Production and Performance in Real Effort Tasks

Last registered on March 04, 2024

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Production and Performance in Real Effort Tasks

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0011856

Initial registration date

July 29, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

August 16, 2023, 1:18 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

March 04, 2024, 9:52 AM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Amelia Ahles

Affiliation

Texas A&M University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Marco Palma

PI Affiliation

Texas A&M University

PI Name

Paul Feldman

PI Affiliation

Texas A&M University

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2023-09-01

End date

2023-10-31

Keywords

Agriculture, Behavior, Labor

Additional Keywords

optimism bias, persistence, sunk cost fallacy, wishful thinking, hope

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in how an individual's beliefs impact economic decision-making. Despite emerging research, current literature has largely overlooked the role of hope when shaping individual beliefs. This study seeks to assess the impact of hope on an individual's decision-making for persistence and production in a real-effort task. In this paper, I will propose an experimental framework to investigate the impact of hope on an individual's persistence level and production in a real-effort task

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Ahles, Amelia, Paul Feldman and Marco Palma. 2024. "Production and Performance in Real Effort Tasks." AEA RCT Registry. March 04. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11856-1.2

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Participants will be asked to build an item over the course of the experiment for varying incentive levels. If a participant decides to not complete another set, they will leave the experiment and be paid in cash for the rounds they completed.

Intervention Start Date

2023-09-01

Intervention End Date

2023-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

number of rounds completed, number of items built

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

belief will be calculated by the number of times the item is built past a calculated "end point" where there is no economic benefit of continuing

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Our experimental design will implement a between-subject design.

Experimental Design Details

Our experimental design will implement a between-subject design with two treatments (payment type varies – fixed vs. lottery) and 2 settings (new set or disassembled) and use lotteries to identify productivity.

Randomization Method

Session level randomization

Randomization Unit

experimental session randomization of payment scale

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

350 (IRB approved number)

Sample size: planned number of observations

200-350 (based on power calculations up to max number of observations currently approved by IRB)

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

The required power calculation per treatment is 64 for a medium (d=0.5) effect size. This calculation is based off of two previous studies. Ariely et. al reports a power of 0.95 and an effect size of 0.84 where n=20 per treatment arm. Based on their effect size we calculated a required sample of 31 per treatment arm for our pilot. The results of this pilot found an effect size of 0.30.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

d=0.5

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB