Final Report Summary - BSDIM (Behavioural Spillovers and the Design of Institutions and Markets)
We have studied how such behavioural spillovers can be made use of for a more efficient design of institutions and markets. Particular focus was placed on decision making under uncertainty and on how different informational systems can differentially affect risk preferences. In joint work with Elias Tsakas (Maastricht) and Alexander Vostroknutov (Trento, former Maastricht) we have found evidence that living in environments characterized by a large degree of uncertainty can affect risk preferences in future decisions, even if those decisions present substantially lower degrees of uncertainty. Our results should be of interest to any social scientist interested in how experiencing environments of different degrees of uncertainty shape risk preferences. Different political systems, media and education systems all create such different environments.
To the extent that our results transfer to such settings they are potentially actionable by both marketers and policy makers in product design and policy interventions.
The project was executed at Maastricht University in close collaboration with an excellent international group of researchers.