Do men earn more or report earning more?

2020-02-24

2021-06-30

Self-reported cash on hand on the day of the survey, self-reported revenue on the day of the survey, self-reported revenue the day prior to the survey, self-reported average revenue (daily, weekly, monthly), self-reported profits the day prior to the survey, self-reported average profits (daily, weekly, monthly), incentivized self-reported cash-on-hand today, true count of cash-on-hand today, estimate of revenue today given reported expenses and cash-on-hand count. We are also interested in the difference between the true count and self-report estimate of cash on hand, and the difference between the true count and the incentivized self-report of cash on hand.

In the evening, vendors will be asked how much cash they think they have on hand before we count the cash. This measure is the self-reported measure (SR). We will then announce to the vendor that if they are correct within Rs 100, they will get a bonus of Rs 50. We ask them if they want to revise their estimate: this measure is the incentivized self-report (ISR). We count the cash: get the “True count” (TC)

Overconfidence and modesty, as measured by the games outlined in the Experimental Design section. For overconfidence, the dependent variables are self-reported performance in the game in the public version, and the difference in self-reported performance and actual performance in the public version of game. For modesty, the dependent variables are: self-reported performance in the private version, the difference in self-reported and actual performance in the private version, willingness to publicize good performance, and measures of adherence to norms around modesty. Additionally, we have other measures of overconfidence and modesty, outlined in the section below in more detail. Finally, we elicit a private report of revenues.

1. Similar to Sarsons and Xu (2016) (“Confidence Men? Gender and Confidence: Evidence among Top Economists”)
Ask questions related to the work of a market vendor, e.g. “To what extent do you agree with the following statement:
tomatoes are the most commonly sold vegetable in this market today. 1=Strongly Agree, ..., 5=Strongly Disagree.”
Ask degree of confidence on a scale of 1 (unconfident) to 10 (very confident).
Confidence can be measured in three ways:
# of people who decline to answer because they don’t know
# of extreme answers (Strongly Agree/Strongly Disagree)
Degree of self-reported confidence (1-10).

2. Similar to Niederle and Vesterlund (QJE, 2007): Suppose I choose 10 vendors at random in this market, including yourself. How do you think your business ranks in terms of profitability? 1= most profitable, 10 = least profitable.
Then we ask vendors the same question but for their own gender (for women: out of 10 female vendors, for men: out of 10 male vendors).

3. Similar to Bursztyn et al. 2018 on misperceived social norms in Saudi Arabia around FLFP:
We also want to ask questions to measure social norms around modesty.
(“First order” beliefs) “To what extent do you agree with the following statement: In my opinion, women should not brag
about their accomplishments.” 1=Strongly Agree, ..., 5=Strongly Disagree. (We will also ask this about men)
(“Second order” beliefs) “We are asking this question to 10 other vegetable vendors in Jaipur, both male and female. How
many do you think agree or strongly agree with the statement?”

Private report of revenues: "How much did you make two days ago? Please write down your answer and put it in this envelope." (we will ask this for both profits and revenues). We will explain to the respondent that the surveyor will never see their answer. We note that women's literacy may be a significant constraint in this exercise, so we may have to disregard the data if it appears to be the case.

The experimental design consists in counting the cash the vendors have on hand ("true count") and offering an incentive to respondents to compare the "self-report" to the "incentivized self-report". We will compare these two measures to the "true count".

Additionally, respondents will play various games with us to help us understand mechanisms.

In addition to the main survey and the cash counting exercise, we also play games with the respondents.

We play two memory games: "Now I would like to play a short game with you. I am going to read you a list of 15 words, and please pay attention to them since I will ask you questions about them in a few minutes." We list all the instructions below. We randomize as part of the survey one of these games as private and the other as public. Each respondent plays both games. We randomize at the respondent level 1) which game is private or public, 2) the order of the games. Respondents are incentivized based on their accuracy at guessing their own performance.

-In the public condition, we ask the respondent "I asked you 7 questions about the word list. How many do you think you got right?"
-In the private condition, we ask the respondent "I asked you 7 questions about the word list. Please think about how many you think you go right, but do not tell me. Enter the answer here on my tablet. I will not see what you enter; I will cover the screen. Now, please enter how many you think you got right. The number has to be between 0 and 7."

We then ask respondents who did better than average: "You did better than average! I would like to tell other people in this market, who are also playing this game today, that you did very well. But I will not do it if you don't want me to. May I tell other people?"
This last question constitutes a measure of modesty,

-Memory game #1
[To Surveyor please list the following words at a moderate pace]:
Potato
Cucumber
Carrot
Dog
Goat
Cabbage
Sun
Tomato
Cat
Tree
Cow
Onion
Book
Child
Chicken

Did I list the word “tree”? Yes
Did I list the word “Sheep”? No
Did I list the word “cow”? Yes
Did I list the word “Eggplant”? No
Did I list a color? No
Did I list 4 or 5 vegetables? (5)
Did I list 4 or 5 animals? (4)

-Memory game #2
Coat
Sari
Train
Bowl
Trousers
Garden
Car
Auto
Bicycle
Kurta
Pen
Motorcycle
Market
Rain
House


Did I say the word “Bus”? No
Did I say the word “Boat”? No
Did I say the word “Car”? Yes
Did I say the word “Kurta”? Yes
Did I list a number? No
Did I list 4 or 5 items of clothing? (4)
Did I list 4 or 5 modes of transport? (5)

This isn't a study that tests an intervention, but a study to expose a potential reporting gap when respondents report profits and revenues, and understand mechanisms. Additionally, we incorporate a few games to test for mechanisms, Each respondent plays both a private and a public version of the games, and the order of the games and public/private condition are randomized. Randomization done in office by a computer, incorporated to the survey on SurveyCTO or ODK.
The main variable of interest is gender differences in self-reporting. For that reason, we will sample 50% men and 50% women. We will be able to compare the unincentivized self-report to the incentivized self-report for every respondent.

Respondent

No

Our sample size is 500 vendors in Jaipur.

For every seller, we will have one self-reported, one incentivized self-reported and one true count.

Our sample size is 250 male and 250 female vendors in Jaipur.