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Decisions are rarely made in isolation and the role of others’ decisions in guiding our own has been observed in a diversity of contexts. This influence is often argued to result from an information cascade, where decisions in a sequential setting are influenced by the early decisions of others. However, the degree to which individuals modify behaviour through the integration of social information (i.e., other people’s decisions) varies considerably. While significant literature has been dedicated to understanding individual determinants for this variation, we propose that we should not ignore the aggregate characteristics of the herd itself. Specifically, we examine whether the scale and longevity of the herd itself at the time when an individual decides, defined as macroscopic herd inputs, influence whether individuals integrate social information. By employing data from a social trading platform, we find that macroscopic herd inputs exert a strong influence on individual investment decisions, showing that the influence of others’ behaviour on our own is in part dependent on the nature of the herd itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applies a machine learning (ML) approach to around 400,000 observations from the German Socio-Economic Panel to assess the relation between life satisfaction and age. We show that with our ML-based approach it is possible to isolate the effect of age on life satisfaction across the lifecycle without explicitly parameterizing the complex relationship between age and other covariates—this complex relation is taken into account by a feedforward neural network. Our results show a clear U-shape relation between age and life satisfaction across the lifespan, with a minimum at around 50 years of age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the 2015 International Social Survey Program (ISSP), this study conducts a multinational comparison of job satisfaction determinants and their drivers in 36 countries and regions, with particular attention to the reasons for relatively low job satisfaction among Chinese workers. Based on our results from a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis, we attribute a substantial portion of the job satisfaction differences between China and the other countries to different job attributes and expectations; in particular, to unmet job expectations for interesting work, high pay, and opportunities for advancement. We also note that, contrary to common belief, Chinese workers value similar attributes as Western workers but perceive their work conditions as very different from those in the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because the value of preschool child care is under intensive debate among both policy-makers and society in general, this paper analyzes the relation between preschool care and the well-being of children and adolescents in Germany. It specifically examines differences in outcomes based on child socioeconomic background by focusing on the heterogeneous effects for migrant children. Our findings, based on data from the German Health Interview and Examination Survey of Children and Adolescents (KiGGS), suggest that children who have experienced child care have a slightly lower well-being overall. For migrant children, however, the outcomes indicate a positive relation. These results remain robust after controlling for selection into child care on observables and using an instrumental variable approach to address potential endogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study used cross-sectional UK Biobank data to estimate the influence of active and passive commuting modes and commuting distance on cardiovascular disease (CVD) -related biomarkers as measures of health outcomes. The analysis applied logistic regression to assess the risk of exhibiting individual biomarker values outside a predefined reference interval and standard linear regression to estimate the relation between commuting practices and a composite CVD index. The study sample comprised 208,893 UK Biobank baseline survey participants aged 40 to 69 who use various modes of transport to commute to work at least once a week. Participants were recruited and interviewed between 2006 and 2010 at 22 centers geographically dispersed across England, Scotland, and Wales. The data set included these participants' sociodemographic and health-related information, including lifestyle indicators and biological measures. The primary outcome was a shift from low to high-risk blood serum levels in eight cardiovascular biomarkers: total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein, high density lipoprotein, triglycerides, apolipoprotein A and B, C-reactive protein, and lipoprotein (a). Our results indicated a small negative association between the composite risk index for CVD biomarkers and weekly commuting distance. Although estimates for active commuting modes (cycling, walking) may admittedly be sensitive to different covariate adjustments, our specifications show them to be positively associated with select CVD biomarkers. Commuting long distances by car is negatively associated with CVD-related biomarkers, while cycling and walking might be positively associated. This biomarker-based evidence, although limited, is less susceptible to residual confounding than that from distant outcomes like CVD mortality. • Active commuting modes have positive associations with CVD biomarkers. • Cycling is significantly linked to five biomarkers. • Walking is significantly related to two biomarkers. • Commuting by car is associated with low composite CVD biomarkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper focuses on green defaults as demand-side policies supporting the uptake of renewable energy in Germany. It sets out to gain a better understanding of whether and for whom green electricity defaults work. The present study is one of the first to use a large-scale data set to investigate this question. We combine micro-level data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) covering private households (including a wealth of individual information) with macro-level information such as population density of a region and proportion of energy suppliers in a given region that use a green opt-out tariff within their basic supply. We show that in Germany, green defaults, automatically enrolling customers in renewable energy sources, tend to stick, especially but not only among those who are concerned about the problem of climate change. This finding, based on real-world rather than experimental evidence, attests to the power of automatic enrollment in addressing environmental problems in Germany and potentially beyond, including climate change, and also adds to the growing literature on the substantial effects of shifting from opt-in to opt-out strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, policymakers have increasingly used behaviourally informed policies, including 'nudges,' to produce desirable social outcomes. But do people actually endorse those policies? This study reports on nationally representative surveys in five countries (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, South Korea, and the US) carried out in 2017/2018. We investigate whether people in these countries approve of a list of 15 nudges regarding health, the environment, and safety issues. A particular focus is whether trust in public institutions is a potential mediator of approval. The study confirms this correlation. We also find strong majority support of all nudges in the five countries. Our findings in general, and about trust in particular, suggest the importance not only of ensuring that behaviourally informed policies are effective, but also of developing them transparently and openly, and with an opportunity for members of the public to engage and to express their concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Representative surveys find that many people do not want to receive information even when it bears on health, sustainability, and consumer welfare. • People's willingness to pay for information is mostly higher than people's willingness to pay not to receive information, contingent on their not wanting it. • Estimating welfare effects of information, substantial benefits outweigh costs. • Policymakers should take both instrumental and hedonic effects into account. What information would people like to have? What information would they prefer to avoid? How does the provision of information bear on welfare? And what does this mean for food policy? Representative surveys in eleven nations find that substantial percentages of people do not want to receive information even when it bears on health, sustainability, and consumer welfare. Nonetheless, substantial percentages of people also do want to receive that information, and people's willingness to pay for information, contingent on their wanting it, is mostly higher than people's willingness to pay not to receive information, contingent on their not wanting it. We develop a model and estimate the welfare effects of information provision. We find substantial benefits and costs, with the former outweighing the latter. The results suggest that in principle, policymakers should take both instrumental and hedonic effects into account when deciding whether to impose disclosure requirements for food, whether the domain involves health, safety, or moral considerations. If policymakers fail to consider either instrumental or hedonic effects, and if they fail to consider the magnitude of those effects, they will not capture the welfare consequences of disclosure requirements. Our evidence has concrete implications for how to think about, and capture, the welfare consequences of such requirements with respect to food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]