Research
My research interests include optimal policy design, nudging and sustainable behavior change. I conduct research in collaboration with public and private institutions in the fields of health behaviour and environmental sustainability. My focus is on innovating public policy by incorporating insights from behavioral economics and establishing the use of randomized controlled trials for evidence-based decision making. I have used laboratory, online, survey and natural and framed field experiments to understand human decision making.
Below you can find links to my published research papers, as well as abstracts of my current work in progress with links to working papers.
A selection of publications
2024
Leveraging Field Experiments to Shape Environmental Policy Journal Article
In: Nationaløkonomisk Tidsskrift, vol. 2024, iss. 1, no. 8, 2024.
2022
Effective carbon taxes need green nudges Journal Article
In: Nat. Clim. Chang., vol. 12, no. 12, pp. 1073–1074, 2022, ISSN: 1758-6798.
2021
Confidence and career choices: an experiment* Journal Article
In: Scandinavian J Economics, vol. 124, no. 1, pp. 35–68, 2021, ISSN: 1467-9442.
Grit and Peers: An Experimental Study on Peer Effects in Perseverance Journal Article
In: Clinical Psychiatry, vol. 7, iss. 4, 2021.
When nudges aren’t enough: Norms, incentives and habit formation in public transport usage Journal Article
In: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, vol. 190, pp. 1–14, 2021, ISSN: 0167-2681.
The Use of Green Nudges as an Environmental Policy Instrument Journal Article
In: Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 216–237, 2021, ISSN: 1750-6824.
Reminders as a Tool for Behavior Change Journal Article
In: SSRN Journal, 2021, ISSN: 1556-5068.
2020
Because of you I did not give up – Peer effects in perseverance Journal Article
In: Journal of Economic Psychology, vol. 81, 2020, ISSN: 0167-4870.
2019
Nudging à la carte: a field experiment on climate-friendly food choice Journal Article
In: Behav. Public Policy, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 378–395, 2019, ISSN: 2398-0648.
2018
Forgetful or Reluctant? Evidence on Reminder Response and Donor Behavior from Panel Data Book Chapter
In: The Economics of Philanthropy, pp. 219–238, The MIT Press, 2018, ISBN: 9780262348041.
The hidden costs of nudging: Experimental evidence from reminders in fundraising Journal Article
In: Journal of Public Economics, vol. 157, pp. 15–26, 2018, ISSN: 0047-2727.
The effects of a high school curriculum reform on university enrollment and the choice of college major Journal Article
In: Education Economics, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 321–336, 2018, ISSN: 1469-5782.
2017
A must lie situation – avoiding giving negative feedback Journal Article
In: Games and Economic Behavior, vol. 102, pp. 445–454, 2017, ISSN: 0899-8256.
Now or never! The effect of deadlines on charitable giving: Evidence from two natural field experiments Journal Article
In: Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, vol. 66, pp. 78–87, 2017, ISSN: 2214-8043.
Pride and patronage - pay-what-you-want pricing at a charitable bookstore Journal Article
In: Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, vol. 67, pp. 1–7, 2017, ISSN: 2214-8043.
2016
The effects of the high school curriculum on school dropout Journal Article
In: Applied Economics, vol. 48, no. 54, pp. 5314–5328, 2016, ISSN: 1466-4283.
2013
How luck and performance affect stealing Journal Article
In: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, vol. 93, pp. 301–304, 2013, ISSN: 0167-2681.
Work in progress
Carbon Taxes Crowd-out Climate Concern: Experimental Evidence from Sustainable Consumer Choices
with Alice Pizzo, Jan Bauer and Lucia Reisch
We examine the impact of a carbon tax on consumer choices via a large-scale online randomized controlled trial. Higher taxes generally reduce the demand for high-carbon goods. Compared to an import tax, a carbon tax reduces demand when the tax is zero (i.e., announced but not levied) but shows relatively higher demand for high-carbon goods when a positive tax is introduced. This contradiction of basic price theory is entirely driven by climate-concerned consumers. Our findings suggest that carbon taxes can crowd out climate concerns, leading to important implications for policy.
Intent to Inertia: Experimental Evidence from the retail electricity market
I study consumers’ choices in the retail electricity market. By conducting a large-scale survey experiment with 3% of the Danish working-age population, I have gathered data on respondents’ factual knowledge of the retail electricity market, their beliefs, preferences, and intentions to switch providers. Crucially, I can link their intentions with actual switching behaviors using nationwide smart meter data. My findings reveal a substantial gap between switching intentions and actions. This gap is exacerbated by my experimental interventions which 1) provide information about savings and switching costs and 2) decrease switching costs by offering free access to a switching service. While my interventions have large and significant effects on switching intention, they have only minor effects on actual switching behaviors. I calculate that a majority of consumers leaves money on the table by not switching. The low switching rates cannot be explained by biased beliefs or high switching costs. Demographics do not explain switching behavior, however, personality traits such as risk aversion, trust, and a tendency to avoid procrastination matter. The observed intention action gap can be explained by present-biased individuals who procrastinate and quickly forget to switch. Based on these findings, I suggest that simply drawing attention to information or educating consumers is unlikely to stimulate market activity. I recommend for policymakers to consider implementing smart defaults, for which I find strong citizen support in my research.
Do multi price offers in supermarkets increase household food waste?
with Milica Mormann
This research demonstrates how retail promotions can lead to overbuying of food items, resulting in an increase in household food waste. The results from a large-scale field experiment with the data from 40,000 perishable vegetable purchases from eight supermarkets across Sweden show that consumers exposed to multiple-unit offers (e.g., “2 for X”) purchased more compared to those exposed to a single unit discount (e.g., “1 for X/2”). A follow-up survey showed that these additional items are subsequently less likely to be consumed, leading to an increase in household food waste. The effect of multiple-unit offers on purchased quantity are reduced when the savings compared to buying one unit are made salient or when a nudge reminds consumers to consider their consumption. These results provide important insights into factors that increase food waste, and to the power of retailers to negatively, and also positively, impact important societal and environmental causes.
Peer Evaluation in Tournaments
with Martin Dufwenberg and Katja Görlitz
We want to win, but we also care about our reputation. We conduct a psychological game-theoretic analysis of the tradeoff between increasing ones chances of winning a tournament and not being identified as a cheater by fellow contestants. We extend the model by Dufwenberg & Dufwenberg (2018) on perceived cheating aversion to a multi-player setting with subjective performance evaluations. We then test the model predictions in a lab experiment.
Arbitrage Or Narrow Bracketing? On Using Money to Measure Discounting
with James Andreoni, Mike Kuhn, Silvia Saccardo and Yang Yang
If experimental subjects arbitrage against market interest rates when making intertemporal allocations of cash, the data will reveal nothing about subjects’ discounting, only uncovering subjects’ market interest rates. If subjects instead frame choices narrowly, they will plan to spend cash rewards when received, implying cash has properties similar primary rewards. We test arbitrage directly by forcing all transactions with subjects to go exclusively through their financial institutions via instant electronic transfers. If subjects wish to arbitrage, this should make it as easy and salient as possible. Our evidence contradicts arbitrage, and finds evidence of present bias, supporting the view that money payments in experiments can be treated as a primary reward.
When do reminders work? Memory constraints and medical adherence
with Kai Barron, Mette Trier Damgaard
Reminders can successfully change behavior, but their effectiveness varies substantially. To understand when reminders work, we develop a theoretical model which decomposes reminders into three key mechanisms i) focusing attention, ii) providing information and iii) moral suasion. We test our model predictions in a field experiment sending reminders to increase iron supplement adherence to 4000 pregnant women in South Africa. We document a strong baseline demand for reminders, which increases further after exposure. Pure reminders and reminders with moral suasion increase stated adherence while informational reminders decrease adherence. A structural estimation guides our policy discussion.
Time preferences and medication adherence: A field experiment with pregnant women in South Africa
with Kai Barron, Mette Trier Damgaard and Lisa Norrgren
The effectiveness of many health recommendations and treatment plans depends on the extent to which individuals follow them. For the individual, medication adherence involves an inter-temporal trade-off between expected future health benefits and immediate effort costs. Therefore examining time-preferences may help us to understand why some people fail to follow health recommendations and treatment plans. In this paper, we use a simple, unobtrusive real-effort task implemented via text message to elicit the time preferences of pregnant women in South Africa. We find evidence that both our measured discount factor and time-inconsistency are predictive of self-reported adherence to the recommendation of taking iron supplements daily during pregnancy. This suggests that patience plays a role in determining medication adherence patterns.
Annoyance costs of reminders
with Janna Ter Mer
In this study we replicate the findings by Damgaard and Gravert (2018) that sending reminders comes at a cost. In a large-scale field experiment, we vary the cadence of reminders for participating in a research study to understand how people form beliefs about reminder frequency
Research visits
December 2016
Monash University
October 2016 - December 2016
University of Sydney
(visiting Robert Slonim)
April 2016
Department of Economics, University of Edinburgh
(visiting Michèle Belot)
June/July 2015
Department of Economics, University of Chicago
(visiting John List)
May 2013 - June 2013
The Becker and Friedman Institute, University of Chicago
(visiting John List)
July 2012
Center of Advanced Hinsight, Duke University
(visiting Dan Ariely)
