Outcome Bias in Bonus Decisions

Last registered on October 27, 2021

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Outcome Bias in Bonus Decisions

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0008387

Initial registration date

October 18, 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

October 20, 2021, 1:24 PM EDT

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

Last updated

October 27, 2021, 2:10 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Region

Europe

Primary Investigator

Name

Moritz Loewenfeld

Affiliation

Toulouse School of Economics

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2021-10-20

End date

2021-11-03

Keywords

Behavior, Lab

Additional Keywords

Outcome bias, reciprocity, delegated risk taking

JEL code(s)

D81

Secondary IDs

Prior work

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

Abstract

The goal of this study is to investigate outcome bias in bonus decisions.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Loewenfeld, Moritz. 2021. "Outcome Bias in Bonus Decisions." AEA RCT Registry. October 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8387-2.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

I conduct an online experiment to study outcome bias in a principal-agent setting.

Intervention Start Date

2021-10-20

Intervention End Date

2021-11-03

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

The bonus decisions made by principals. See the pdf "design_analysis" for a detailed description of the variables that will be constructed and used.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Principals review a number of scenarios in which an agent had to make a choice between two lotteries.The outcome of the agent’s choice determines the payoff of the principal, but not that of the agent, at least not directly. Principals decide whether they want to award a fixed bonus to the agent who took the decision, or to another, randomly chosen, participant.

Experimental Design Details

There are two treatments. In the OB treatment, principals observe both the outcome and the decision before deciding on whether to award the bonus to the agent. In the no-OB (NOB) treatment, principals observe only the agents’ choices, but not their outcomes prior to the bonus decision. For a description of the decision tasks involved, see the pdf "design_analysis".

Randomization Method

Computer

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

The target number of participants is 50 principals and 1 or 2 agents per treatment (for the sake of incentivization only). The target number of 50 observations refers to subjects who have not been excluded from the data analysis. For a description of the exclusion criteria, see the pdf "design_analysis".

Sample size: planned number of observations

See above.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

See above.

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

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB