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• 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.

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

  China Life: Micro Insurance for the Poor

  Shawn Cole and Lilei Xu

  China Life must decide whether to accept the government's "invitation" to develop a microinsurance product for the rural poor. Can it be done profitably?

  Keywords: Social Enterprise; Insurance; Insurance Industry; China;

  Citation:

  Cole, Shawn, and Lilei Xu. "China Life: Micro Insurance for the Poor." Harvard Business School Case 212-030, March 2013. (Revised from original November 2011 version.)

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2013 (Revised from original 2012 version)

  The New York Times Paywall

  Vineet Kumar, Bharat Anand, Sunil Gupta and Felix Oberholzer-Gee

  On March 28, 2011, The New York Times website became a restricted site where most of the content was protected behind a "paywall." Users who exceeded the limit of 20 free articles per month were required to pay for either a digital or print subscription. The newspaper industry had been suffering from revenue declines over the past decade, and the transition to digital media was difficult to navigate. Revenues from online advertising were not sufficient to replace the loss of print revenue, and many publishers had explored charging readers for content, with mixed success, where specialized sources like The Wall Street Journal were successfully using the model, but several other general news sites had failed. Newspapers and content creators in general were very interested in understanding whether transitioning to the paywall at the most popular news website would succeed, and whether it could become a blueprint for future success as a sustainable business model. There were several difficult issues to examine in determining the digital strategy for The Times. Would consumers remain as engaged with a site protected by a paywall? Would advertisers react positively to such a move that walled off readers? Would readers value both the print and digital versions of the content, or would it become necessary to create new content? The Times had several choices in designing the paywall, including determining the digital content, pricing, as well as how to interface with readers of secondary news websites like blogs that posted links to news articles. Should they design a "leaky" paywall where determined users could easily slip through, or a "bulletproof" paywall like the Financial Times had done, where users had to pay before they could access any content? What choices would provide the foundation for a successful business model?

  Keywords: Newspapers; Strategy; Journalism and News Industry; Publishing Industry;

  Citation:

  Kumar, Vineet, Bharat Anand, Sunil Gupta, and Felix Oberholzer-Gee. "The New York Times Paywall." Harvard Business School Case 512-077, January 2013. (Revised from original February 2012 version.)

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