Compliance Behavior in Networks: Evidence from a Field Experiment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Drago, Francesco; Mengel, Friederike; Traxler, Christian
• 署名单位: University of Catania; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; University of Essex; Lund University; Hertie School
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20170690
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 96-133
• 关键词: Social networks; ENFORCEMENT; deterrence; patterns; impacts

摘要

This paper studies the spread of compliance behavior in neighborhood networks in Austria. We exploit a field experiment that varied the content of mailings sent to potential evaders of TV license fees. The data reveal a strong treatment spillover: untreated households are more likely to switch from evasion to compliance in response to mailings received by their network neighbors. Digging deeper into the properties of the spillover, we find that it is concentrated among close neighbors of the targets and increases with the treated households' diffusion centrality. Local concentration of equally treated households implies a lower spillover.