• Graduate program
  • Research
  • Summer School
  • Events
    • Summer School
      • Sustainable Finance
      • Applied Public Policy Evaluation
      • Economics of Blockchain and Digital Currencies
      • Economics of Climate Change
      • Foundations of Machine Learning with Applications in Python
      • From preference to choice: The Economic Theory of Decision-Making
      • Gender in Society
      • Business Data Science Summer School Program
    • Events Calendar
    • Events Archive
    • Tinbergen Institute Lectures
    • 16th Tinbergen Institute Annual Conference
    • Annual Tinbergen Institute Conference
  • News
  • Alumni
  • Magazine
Home | Events Archive | The Habit-Forming Effects of Feedback: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment
Seminar

The Habit-Forming Effects of Feedback: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment


  • Series
  • Speaker
    Lorenz Goette (National University of Singapore)
  • Field
    Behavioral Economics
  • Location
    University of Amsterdam, Roeterseilandcampus, room E0.22
    Amsterdam
  • Date and time

    June 08, 2023
    16:00 - 17:15

Sign-up for mailing list: Please email Natalie Lee.

Abstract

We document the dynamics of persistence using a large-scale field experiment that provides cost salience nudges with different cycles of duration. Households respond asymmetrically: behavior quickly adjusts to these nudges and sluggishly readjusts without them. We then develop a habit formation model that nests traditional consumption-based mechanisms and an attention-based mechanism that allows for dynamic responses to time-varying salience. Combining our field experiment and structural model, we validate the importance of attention dynamics and uncover a new solution concept for optimizing feedback interventions to create sustained behavioral change.