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Testing consumer theory: evidence from a natural field experiment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2025

Maja Adena
Affiliation:
WZB, Berlin, Germany
Steffen Huck*
Affiliation:
WZB, Berlin, Germany UCL, London, United Kingdom
Imran Rasul
Affiliation:
UCL, London, United Kingdom
*
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Abstract

We present evidence from a natural field experiment designed to shed light on whether individual behavior is consistent with a neoclassical model of utility maximization subject to budget constraints. We do this through the lens of a field experiment on charitable giving. We find that the behavior of at least 80% of individuals, on both the extensive and intensive margins, can be rationalized within a standard neoclassical choice model in which individuals have preferences, defined over own consumption and their contribution towards the charitable good, satisfying the axioms of revealed preference.

Information

Type
Original Paper
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2017
Figure 0

Fig. 1 The Design of the Field Experiment and Outcomes by Treatment. Notes: This figure graphs the budget sets induced by the five treatments in (y-dg, dr)-space. The average in each treatment is marked by a dot on a budget line, and the donation received is marked at the horizontal axis, while the donation given is marked at the vertical axis. RR is the response rate in each treatment

Figure 1

Table 1 Characteristics of recipients by matching treatment

Figure 2

Table 2 Outcomes by treatment-descriptive evidence

Figure 3

Table 3 Pairwise tests of revealed preference

Figure 4

Table 4 Individual violations of revealed preference

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