Mari Rege

The impact of social approval and framing on cooperation in public good situations

Several economists have maintained that social and internalized norms can enforce cooperation in public good situations. This experimental study investigates how two important channels for social and internalized norms, social approval and framing, affect cooperation among strangers in a public good game. The experiment has two treatment effects. Firstly, it reveals each person’s identity and his contribution to the public good. Secondly, it presents the public good game in a language that suggests associations to social and internalized norms for cooperation. The first treatment effect increases voluntary contributions significantly.

THE EFFECT OF PLANT DOWNSIZING ON DISABILITY PENSION UTILIZATION

We investigate the impact of plant downsizing on disability pension utilization in Norway. Plant downsizing substantially increases the disability entry rate of workers in affected plants. Workers originally employed in plants that downsized by more than 60% between 1995 and 2000 were 24% more likely to utilize disability pensions in 2001 than comparable workers in non-downsized plants. We also estimate significant effects of downsizing on future earnings and mortality, which suggest that the increase in disability participation could be driven by an adverse effect of downsizing on the economic opportunities or the health of affected workers. (JEL: H55, I12, I38, J63, J65) (c) 2009 by the European Economic Association.

On social norms: the evolution of considerate smoking behavior

Abstract This paper studies the formation of social norms for considerate smoking behavior. Being considerate yields higher social approval from non-smokers, but also imposes an inconvenience cost. Non-smokers’ disapproval of inconsiderate smoking is assumed to be stronger the less used they are to passive smoking. Introduction of a smoking regulation may then move society from an initial no-consideration equilibrium to an equilibrium in which a large share of smokers are considerate, even in the unregulated zone. Empirical evidence confirms that social norms have changed in Norway after the smoking law amendments in 1988, and supports the plausibility of model assumptions.

The Evolution of Considerate Smoking Behavior

This paper studies the formation of social norms for considerate smoking behavior. Being considerate gives smokers a higher social approval from non-smokers, but imposes an inconvenience cost. A non-smokers disapproval of inconsiderate smoking is assumed to be stronger the less used he is to being exposed to passive smoking. The analysis shows that introduction of a smoking regulation may move the society from an initial no-consideration Nash equilibrium to a Nash equilibrium in which every smoker is considerate, even in the unregulated zone. This crowding in of considerate behavior will prevail even after policy reversal. Empirical evidence confirms that a shift in social norms on considerate smoking has taken place in Norway after the smoking law amendments in 1988, and supports the plausibility of model assumptions.

Home with Mom: The Effects of Stay-at-Home Parents on Children's Long-Run Educational Outcomes

In 1998 the Norwegian government introduced a program that increased parents’ incentives to stay home with children under the age of 3. Many eligible children had older siblings, and we investigate how this program affected the long-run educational outcomes of the older siblings. Using comprehensive administrative data, we estimate a difference-in-differences model that exploits differences in older siblings’ exposures to the program. We find a significant positive treatment effect on older siblings’ tenth-grade GPA, and this effect seems to be largely driven by mother’s reduced labor force participation and not by changes in family income or father’s labor force participation.

Divorced Fathers' Proximity and Children's Long Run Outcomes: Evidence from Norwegian Registry Data

This study examines the link between divorced nonresident fathers’ proximity and children’s long-run outcomes, using high-quality data from Norwegian population registers. We follow (from birth to young adulthood) each of 15,992 children born into married households in Norway in the years 1975–1979 whose parents divorced during his or her childhood. We observe the proximity of the child to his or her father in each year following the divorce and link proximity to educational and economic outcomes for the child in young adulthood, controlling for a wide range of observable characteristics of the parents and the child. Our results show that closer proximity to the father following a divorce has, on average, a modest negative association with offspring’s outcomes in young adulthood. The negative associations are stronger among children of highly educated fathers. Complementary Norwegian survey data show that highly educated fathers report more post-divorce conflict with their ex-wives as well as more contact with their children (measured in terms of the number of nights that the child spends at the father’s house). Consequently, the father’s relocation to a more distant location following the divorce may shelter the child from disruptions in the structure of the child’s life as they split time between households and/or from post-divorce interparental conflict.

Advertising as a Distortion of Social Learning

By combining a theory of herding behavior with the phenomenon of availability heuristic, this paper shows that non-informative advertisements can affect peoples choices by influencing their perception of product quality. We present a model in which people can learn about product quality by observing the choices of others. Consumers are, however, not able to fully distinguish between the observations of real people and fictitious characters in advertisements. Even if a person is aware of this limitation and updates his beliefs accordingly, it is still rational for him to choose the product he has observed most often. In equilibrium the most observed product is always most likely to be of the highest quality. The analysis has important policy implications.

Father Presence and the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment

We use administrative data from Norway to analyze how fathers’ presence affects the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. Our empirical strategy exploits within family variation in father exposure that occurs across siblings in the event of father death. We find that longer paternal exposure amplifies the father-child association in education and attenuates the mother-child association. These changes in the intergenerational transmission process are economically significant, and stronger for boys than for girls. We find no evidence these effects operate through changes in family economic resources or maternal labor supply. This lends support for parental socialization as the likely mechanism.