More from these Authors

• Article | Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization | June 2013

  Opting-in: Participation Bias in Economic Experiments

  Robert Slonim, Carmen Wang, Ellen Garbarino and Danielle Merrett

  Assuming individuals rationally decide whether to participate or not to participate in lab experiments, we hypothesize several non-representative biases in the characteristics of lab participants. We test the hypotheses by first collecting survey and experimental data from a typical recruitment population and then inviting them to participate in a lab experiment. The results indicate that lab participants are not representative of the target population on almost all the hypothesized characteristics, including having lower income, working fewer hours, volunteering more often, and exhibiting behaviors correlated with interest in experiments and economics. The results reinforce the commonly understood limits of laboratory research to make quantitative inferences. We also discuss several methods for addressing non-representative biases to advance laboratory methods for improving quantitative inferences and consequently increasing confidence in qualitative conclusions.

  Citation:

  Slonim, Robert, Carmen Wang, Ellen Garbarino, and Danielle Merrett. "Opting-in: Participation Bias in Economic Experiments." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 90 (June 2013): 43–70.

  CiteView DetailsFind at Harvard

  Related

• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2013 (Revised from original 2011 version)

  Debt and Development in Jamaica

  Rafael Di Tella, Gunnar Trumbull and Natalie Kindred

  This case describes the economic development problems faced by the small Caribbean-island country of Jamaica over most of the past half-century. The Jamaican economy showed relatively strong growth in the 1960s but stagnated in the 1970s. By the end of that decade, Jamaica was forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for balance-of-payments support. Over the 1980s and early 1990s, the unpopular policy conditions associated with IMF loan programs made the Fund a lightning rod for criticism over Jamaica's lack of economic progress. Jamaicans celebrated the end of IMF borrowing in the mid-1990s, but a severe financial crisis later that decade created a new layer of economic problems. In 2010, in the context of the global economic downturn, Jamaica once again returned to the IMF for financing support. This case allows students to explore the complicated economic difficulties faced by Jamaica, which remains burdened by a self-reinforcing set of interrelated factors, including high public debt, a sluggish private sector, an inefficient public sector, poverty, and crime, among others.

  Keywords: History; Government Administration; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; International Finance; Crime and Corruption; Poverty; Private Sector; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Borrowing and Debt; Developing Countries and Economies; Jamaica;

  Citation:

  Di Tella, Rafael, Gunnar Trumbull, and Natalie Kindred. "Debt and Development in Jamaica." Harvard Business School Case 711-031, April 2013. (Revised from original April 2011 version.)

  CiteView DetailsPurchase

  Related

• Teaching Plan | HBS Case Collection | 2013

  Latvia: Navigating the Strait of Messina (TP)

  Rawi Abdelal, Rafael Di Tella and Natalie Kindred

  Citation:

  Abdelal, Rawi, Rafael Di Tella, and Natalie Kindred. "Latvia: Navigating the Strait of Messina (TP)." Harvard Business School Teaching Plan 713-010, April 2013.

  CiteView DetailsPurchase

  Related