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Measuring the effects of feedback from inspections on cleanliness in Swedish pre-schools – A field experiment

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  • Herzing, Mathias
  • Jacobsson, Adam

Abstract

High hygienic standards are essential to avoid the spread of infectious diseases, not least in environments with many children. This paper uses an experimental design to examine the impact of feedback information following a public health safety inspection on future behavior of pre-schools in three Swedish municipalities. We find no effects of information at the municipality level. However, we find that pre-schools that were informed about a bad result improved more than comparable pre-schools that received no feedback. Conversely, informed pre-schools with a good result worsened their results compared to similarly performing uninformed pre-schools. Our results thus lend support to the so called “boomerang effect”.

Suggested Citation

  • Herzing, Mathias & Jacobsson, Adam, 2019. "Measuring the effects of feedback from inspections on cleanliness in Swedish pre-schools – A field experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1-9.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:78:y:2019:i:c:p:1-9
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2018.11.002
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Field experiment; Public health safety; Inspections;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K32 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Energy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Law
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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