This paper studies how the framing of official government communication shapes institutional participation, political legitimacy, and real behavior in the context of a redistributive urban parking reform. In collaboration with the City of Cologne, I embedded a randomized framing treatment in the official notification letter to all affected households. A single sentence highlighting beneficiary status increased residential permit uptake and political support, without changing effectiveness beliefs or actual mobility behavior — a decoupling of political legitimacy from policy performance.
with S. Boonmanunt, W. Kilenthong and M. Sutter
This study examines how caregivers' economic preferences, personality traits, parental investment, unhealthy behaviors, parental absence, and household composition are associated with children's cognitive and non-cognitive development. We analyze primary panel data from 1,078 children aged 0–50 months and their caregivers in socioeconomically disadvantaged regions of Thailand. Combining standardized assessments of developmental milestones across five domains with detailed caregiver profiles, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the determinants of early childhood development. We document three main findings. First, developmental delays are widespread. Second, exploiting the panel data structure of our data, we uncover substantial heterogeneity beneath aggregate trends. Third, caregivers’ time and material investment are the most robustly associated predictors of developmental outcomes, whereas economic preferences, personality traits, and parental absence show little to no direct association once investment is controlled for. Modeling investment decisions reveals that social preferences, extraversion, and household wealth predict investment behavior, suggesting that caregiver’s characteristics operate indirectly through investment, rather than directly. These results identify key behavioral mechanisms underlying early childhood development and provide guidance for designing interventions that target the proximate drivers of parental investment in resource-constrained settings.
with J. Alfitian, B. Langer, S. O. Schneider, M. Sutter
Across various firms in Germany, we suggest different levels of tools in one control and two treatment arms to unlock the potential of feedback on machine utilization. We then compare productivity 3 months before and 3 months after our intervention, as well as productivity across firms after our intervention to investigate treatment effects.
Human Capital Development Seminar, Research Institute for Policy Evaluation and Design, UTCC Bangkok
Experimetrics and Behavioral Economics Workshop CIMEO, Sapienza University Rome, Soleto
MPI-CREEED Workshop, CREEED University Amsterdam, and Max Planck Institute, Bonn
EEG Workshop in Behavioral Economics, Max Planck Institute, Bonn
Behaviorally Smart Institutions, IMPRS Summer School, Ellwangen
Empirical Analysis of Social and Legal Institutions, IMPRS Topics Workshop, University of Bologna
Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Summer School by the European Economics Review in Crete
RCTs in the Social Sciences, Summer School, University of Stavanger
MPI-NHH Workshop, Max Planck Institute, Bonn, and FAIR NHH, Bergen
Credence Goods, Behavior and Incentives, Winter School and (Un-)ethical Behavior in Markets, Summit, University of Innsbruck
Behaviorally Smart Institutions, IMPRS Summer School, Bamberg
IMPRS-UPF Topics Workshop, University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
Experimental and Behavioral Economics Workshop, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice
Behaviorally Smart Institutions, IMPRS Summer School, Konstanz