine the impact of valence framing on the effectiveness of a normative intervention, the capacity for a single normative intervention to generate heterogeneous behavioral impacts, and the effectiveness of certain informal norm-enforcement mechanisms and their interaction with formal institutional sanctions. From these studies, we draw a number of policy-relevant implications and identify the need for future work on a number of specific issues related to the role of social norms in behavior and accordingly, to the design of effective behavioral interventions that leverage social norms.

Master of Science / Department of Horticulture and Natural Resources / Ryan L. Sharp / Visual-based methods are vital tools within outdoor recreation management. This method allows researchers to develop an empirical evaluation of social norms of outdoor recreationists. To better understand visitor’s perceptions, and provide usable information to site managers, researchers must better understand their methodology. This study assessed whether photograph order, within a visually-based method, in a field setting, creates differential results relative to a lab setting by comparing our results to previous literature. To accomplish this, a study was conducted at Buffalo National River (BUFF), Arkansas, USA. Visual-based methods were used in a field setting to determine whether there are order effects in perceptions of crowding between sequential and non-sequential photograph presentation order. Results indicated that study setting may influence whether order effects are present. This research will contribute to the growing body of work in the study of research methods for protected area and visitor use management.

Title: Nudging towards gender equality: An application of social norms to explain female increasement in corporate boards.   Authors: Freja Redder Petersson & Ida Eklund   Level: Master thesis, 30 hp    Keywords: Nudging, Social norms, Gender equality, Corporate boards Background: Sweden is regarded as one of the leading countries when it comes to gender equality, but women are still underrepresented in corporate boards in the private sector. Research argues that increasing the female representation is beneficial for companies, and it seems as if the people in the boards need to change their behavior in order to better themselves in the matter. To change behavior, social norms can be used, and in relation to this, the concept of nudgingas a way of changing behavior is a new and interesting field to look at, particularly in relationship to increasing female representation in boards.    Research question: What is affecting corporate boards in the private sector to increase their female representation and to what extent is this connected to nudging?   Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe how corporate boards view gender equality, explain important factors in the process of gender equality work. Further, the aim is to develop and broaden the academic field of nudging by uncovering nudge-related influences in regard to an increasement of women in corporate boards.   Method: A qualitative research method was used in this study, by semi-structured interviews with ten respondents from various boards in the private sector in Sweden, and one expert in the research field. The respondent companies were chosen because of their gender equal boards.    Theoretical Framework: Theories about how corporate boards function, gender equality work and effects of women entrance in boards are presented. Followed by behavioral economic-theories focusing on rational and irrational behaviors which derived the concept of nudging that are lastly discussed. Within nudging, choice architecture, social norms and loss aversion are addressed.      Findings: In this study, the findings of what is affecting corporate boards in the private sector to increase their female representation is divided into two approaches. The first implies that the so-called nudge-related influences are affecting the boards, primarily with the factors of choice architecture, social norms and legal norms. These factors have been found to be greatly connected to nudging. The second approach shows the finding that two other influences, power and competence, also affects corporate boards to increase their female representation and move towards gender equality.

This dissertation consists of three essays exploring the heterogeneity of gender differences in behavior across contrasting societies. Are women naturally wired to behave differently than men or is it the social context in which the gender roles operate that motivate their behavior? I study this question in the contexts of risk, trust, and trustworthiness, moral hazard and repayment behavior in microfinance. I use the approach of conducting controlled field experiments in neighboring matrilineal and patrilineal societies in rural India. The two societies differ in gender roles but are comparable otherwise. Understanding the societal and cultural factors that drive gender differences in behavior helps to prescribe optimally-targeted policy designs. The first essay evaluates the universal policy of gender targeting to mitigate microfinance loan defaults and studies the reasons for such gender differences in default. I design and conduct microfinance field experiments with individual and group liability treatments in comparable matrilineal and patrilineal societies in India. I observe a reversal of gender effect on loan default across the two societies. I find that women have a lower default in the patrilineal society but higher default in the matrilineal society compared to their male counterparts. I also find that group liability leads to moral hazard among the individual group members but reduces overall default due to risk sharing among them. My results suggest that while women are better clients on average, a universal policy of gender targeting to reduce defaults in microfinance might be suboptimal. The second essay builds on the findings of the first essay that group liability contracts lead to moral hazard among the borrowers. In this essay, I evaluate the policy of gender targeting to mitigate moral hazard problems in microfinance and study the underlying reasons for such gender differences in moral hazard. I address this question by following a similar methodology to the first essay. My experimental design allows decomposing the different moral hazard channels through which default occurs in microfinance and interact them with gender and types of societies (matrilineal and patrilineal). I find that women in matrilineal society are more prone to exhibit moral hazard behavior than patrilineal women. Based on my findings, I argue that the gender differences in moral hazard is driven by the difference in social context, norms and the gender roles between the two societies. The final essay examines what drives gender differences in trust and trustworthiness, by conducting trust experiments in neighboring matrilineal and patrilineal societies in India. I find that on average the matrilineal subjects are more trusting as well as more trustworthy than the patrilineal subjects, but there is a significant heterogeneity in gender effects. Women in matrilineal society are both less trusting and less trustworthy than patrilineal women, compared to their male counterparts. This finding holds true even after controlling for risk preference and other individual characteristics. My findings suggest that societal structures are crucially linked to the observed gender differences in trust and trustworthiness.

Intellectual property law theory is premised on a utilitarian justification granting limited time monopolies for encouraging creation, innovation and its dissemination to society. However, in the last several decades, scholars have been mounting empirical evidence to show that in some industries, creativity and innovation exist outside the contours of intellectual property law and thrive despite their lack of reliance on the laws. Instead, what they uncovered is that creators in these industries follow norms that mitigate issues surrounding some kinds of copying. Intellectual property protection for fashion design in Canada is fragmented across a complex legal landscape that entails several different laws, unique in scope, eligibility requirements and rights. This complex framework is not unique to the fashion design industry but is similar for design industries generally. Navigating through these laws can be daunting and thus inaccessible for the some segments of the design industry that are small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that have limited resources to expend on legal advice and registration. Using grounded theory methodology and qualitative and quantitative methods, this research explored the use of intellectual property law and social norms by the independent fashion design segment in Montreal and in Toronto and the contours of copying and the public domain. What the empirical research reveals is that independent fashion designers do not use the law to protect their designs and instead, use mechanisms that centre on the negative copying norm. Negative copying is copying that is negatively perceived. It is not necessarily legally infringing or economically harmful, although it can be both. Further, it can apply to subject matter that is not the subject matter of intellectual property law. This norm against negative copying is supported by extra-legal prevention and enforcement mechanisms that have been developed by individuals within the segment in order to mitigate the issue of copying. The empirical research also reveals that in addition to the economic incentives to create, there are also a number of non-economic incentives such as identity and reputational interests that drive creativity and help reinforce the norm against negative copying. Using grounded theory enabled me to draw on literature from a number of disciplines in order to help contextualize these findings and approach the analysis from the perspective of intellectual property theory, policy and law, social norms (sociology and psychology) as well as economic geography, and design.