Ambiguous Solicitation: Ambiguous Prescription
Williams College Economics Department Working Paper No. 2009-02
24 Pages Posted: 1 Apr 2009
Date Written: March 31, 2009
Abstract
We conduct a two-phase laboratory experiment, separated by several weeks. In the first phase, we conduct urn games intended to measure ambiguity aversion on a representative population of undergraduate students. In the second phase, we invite the students back with four different solicitation treatments, varying in the ambiguity of information regarding the task and the payout of the laboratory experiment. We find that those who return do not differ from the overall pool with respect to their ambiguity version. However, no solicitation treatment generates a representative sample. The ambiguous task treatment drives away the ambiguity averse disproportionally, and the detailed task treatment draws in the ambiguity averse disproportionally.
Keywords: Laboratory experimental methods, Experimental economics, Laboratory selection effects
JEL Classification: B40, C81, C90, C91, D80, D83
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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