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Do participation rates vary with participation payments in laboratory experiments?

Author

Listed:
  • Huizhen Zhong

    (South China Agricultural University
    Shaoguan University)

  • Cary Deck

    (University of Alabama
    Chapman University)

  • Daniel J. Henderson

    (University of Alabama
    Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA))

Abstract

This paper reports a series of experiments designed to evaluate how the advertised participation payment impacts participation rates in laboratory experiments. Our initial goal was to generate variation in the participation rate as a means to control for selection bias when evaluating treatment effects in common laboratory experiments. Initially, we varied the advertised participation payment to 1734 people from $$\$5$$ $ 5 to $$\$15$$ $ 15 using standard email recruitment procedures, but found no statistical evidence this impacted the participation rate. A second study increased the advertised payment up to $$\$100$$ $ 100 . Here, we find marginally significant statistical evidence that the advertised participation payment affects the participation rate when payments are large. To combat skepticism of our results, we also conducted a third study in which verbal offers were made. Here, we found no statistically significant increase in participation rates when the participation payment increased from $$\$5$$ $ 5 to $$\$10$$ $ 10 . Finally, we conducted an experiment similar to the first one at a separate university. We found no statistically significant increase in participation rates when the participation payment increased from $$\$7$$ $ 7 to $$\$15$$ $ 15 . The combined results from our four experiments suggest moderate variation in the advertised participation payment from standard levels has little impact on participation rates in typical laboratory experiments. Rather, generating useful variation in participation rates likely requires much larger participation payments and/or larger potential subject pools than are common in laboratory experiments.

Suggested Citation

  • Huizhen Zhong & Cary Deck & Daniel J. Henderson, 2024. "Do participation rates vary with participation payments in laboratory experiments?," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 27(5), pages 1140-1157, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:expeco:v:27:y:2024:i:5:d:10.1007_s10683-024-09840-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s10683-024-09840-2
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Participation payment; Selection bias; Treatment effect; Laboratory experiments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

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