Relative skewness preferences

Last registered on March 01, 2021
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Relative skewness preferences
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007239
Initial registration date
March 01, 2021

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
March 01, 2021, 10:43 AM EST

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

Locations

Country
China
Region
Beijing

Primary Investigator

Name
Moritz Loewenfeld
Affiliation
Toulouse School of Economics
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Jiakun Zheng
PI Affiliation
‎Renmin University of China
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2021-03-08
End date
2021-03-19
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
Risk Taking, Salience Theory
JEL code(s)
D81
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Salience theory (Bordalo et al., 2012) predicts that choices between two lotteries are driven not only by the marginal distributions of the lotteries, but also by the correlation between the two lotteries. Existing studies testing this prediction fail to control for event-splitting effects. In this paper, we seek to disentangle the role of correlation and event-splitting in two settings: 1) choices between Mao pairs as studied by Dertwinkel-Kalt and Köster (2019); 2) the Allais paradox. We further test for correlation effects in a novel task in which subjects have to choose between two lotteries with the same marginal distribution. This task allows to detect correlation effects even when they are of second-order importance only.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Loewenfeld, Moritz and Jiakun Zheng. 2021. "Relative skewness preferences ." AEA RCT Registry. March 01. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7239-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We run a lab experiment. Participants make multiple choices between two lotteries and answer a survey. One of the lottery choices is randomly selected, and participants are paid on the basis of this choice. We study whether lottery choices are impacted by the correlation of the lotteries.

For a detailed description of the experimental design and the lotteries we employ, see the document "Experiment_description".

Our study consists of five parts. In Part I, participants face 6 pairs of Mao-lotteries, each in maximally positive and maximally negative correlation structure. In Part II, participants face 3 lottery pairs that might elicit the common consequence Allais paradox. Participants face lotteries both when they are maximally positively correlated and when they are independent. In part III, subjects face 2 lottery pairs for which one lottery dominates the other. Subjects see these lotteries both in a maximally positive correlation and in a maximally negative correlation structure. In part IV, participants decide between two lotteries with the same marginal distribution, but different relative skewness. In part V, Subjects also decide between two lotteries with the same marginal distribution, but different relative skewness. However, they now receive immediate feedback on the outcome of their decisions.

There are two treatments. In the treatment correlation effects and event splitting effects (CEESE), changing the correlation structure for part I and II also induces changes in the way events are split and in the number of events. In the treatment correlation effects only (CEO), event splitting effects are controlled for. For the parts III-V, there is no difference between the treatments.

Intervention Start Date
2021-03-08
Intervention End Date
2021-03-19

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
For decisions in parts I-III: Choice reversals due to changes in the correlation structure (and event-splitting).
For decisions in part II: Choice reversals due the common consequence.
For decisions in parts IV and V: Frequency of choices of the lottery with a higher relative skewness.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
For more details on the variable construction, see the analysis plan.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
For a detailed description of the experimental design, see the document "Experiment_description.pdf".
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
By Computer.
Randomization Unit
Individual.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
150 individuals for each of the two treatments.
Sample size: planned number of observations
35 decisions for each of the 300 participants. For part I: 6 paired choices per participant. For part II: 3 paired choices per participant. For part III: 2 paired choices per participant. For part IV and V: 5 choices each per participant.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
For part I and II: 150 participants in each treatment. For each participants there are 6 (part I), and 3 (part II) paired choices.
For part III-V, there is no difference by treatment.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

Documents

Document Name
Experiment description
Document Type
other
Document Description
This document details the experimental design.
File
Experiment description

MD5: b75809f961a67c37969ebfd9eb08507a

SHA1: 9ce427079858d9c631c0a17b5621f5b4d9b7fb80

Uploaded At: February 26, 2021

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Lab of National Governance and Development, Renmin University of China
IRB Approval Date
2021-02-22
IRB Approval Number
RUCecon-202102-1
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Analysis plan

MD5: 6c1a01e0d8ff2c7b4062a3ec4810de26

SHA1: f772a973153b7725c2cbd0dd6aab911aa95220d6

Uploaded At: February 26, 2021

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials