Discussion Papers

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18834

Choosing Complexity: Cognitive Ability, Overconfidence, and Task Choice

David Gill, Zhongheng Qiao

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18796

COVID-19 Pandemic and Prosociality: An Experiment with Healthcare Professionals

Joan Costa-Font, Nicolò Gatti, Gilberto Turati, Daniel Wiesen

Economics and Human Biology, 62, 101629, 9 July 2026

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18784

When AI Does the Work: Does Attribution Shape Meaning and Effort?

Milena Nikolova, Viliana Milanova, Feicheng Wang

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18777

Gender Differences in Self-Promotion and Career Advice

Rigissa Megalokonomou, Juliana Silva Goncalves, Roel van Veldhuizen

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18654

Grade Inflation and the Interpretation of Labor Market Signals

Zhizhong Pu, Martin Abel, Jeffrey P. Carpenter

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18430

How Job Attractiveness Is Shaped by Employer-Provided Childcare Arrangements

Morien El Haj, Eline Moens, Elsy Verhofstadt, Luc Van Ootegem, Stijn Baert

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18409

Basic Needs Satisfaction as a Fundamental Distributive Principle: Evidence from the Lab and the Field

Thomas Dohmen, Frauke Meyer, Gari Walkowitz

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18406

Parental Mental Health and the Economic Preferences of the Next Generation

Alexander Bertermann, Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18338

AI Tutoring Enhances Student Learning Without Crowding Out Reading Effort

Mira Fischer, Holger A. Rau, Rainer Michael Rilke

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18292

Couldn’t Care Less? Understanding and Reducing the Hiring Penalty of Care-Related Career Breaks

Liam D'hert, Morien El Haj, Stijn Baert

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18239

Foreign Accents and Employer Beliefs: Experimental Evidence on Hiring Discrimination

Elisa Taveras, Ozlem Tonguc, Maria Zhu, Nicola Miller

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18196

Beliefs and the Demand for Employee Ownership

Gabriel Burdin, Fabio Landini

IZA Discussion Paper No. 18122

Social Risk, Fairness Types, and Redistribution

Stefania Bortolotti, Ivan Soraperra, Matthias Sutter

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17979

Timetables, Attendance and Academic Achievement in Higher Education

Adeline Delavande, Emilia Del Bono, Angus J. Holford, Kevin Williams

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17892

Belief Updating About Moral Norms: Does Group Identity Matter?

David L. Dickinson, Marie Claire Villeval

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17823

War and Peace: How Economic Prospects Drive Conflictuality

Shuguang Jiang, Marie Claire Villeval, Zhengping Zhang, Jie Zheng

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17822

Trust as a Social Norm? A Lab-in-the-Field Experiment with Refugees in Switzerland

Stefanie S. Baumgartner, Fabio Galeotti, Thierry Madies, Marie Claire Villeval

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17788

Are Elites Meritocratic and Efficiency-Seeking? Evidence from MBA Students

Marcel Preuss, Germán Reyes, Jason Somerville, Joy Wu

published in: Journal of Public Economics, 260: 105700, 2026

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17708

The Role of Interpersonal Uncertainty in Prosocial Behavior

Anujit Chakraborty, Luca Henkel

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17635

The Impact of Learning about AI Advancements on Trust

Milena Nikolova, Marco Angrisani

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17608

Measuring Economic Preferences with Surveys and Behavioral Experiments

Michael Kosfeld, Zahra Sharafi, Maíra Sontag González, Na Zou

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17564

Gender Identity and Economic Decision Making

Anne Ardila Brenøe, Zeynep Eyibak, Lea Heursen, Eva Ranehill, Roberto A. Weber

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17540

Partisan Discrimination in Hiring

Martin Abel, Andrea Robbett, Daniel F. Stone

published in: Journal of Human Resources

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17519

Coordination Games Played by Children and Teenagers: On the Influence of Age, Group Size and Incentives

Daniela Glätzle-Rützler, Matthias Sutter, Claudia Zoller

published in: Experimental Economics, 2025, 28 (2), 217-236

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17497

Not a Lucky Break? Why and When a Career Hiatus Hijacks Hiring Chances

Liam D'hert, Louis Lippens, Stijn Baert

revised version published in: Labour Economics, June 2026, 100

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17484

When Transparency Fails: How Altruistic Framing Sustains Demand for Useless Advice Despite Complete Information

Nattavudh Powdthavee, Yohanes E. Riyanto, Xiaojie Zhang

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17448

Trump Ante Portas: Political Polarization Undermines Rule-Following Behavior

Christoph Feldhaus, Lukas Reinhardt, Matthias Sutter

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17336

Nurturing the Future: How Positive Parenting Is Related to Children's Skills and Well-Being

Laura Breitkopf, Shyamal Chowdhury, Shambhavi Priyam, Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch, Matthias Sutter

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17315

Competing for Influence in Networks through Strategic Targeting

Margherita Comola, Agnieszka Rusinowska, Marie Claire Villeval

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17155

Inequality of Opportunity and Income Redistribution

Marcel Preuss, Germán Reyes, Jason Somerville, Joy Wu

forthcoming in: Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17096

What Matters for the Decision to Study Abroad? A Lab-in-the-Field Experiment in Cape Verde

Catia Batista, David M Costa, Pedro Freitas, Gonçalo Lima, Ana B Reis

pubished in: Journal of Development Economics, 2025, 173, 103401

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17078

Assessing Dishonesty in Cocoa Value Chains: Lab-in-the-Field Evidence from Middlemen in Côte D'Ivoire

Delphine Boutin, Marine Jouvin, Louis Olié

IZA Discussion Paper No. 17032

On the Psychological Foundations of Ambiguity and Compound Risk Aversion

Keyu Wu, Ernst Fehr, Sean Hofland, Martin Schonger

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16984

Discrimination in the General Population

Silvia Angerer, Hanna Brosch, Daniela Glätzle-Rützler, Philipp Lergetporer, Thomas Rittmannsberger

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16834

Do Economic Preferences of Children Predict Behavior?

Laura Breitkopf, Shyamal Chowdhury, Shambhavi Priyam, Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch, Matthias Sutter

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16814

The Role of Payoff Parameters for Cooperation in the One-Shot Prisoner's Dilemma

Simon Gächter, Kyeongtae Lee, Martin Sefton, Till O. Weber

revised version published in: European Economic Review, 2024, 166, 104753,

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16797

The Impact of Insufficient Sleep on the Serial Reproduction of Information

David L. Dickinson, Sean P.A. Drummond

published in: SLEEP Advances, 2025, 6 (2), zpaf026

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16768

The Impact of the Menstrual Cycle on Bargaining Behavior

Lina Lozano, Arno Riedl, Christina Rott

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16730

How Do Recruiters Assess Applicants Who Express a Political Engagement?

Eline Moens, Dyllis De Pessemier, Stijn Baert

published in: European Journal of Political Economy, 2025, 86, 102637

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16637

Reciprocity and Learning Effects in Price Competition

Annamaria Nese, Niall O'Higgins, Patrizia Sbriglia

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16577

Gender Differences in Reservation Wages in Search Experiments

Andrew McGee, Peter McGee

published in: Labour Economics, 2025, 94, 102698

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16460

The Shift Premium: Evidence from a Discrete Choice Experiment

Sam Desiere, Christian Walter

forthcoming in: British Journal of Industrial Relations

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16457

Mindfulness Training, Cognitive Performance and Stress Reduction

Gary Charness, Yves Le Bihan, Marie Claire Villeval

revised version published in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2023, 217, 207-226.

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16346

Behavioural Responses to Unfair Institutions: Experimental Evidence on Rule Compliance, Norm Polarisation, and Trust

Simon Columbus, Lars P. Feld, Matthias Kasper, Matthew D. Rablen

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16343

Order Effects in Eliciting Preferences

Orestis Kopsacheilis, Sebastian J. Goerg

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16338

Dark versus Light Personality Types and Moral Choice

David L. Dickinson

published in: European Economic Review, 2025, 178, 105092

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16311

What Does Job Applicants' Body Art Signal to Employers?

Stijn Baert, Jolien Herregods, Philippe Sterkens

published in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2024, 217, 742 - 755

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16306

Gambling Habits and Probability Judgements in a Bayesian Task Environment

David L. Dickinson, Parker Reid

revised version published in: Journal of Gambling Studies, 2025, 98, 95- 152

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16293

Corrupted by Algorithms? How AI-Generated and Human-Written Advice Shape (Dis)Honesty

Margarita Leib, Nils Köbis, Rainer Michael Rilke, Marloes Hagens, Bernd Irlenbusch

published in: Economic Journal, 2024, 134 (658), 766 - 784

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16205

A Behaviorally-Validated Warm Glow Questionnaire

Jeffrey P. Carpenter, Alex Lyford, Mingfang Zhang

published in: Journal of the Economic Sciene Association, 2024, 10, 310–329

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16151

Free to Fail? Paternalistic Preferences in the United States

Björn Bartling, Alexander W. Cappelen, Henning Hermes, Marit Skivenes, Bertil Tungodden

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16028

Overexertion of Effort under Working Time Autonomy and Feedback Provision

Thomas Dohmen, Elena Shvartsman

published in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2023, 212, 255-1266

IZA Discussion Paper No. 16020

Identity, Communication, and Conflict: An Experiment

Sumon K. Bhaumik, Subhasish M Chowdhury, Ralitza Dimova, Hanna Fromell

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15960

Guilt Aversion in (New) Games: Does Partners' Payoff Vulnerability Matter?

Giuseppe Attanasi, Claire Rimbaud, Marie Claire Villeval

revised version published in: Games and Economic Behavior, 2023, 142, 690-717

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15840

Homophily and Transmission of Behavioral Traits in Social Networks

Palaash Bhargava, Daniel L. Chen, Matthias Sutter, Camille Terrier

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15763

On the Psychology of the Relation between Optimism and Risk Taking

Thomas Dohmen, Simone Quercia, Jana Willrodt

published in: Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 2023, 67, 193–214.

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15732

The Broken Chain: Evidence against Emotionally Driven Upstream Indirect Reciprocity

Wendelin Schnedler

published in: Games and Economic Behavior, 2022, 136, 542-558

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15682

Motivated Belief Updating and Rationalization of Information

Christoph Drobner, Sebastian J. Goerg

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15590

Measuring Socially Appropriate Social Preferences

Jeffrey P. Carpenter, Andrea Robbett

published in: Games and Economic Behavior 2024, 147, 517 - 532

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15524

Selecting Names for Experiments on Ethnic Discrimination

Stijn Baert, Louis Lippens, Hannah Van Borm

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15523

Social Preferences and the Variability of Conditional Cooperation

Malte Baader, Simon Gächter, Kyeongtae Lee, Martin Sefton

revised version published online in: Economic Theory, 11 November 2024

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15496

Social Preferences and Rating Biases in Subjective Performance Evaluations

David Kusterer, Dirk Sliwka

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15492

Beliefs, Learning, and Personality in the Indefinitely Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma

David Gill, Yaroslav Rosokha

published in: American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2024, 16 (3), 259– 283

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15438

Intelligence Disclosure and Cooperation in Repeated Interactions

Marco Lambrecht, Eugenio Proto, Aldo Rustichini, Andis Sofianos

published in: American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2024, 16 (3), 199–231

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15428

Political Ideology, Mood Response, and the Confirmation Bias

David L. Dickinson

published as 'Political ideology, emotion response, and confirmation bias' in: Economic Inquiry, 2025, 63 (1), 181-205

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15375

Price Expectations and Reference-Dependent Preferences

Robert Rutledge, Vinayak Alladi, Stephen L. Cheung

revised version published in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2025, 231, 106927

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15285

Homosexuality's Signalling Function in Job Candidate Screening: Why Gay Is (Mostly) OK

Philippe Sterkens, Axana Dalle, Joey Wuyts, Ines Pauwels, Hellen Durinck, Stijn Baert

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15275

Strategic Complexity and the Value of Thinking

David Gill, Victoria L. Prowse

published in: Economic Journal, 2023, 133 (650), 761–786,

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15238

Is the Price Right? The Role of Morals, Ideology, and Tradeoff Thinking in Explaining Reactions to Price Surges

Julio Elias, Nicola Lacetera, Mario Macis

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15048

What's the Risk from Competing? Competition Aversion and the Gender Wage Gap

Chung Choe, SeEun Jung, Ronald L. Oaxaca

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15044

I Won't Make the Same Mistake Again: Burnout History and Job Preferences

Philippe Sterkens, Stijn Baert, Eline Moens, Eva Derous, Joey Wuyts

IZA Discussion Paper No. 15023

It’s Payback Time: New Insights on Cooperation in the Repeated Prisoners’ Dilemma

Maria Bigoni, Marco Casari, Andrea Salvanti, Andrzej Skrzypacz, Giancarlo Spagnolo

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14961

Conforming with Peers in Honesty and Cooperation

Ozan Isler, Simon Gächter

published in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2022, 195, 75-86,

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14950

Men Are from Mars, and Women Too: A Bayesian Meta-Analysis of Overconfidence Experiments

Oriana Bandiera, Nidhi Parekh, Barbara Petrongolo, Michelle Rao

published in: Economica, 2022, 89 (S1), 38 - 70

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14931

The Way People Lie in Markets: Detectable vs. Deniable Lies

Chloe Tergiman, Marie Claire Villeval

revised version published in: Management Science, 2023, 69 (6), 3157-3758

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14895

Risk, Temptation, and Efficiency in the One-Shot Prisoner's Dilemma

Simon Gächter, Kyeongtae Lee, Martin Sefton, Till O. Weber

revised version published as 'The role of payoff parameters for cooperation in the one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma' in: European Economic Review, 2024, 166, 104753,

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14828

Dissecting Inequality-Averse Preferences

Marcelo Bergolo, Gabriel Burdin, Santiago Burone, Mauricio De Rosa, Matias Giaccobasso, Martin Leites

revised version published in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2022, 200, 782-802

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14779

The Right Person for the Right Job: Workers' Prosociality as a Screening Device

Maria Bigoni, Matteo Ploner, Thi-Thanh-Tam Vu

published in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2023, 212, 53 - 73

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14717

Testing Classic Theories of Migration in the Lab

Catia Batista, David McKenzie

published in: Journal of International Economics, 2023, 145, 103826

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14714

Ingroup Bias with Multiple Identities: The Case of Religion and Attitudes Towards Government Size

Daniel Sgroi, Jonathan Yeo, Shi Zhuo

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14687

Feed the Children

Laurens Cherchye, Pierre-André Chiappori, Bram De Rock, Charlotte Ringdal, Frederic Vermeulen

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14679

The Formation of Risk Preferences through Small-Scale Events

Silvia Angerer, E. Glenn Dutcher, Daniela Glätzle-Rützler, Philipp Lergetporer, Matthias Sutter

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14625

Quasi-Hyperbolic Present Bias: A Meta-Analysis

Stephen L. Cheung, Agnieszka Tymula, Xueting Wang

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14614

Costly Mistakes: Why and When Spelling Errors in Resumes Jeopardise Interview Chances

Philippe Sterkens, Ralf Caers, Marijke De Couck, Michael Geamanu, Victor Van Driessche, Stijn Baert

published in: PLoS ONE, 2022, 18 (4), e0283280

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14595

Incentives, Self-Selection, and Coordination of Motivated Agents for the Production of Social Goods

Kevin Bauer, Michael Kosfeld, Ferdinand von Siemens

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14594

Estimating Coherency between Survey Data and Incentivized Experimental Data

Christian Belzil, Julie Pernaudet, François Poinas

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14590

Estimating Time Preferences for Leisure

Maria Bigoni, Davide Dragone, Stéphane Luchini, Alberto Prati

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14537

Unethical Decision Making and Sleep Restriction: Experimental Evidence

David L. Dickinson, David Masclet

revised version published in: Games and Economic Behavior, 2023,141, 484-502.

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14526

Limited Self-Knowledge and Survey Response Behavior

Armin Falk, Thomas Neuber, Philipp Strack

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14502

Why Making Promotion after a Burnout Is like Boiling the Ocean

Philippe Sterkens, Stijn Baert, Claudia Rooman, Eva Derous

revised version published in: European Sociological Review , 2023, 39 (4), 516- 531

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14467

The Roots of Cooperation

Zvonimir Bašić, Parampreet C. Bindra, Daniela Glätzle-Rützler, Angelo Romano, Matthias Sutter, Claudia Zoller

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14401

Children's Patience and School-Track Choices Several Years Later: Linking Experimental and Field Data

Silvia Angerer, Jana Bolvashenkova, Daniela Glätzle-Rützler, Philipp Lergetporer, Matthias Sutter

published in: Journal of Public Economics, 2023, 220, 104837

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14347

Estimating Social Preferences Using Stated Satisfaction: Novel Support for Inequity Aversion

Lina Diaz, Daniel Houser, John Ifcher, Homa Zarghamee

published in: European Economic Review, 2023, 155, 104436

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14256

The Effect of Self-Awareness and Competition on Dishonesty

Ceren Bengü Çıbık, Daniel Sgroi

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14174

Gender and Psychological Pressure in Competitive Environments

Alison L. Booth, Patrick J. Nolen

published in: Economica, 2022, 89 (S1), S71-S85

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14169

Competitiveness of Entrepreneurs and Salaried Workers

Loukas Balafoutas, Mongoljin Batsaikhan, Matthias Sutter

revised version published in: Management Science, 2024, 70 (5), 2900 - 2911

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14130

Republic of Beliefs: An Experimental Investigation

Utteeyo Dasgupta, Fatos Radoniqi

published in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2023, 214, 30 - 43

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14067

Who Benefits from Corporate Social Responsibility? Reciprocity in the Presence of Social Incentives and Self-Selection

Guglielmo Briscese, Nick Feltovich, Robert Slonim

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14059

Intertemporal Altruism

Felix Chopra, Philipp Eisenhauer, Armin Falk, Thomas W Graeber

IZA Discussion Paper No. 14025

Collective Intertemporal Decisions and Heterogeneity in Groups

Daniela Glätzle-Rützler, Philipp Lergetporer, Matthias Sutter

published in: Games and Economic Behavior, 2021, 130, 131-147