Francesco Salustri

The Impact of Redistribution Mechanisms in the Vote with the Wallet Game: Experimental Results

We use the Vote-with-the-Wallet game (VWG) to model socially or environmentally responsible consumption, an increasingly relevant but still under-researched phenomenon. Based on a theoretical model outlining game equilibria and the parametric interval of the related multiplayer prisoners’ dilemma (PD) we evaluate with a controlled lab experiment players’ behavior in the game and test the effects of an ex post redistribution mechanism between defectors and cooperators. Our findings document that the redistribution mechanism interrupts cooperation decay and stabilizes the share of cooperators at a level significantly higher, even though inferior to the Nash equilibrium.

The impact of health expenditure on the number of chronic diseases

We investigate the impact of health expenditure on health outcomes on a large sample of Europeans aged above 50 using individual and regional level data. We find a negative and significant effect of lagged health expenditure on subsequent changes in the number of chronic diseases. This effect varies according to age, health behavior, gender, income, and education. Our empirical findings are confirmed also when health expenditure is instrumented with parliament political composition.

Testing for Heterogeneity of Preferences in Randomized Experiments: A Satisfaction-Based Approach Applied to Multiplayer Prisoners’ Dilemmas

ABSTRACT We use experimental data from the ‘vote with the wallet’ multiplayer prisoner’s dilemma to investigate with a finite mixture approach the effect of a responsible purchase on players’ satisfaction. We find clear-cut evidence of heterogeneity of preferences with two groups of players that differ significantly in terms of effects of the responsible choice on satisfaction.

Gender differences in socially responsible consumption. An experimental investigation

ABSTRACT We report on a simple experimental study designed to investigate the different gender attitudes towards socially responsible consumption. We use the Vote-with-the-Wallet Game, (VWG), a version of a repeated multiplayer prisoner’s dilemma that mimics the characteristics of the choice between a conventional and a socially responsible product. More precisely we test the effect of three factors: two different frames and an ex-post redistribution mechanism that transfers resources from purely self-interested consumers to responsible ones. We find that women remain significantly more cooperative (choosing more often the responsible good) when the redistribution mechanism is interrupted and are significantly less satisfied about the behaviour of the other players in that treatment.

Are Perceptions of Corruption Matching Reality? Theory and Evidence from Microdata

Some criticism has been raised on the actual capability of corruption perception-based indices to gauge the essence of concepts they aim to measure. One can argue that perceptions about corruption are not matching reality and could be the re?ection of distorted truth. Based on this evidence we provide a theoretical ground for the corruption decision-making process (objective corruption) and the corruption perception-making process (subjective corruption) which accounts for the role of media attention. From the theoretical model we are able to derive testable implications for the empirical analysis, i.e. whether socio and cultural norms can explain the gap between the two measures of corruption across Europe. We employ a generalised setting of the structural equation models to build latent indices of objective and subjective corruption from our microdata exploiting the information on various economic, geographic and socio-demographic factors that can a¤ect the perception and the experience of corruption practices. The resulting indices allow us to define country rankings for both types of corruption and draw a geopolitical picture of the phenomenon across Europe. We also show that countries where the quality of media is higher are associated with lower di¤erences between perceived and real corruption.

The Impact of Cash Mobs in the Vote with the Wallet Game: Experimental Results

We simulate in a randomised lab experiment the effect of Cash Mobs on consumers’ behaviour in an original variant of the multiplayer Prisoner’s dilemma called Vote-with-the-Wallet Game (VWG). The effect is modelled in a sequential game with/without an environmental frame in which a subset of players (cash-mobbers) is given the opportunity to reveal publicly (in aggregate without disclosing individual identities) their cooperation decision. We find that the treatment has a positive gross effect, that is, the share of cooperators is significantly higher in treated sessions and this is mainly due to the higher share of cooperators among cash-mobbers. Our results suggest that cash mobs-like mechanisms can help to solve social dilemmas with entirely private solutions (not based on punishment but on positive action) without costs for government budgets.

The (W)Health of Nations: The Impact of Health Expenditure on the Number of Chronic Diseases

We investigate the impact of health expenditure on health outcomes on a large sample of Europeans aged above 50 using individual and regional-level data. We find a significant and negative effect of lagged health expenditure on later changes in the number of chronic diseases. This effect varies according to age, health behavior, gender, income and education, thereby supporting the hypothesis that the impact of health expenditure across different interest groups is heterogeneous. Our empirical findings are confirmed also when health expenditure is instrumented with parliament political composition.