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Increasing the tax compliance of self-employed business owners—particularly of trade-specific service providers such as those involved in construction and repair work—remains an ongoing challenge for tax authorities. From a compliance point of view, cash transactions are particularly problematic when services are paid for on the spot, as these exchanges are difficult to audit. We present experimental evidence testing ten different policy strategies rooted in the enforcement, service, and trust/social paradigms, in a setting that allows payment either via a transaction that directly reports income for tax collection purposes or in cash, where taxes are only collected on reported income. Our sample includes both a typical subject pool of students, as used in most previous studies, and non-students who are active within service industries characterised by the opportunity to engage in cash transactions. While our comparative results show that, for both student and non-student participants, interventions that rely on greater enforcement by the tax authority have the greatest effect on compliance in our cash economy setting, treatments involving cooperative elements may be similarly effective in enhancing tax compliance. Given their effectiveness, cooperative approaches should therefore be considered for addition to the policy mix if implemented at relatively low costs, making both carrot and stick approaches promising to increase compliance in an environment where cash-for-service payments offer a common benefit for small businesses and their customers from implicit collusion that enables tax evasion.

Despite their global emergence, sharing economy businesses do not consistently experience favourable outcomes across different geographical regions. Additionally, since the sharing economy is considered a contemporary business mechanism, unlike the traditional business model, there is a lack of constructive business frameworks for these businesses to contemplate in order to maintain or advance their business operations. This is particularly the case with respect to emerging economies. Accordingly, our study provides a comprehensive systematic review of the relevant sharing economy literature to determine influential factors and their impacts on sharing economy business performance. Our findings suggest a diverse context classification and research trend within the existing sharing economy literature and, thereby, we conceptualise a sharing economy epistemology to enhance comprehension of the different forces and mechanisms in place. With that, we develop a conceptual model based on the strategy and institutional literature where we uncover differences for emerging markets. Finally, we suggest a future research framework for the sharing economy field.

Understanding how medical experts and their patients process and transfer information is of critical importance for efficient health care provision. Behavioral economics has explored similar credence markets where economic incentives, information asymmetry, and cognitive bias can impact patient and surgeon choice. The aim of the current study is to explore how framing and behavioral bias affect elective restorative surgery decision-making, such as breast reconstruction following cancer treatment.The authors' study uses a cross-sectional survey data set of specialist surgeons (n = 53), breast care nurses (n = 101), and former or current breast cancer patients (n = 689). Data collected include participant demographics, medical history, a battery of cognitive bias tests, and a behavioral framing experiment.This study finds statistically significant differences in breast reconstruction surgery preference by patients and nurses when decision options are framed in different ways (i.e., positively versus negatively). The authors' analysis of surgeons, nurses, and patients shows no statistically significant difference across eight common forms of cognitive bias. Rather, the authors find that the behavioral biases are prevalent to the same extent in each group. This may indicate that differences in experience and education seem not to mitigate biases that may affect patient choices and medical professional's recommendations. The authors' multivariate analysis identifies patient age (p0.0001), body mass index, and self-perceived health (p0.05) as negative correlates for choice of implant-based reconstruction.For surgeons, nurses, and patients, the authors find uniform evidence of cognitive bias; more specifically, for patients and nurses, the authors find inconsistency in preference for type of surgical therapy chosen when alternative procedures are framed in different ways (i.e., framing bias).

Self-reported subjective judgments about well-being, mood, or mental state are at the core of analytical and empirical tools in many social sciences. However, technological advances (particularly in neuroscience) are opening new ways of monitoring physiological processes through non-intrusive means. Such dense continuous data provide new and fruitful avenues for complementing self-reported data with a better understanding of human dynamics and human interactions. Thus, in this study, we follow more than 300 individuals over a period of 24 hours, mapping their core activities (5,000 recorded activities in total) with measurements of their heart rate variability (HRV) and their assessment of subjective hedonic well-being (positive affect). Our results indicate a robust correlation between physiological measurements and self-reported affect. A lower HRV is positively correlated with self-reported positive affect. We also find that physical activities as well as relaxation are important for well-being, no matter what sort of actions follow, increasing positive feelings and inducing positive spillover effects on later endeavours. Individuals also report higher positive feelings prior to performing physical activities, providing new insights on how to harness activity data to extrapolate to the future.

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied machine learning on the multinational data collected by the International Collaboration on the Social and Moral Psychology of COVID-19 (N = 51,404) to test the predictive efficacy of constructs from social, moral, cognitive, and personality psychology, as well as socio-demographic factors, in the attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic. The results point to several valuable insights. Internalized moral identity provided the most consistent predictive contribution—individuals perceiving moral traits as central to their self-concept reported higher adherence to preventive measures. Similar results were found for morality as cooperation, symbolized moral identity, self-control, open-mindedness, and collective narcissism, while the inverse relationship was evident for the endorsement of conspiracy theories. However, we also found a non-neglible variability in the explained variance and predictive contributions with respect to macro-level factors such as the pandemic stage or cultural region. Overall, the results underscore the importance of morality-related and contextual factors in understanding adherence to public health recommendations during the pandemic., PNAS Nexus, 1 (3), ISSN:2752-6542

Investing in complex financial products like hybrid securities demands a level of financial sophistication that is considered well beyond the capacity of most consumers. Yet many retail investors in the Australian market invest in these securities. We conduct multistage incentivised experiments to observe portfolio choice of participants to provide evidence on the behavioural biases and risk perceptions that can influence their allocation to hybrid securities. Illusion of control, overconfidence, and framing bias in consumers are found to be positively related to investment in hybrids while ambiguity aversion bears a negative relationship. Surprisingly, while participants generally acknowledge the difficulty in understanding the complex features, it does not deter them from investing in these securities. We also find that volatility, a standard measure of risk in finance theory, has no relationship with the participants’ allocation to any security whereas trust on the issuer has a significant bearing on such decisions. Our findings have important implications for regulators in demanding more effective disclosure of product information from issuers and designing targeted consumer education initiatives to protect retail investors.

As the news media continue to search for sustainable business models in response to digitisation, concern about low levels of trust in news has been rising. Trust in news brands is seen as an essential pre-requisite for their economic survival. While there is extant research on the crisis of trust in news, less attention has been paid to identifying possible solutions from the perspective of the audience. Based on a survey of 1619 Australian news consumers, this paper helps address this gap. Informed by existing research, participants were asked about a range of possible factors influencing their perceptions of trust in news. Participants expressed strongest support for reducing bias and opinion from journalists in stories, making reporters declare all conflicts of interest, and boosting the amount of in-depth reporting. Increasing journalists’ activity on social media and employing more reporters, were less supported remedies, particularly among those who tend to have low trust in news. Those who have higher trust in news are more supportive of options to boost their trust further, whereas those with low trust innews are less enthusiastic. These findings highlight the challenge for news organisations of improving perceptions of trust among those who are already sceptical about the news.

PurposeA transformative service aims to improve wellbeing; however, current approaches have an implicit assumption that all wellbeing dimensions are equal and more dimensions led to higher wellbeing. The purpose of this paper is to present evidence for a new framework that identifies the paradox of competing wellbeing dimensions for both the individual and others in society – the transformative service paradox (TSP).Design/methodology/approachData is drawn from a mixed-method approach using qualitative (interviews) and quantitative data (lab experiment) in an electricity service context. The first study involves 45 household interviews (n = 118) and deals with the nature of trade-offs at the individual level to establish the concept of the TSP. The second study uses a behavioral economics laboratory experiment (n = 110) to test the self vs. other nature of the trade-off in day-to-day use of electricity.FindingsThe interviews and experiment identified that temporal (now vs. future) and beneficiary-level factors explain why individuals make wellbeing trade-offs for the transformative service of electricity. The laboratory experiment showed that when the future implication of the trade-off is made salient, consumers are more willing to forego physical wellbeing for environmental wellbeing, whereas when the “now” implication is more salient consumers forego financial wellbeing for physical wellbeing.Originality/valueThis research introduces the term “Transformative Service Paradox” and identifies two factors that explain why consumers make wellbeing trade-offs at the individual level and at the societal level; temporal (now vs. future) and wellbeing beneficiary.

Digital platforms such as search engines and social media have become major gateways to news. Algorithms are used to deliver news that is consistent with consumers’ preferences and individuals share news through their online social networks. This networked environment has resulted in growing uncertainty about online information which has had an impact on news industries globally. While it is well established that perceptions of trust in news found on social media or via search engines are lower than traditional news media, there has been less discussion about the impact of social media use on perceptions of trust in the news media more broadly. This study fills that gap by examining the influence of social media as news sources and pathways to news on perceptions of the level of news trust at a country level. A secondary data analysis of a 26-country survey in 2016 and 2019 was conducted. The analysis revealed an increase in social media use for accessing news resulted in a decline in trust in news media generally across the globe. Higher levels of general mistrust in news were related to an increased use of sharing of news. This paper argues the use of social media for news is closely linked to the increase in news mistrust, which is likely to continue to rise as the number of people using social media to access news continues to grow.

Since he won the Nobel Prize and joined the World Bank as Chief Economist, most of us see Stiglitz as a policy-oriented economist clearly aligned with the political left. To those with preconceived ideas about Stiglitz's world-view, it may come as a surprise that Stiglitz argues strongly in favour of competition - very much in line with what we teach in first-year economics classes. I feel that in large parts, and as sometimes quite explicitly stated by Stiglitz, Australia is an example of the policies Stiglitz advocates. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines discrimination based on hukou status, a legal construct that segregates locals and migrants in urban China. Local and migrant household helpers were recruited as experimental participants to interact in a standard gift exchange game (GEG) as well as a new variant of the GEG, called the wage promising game (WPG). The WPG uses non-binding wage offers and final wages that employers set after observing effort. In the GEG, both statistical and preference-based discrimination may motivate employers to offer lower wages to migrants than to locals, whereas in the WPG the statistical motive is excluded. Results reveal discrimination against migrants and show that preference-based discrimination is an important employer motive.

With the upswing of populist, right-wing, and EU-skeptical parties and politicians in Europe, as well as the success of Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential elections, the media and its role in democracies are, once again, under scrutiny. To investigate whether the media fulfill its role as the fourth estate, i.e. providing another level of control for government, or whether there is evidence of media capture, first, we introduce the Political Coverage Index (PCI), a new measure of the relative positioning of media within the political spectrum. In contrast to existing measures of political positioning (e.g., language similarities, explicit endorsements, mentions of ideological references), we utilize the tonality of articles and newscasts on political parties and politicians. Then, we apply the PCI to 35 opinion-leading media in Germany, on the basis of more than 10 million news items on political parties and politicians between 1998 and 2012. Lastly, we use the PCI to investigate whether the media fulfil its fourth estate role. Our findings show that the media outlets in our sample report more negatively on governing parties, which we interpret as suggestive evidence that media is fulfilling its role as fourth estate in democracies.

Controversies exist regarding the benefits and most appropriate approach for preprocedural coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) testing (eg, rapid antigen test, polymerase chain reaction, or real-time polymerase chain reaction) for outpatients undergoing diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, such as GI endoscopy, to prevent COVID-19 infections among staff. Guidelines for protecting healthcare workers (HCWs) from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection from outpatient procedures varies across medical professional organizations. This study provides an evidence-based decision support tool for key decision-makers (eg, clinicians) to respond to COVID-19 transmission risks and reduce the effect of personal biases.A scoping review was used to identify relevant factors influencing COVID-19 transmission risk relevant for GI endoscopy. From 12 relevant publications, 8 factors were applicable: test sensitivity, prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the population, age-adjusted SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in the patient cohort, proportion of asymptomatic patients, risk of transmission from asymptomatic carriers, risk reduction by personal protective equipment (PPE), vaccination rates of HCWs, and risk reduction of SAE by vaccination. The probability of a serious adverse event (SAE), such as workplace-acquired infection resulting in HCW death, under various scenarios with preprocedural testing was determined to inform decision-makers of expected costs of reductions in SAEs.In a setting of high community transmission, without testing and PPE, 117.5 SAEs per million procedures were estimated to occur, and this was reduced to between .079 and 2.35 SAEs per million procedures with the use of PPE and preprocedural testing. When these variables are used and a range of scenarios are tested, the probability of an SAE was low even without testing but was reduced by preprocedural testing.Under all scenarios tested, preprocedural testing reduced the SAE risk for HCWs regardless of the SARS-CoV-2 variant. Benefits of preprocedural testing are marginal when community transmission is low (eg, below 10 infections a day per 100,000 population). The proposed decision support tool can assist in developing rational preprocedural testing policies.

Communication is a well-known tool to promote cooperation and pro-social behavior. In this study, we examine whether minimal communication in form of public consent with a pre-defined cooperation statement is sufficient to strengthen cooperation in groups. Within the controlled environment of a laboratory experiment, we identify ways by which non-enforceable cooperation statements are associated with higher levels of cooperation in a public good setting. At first, the statement triggers selection; socially oriented individuals are more likely to make the cooperation statement. In addition, we can show that a behavioral change takes place once the statement is made. This change can be attributed to commitment arising from the pledge and to increased coordination between the interaction partners. Depending on the institutional context, these drivers can vary in strength. Comparing compulsory and voluntary cooperation statements, we find that both are effective in motivating higher contributions to the public good.

Although violence in healthcare settings has become a common occurrence worldwide, there is limited evidence on the spillover effects of patient violence on physicians' medical decisions. Utilizing microdata on inpatients from a major public hospital, we investigated how extreme patient violence-the murder of a physician in China-affected physicians' treatment decisions and patient welfare in a hospital geographically distant from the murder site. By matching this patient dataset to physician profiles, we performed a difference-in-differences analysis in which the treatment group comprised patients admitted shortly before and after the murder shock, and the control group consisted of patients admitted during the same months in the previous year. Immediately after the shock, the provision of medical treatment was notably higher, with a 16.9% increase in the number of surgeries and a 9.5% increase in the treatment expenditures. However, patient health outcomes were worse, with an increased mortality rate of 0.9% points. Findings suggest that patient violence dramatically changed physician behavior, causing negative consequences on patients even when the healthcare workers were not direct victims of patient violence.

Increasing the tax compliance of self-employed business owners (particularly of trade- specific service providers) remains an ongoing challenge for tax authorities. From a compliance point of view, cash transactions are particularly problematic when services are paid for on the spot, as such exchanges are difficult to audit. As a novelty we present experimental evidence testing 11 different policy strategies in a setting that allows for cash transactions. Our sample includes both students and non-students active in service industries characterised by the opportunity to engage in cash transactions. While our results offer a positive outlook for the interventions reporting a significant effect, they particularly speak to the potential of moral suasion to increase compliance, as it may be implemented at relatively low cost. However, a carrot (offering support in tax declarations) as well as a stick (increasing the threat of audits) approach may be promising for increased compliance, especially where there is an evasion opportunity in cash-for-service payments between small businesses and individual customers who may share a common benefit from tax evasion. A stick approach is particularly efficient for those inclined to use cash transactions.

This chapter discusses the basis for and concepts of implementing performance-based measures in financial regulation. Drawing on empirical methods and insights generated in the field of behavioural economics theoretical considerations and alternative measurements of services and disclosure performance are presented. The behavioural-economics-inspired approaches rely on control and treatment group comparisons and come in three shapes: concepts analysing existing administrative and financial data counting the number of dominated choices; data from laboratory experiments simulating consumer decisions given provided services counting the frequency of dominated choices and products; and data from randomized controlled trials/field experiments in the form of mystery shopper experiments, again counting dominated choices. Each of these are discussed in detail. These concepts differ from alternative, more traditional, approaches that would include economic analysis of incentives and/or direct measures of confusion created by information provided, such as computational linguistics, to capture financial service performance.