Are There Individual Differences in the Willingness to Pay to Avoid Sabotage and Competition?

Last registered on November 20, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Are There Individual Differences in the Willingness to Pay to Avoid Sabotage and Competition?
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014841
Initial registration date
November 16, 2024

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
November 20, 2024, 11:42 AM EST

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Adelson Teh
Affiliation
Cornell University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-11-25
End date
2025-05-31
Keywords
Behavior, Gender, Lab, Labor
Additional Keywords
Competition, Sabotage, Social Preferences
JEL code(s)
D90, J00, M52
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The main goal of this study is to understand whether individuals might prefer to avoid situations where they have to engage in sabotage, both as a saboteur and as a possible victim of sabotage. Specifically, this study looks at whether individuals might be willing to give up some expected payment to avoid engaging with sabotage and whether this willingness might differ across individual demographics (gender) and characteristics (altruism). This study will also look at whether the willingness to sabotage, and preferences for competition (with or without sabotage) differ across these same characteristics (i.e., gender and altruism) in its ancillary analysis.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Teh, Adelson. 2024. "Are There Individual Differences in the Willingness to Pay to Avoid Sabotage and Competition?." AEA RCT Registry. November 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14841-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The main idea of the experiment revolves around participants being asked to choose between different compensation schemes under which they would most prefer to complete a job under. By varying whether these schemes allow for sabotage and their expected compensation, observing the choices of the participants between these schemes will allow us to get at their willingness to pay (i.e., how much expected compensation they are willing to give up) to avoid sabotage. The schemes will also vary in whether they are competitive or non-competitive in nature.
Intervention Start Date
2024-11-25
Intervention End Date
2025-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Willingness to pay to avoid sabotage
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Please refer to/request for the Pre-Analysis Plan for more details.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Willingness to pay to avoid competition
Willingness to sabotage
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Please refer to/request for the Pre-Analysis Plan for more details.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Participants will need to complete 3 rounds of a job, with each round under a different compensation scheme.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomisation will be done by a computer (coded into the program that displays the screens and compensations schemes participants see).
Randomization Unit
At the individual level.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
400 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
400 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
200 females, 200 males.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
$0.1432 ($0.5617) difference in willingness to pay to avoid sabotage between females and males. $0.144 ($0.5648) difference in willingness to pay to avoid sabotage between individuals with above-median (or median) altruism and individuals with below-median altruism. Note: Two MDE's are reported for each outcome -- the first uses standard deviations from a N=10 test-run, while the second (in the parentheses) uses a more conservative standard deviation of 2 (given that the sample size of the rest-run was small). Please refer to/request for the Pre-Analysis Plan for more details, as well as the MDE's for the secondary outcomes.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Cornell Office of Research Integrity and Assurance
IRB Approval Date
2024-11-04
IRB Approval Number
IRB0149168
IRB Name
Cornell Office of Research Integrity and Assurance
IRB Approval Date
2024-11-04
IRB Approval Number
IRB0149199
Analysis Plan

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