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We design a survey experiment to investigate the effect of intervention with diversity on preferences for diverse outcomes. First, subjects report their perceptions of the archetypical occupations boss, professor, nurse, and clerk, rating boss/professor as higher status than nurse/clerk. Importantly, while respondents expect overrepresentation of women among nurses and clerks, they expect a relatively equal gender distribution among bosses and professors. We then randomize participants to view either diverse or nondiverse images for each occupation. Diversifying the image sets significantly increases the likelihood of underrepresented individuals being selected in both domains, but correctness of preexisting beliefs only matters in female-typed domains.

Overfishing has become a major global issue that endangers ecosystems and the livelihoods of millions of people. Weak enforcement and illicit fishing behaviors limit the effectiveness of in...

The persistent lack of workplace diversity in management and leadership may lead to organizational vulnerabilities. White males occupy most high-profile positions in the largest U.S. corporations whereas African Americans, Hispanics, and women are clearly underrepresented in leadership roles. While many firms and other organizations have set ambitious goals to increase demographic diversity, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on effective ways to reach them. We use a natural field experiment to test several hypotheses on effective means to attract minority candidates for top professional careers. By randomly varying the content in recruiting materials of a major financial services corporation with over 10,000 employees, we test different types of signals regarding the extent and manner in which the employer values diversity among its workers. We find that signaling explicit interest in employee diversity can reverse the ethnicity gap in rates of interest and applications, and that it has a strong positive effect on interest in openings among racial minority candidates, the likelihood that they apply, and the probability that they are selected. These results uncover an effective method for disrupting monocultures in management through a minor intervention that influences sorting among job-seekers into high-profile careers.

OBJECTIVE Despite the increase of women in surgical fields and resources toward advancing women, there is no corresponding increased representation of women in higher academic ranks and leadership. The following hypotheses are explored: 1) men and women build/maintain different relationship networks and 2) women are not similarly included within the organization and do not receive the same sponsorship as male counterparts. STUDY DESIGN Prospective observational study. METHODS Three months of prospective, passive organizational network data of full-time faculty at an academic medical center were collected by analysis of deidentified internal email communication logs. Data were analyzed and strength of network relationships was assessed using algorithms measuring the tie, or connection, score. Data analysis was performed with standard statistical methods and multivariable regression models, comparing network relationships based on gender and academic rank. RESULTS Among 345 full-time faculties from surgical departments, 45.2% were female Assistant Professors, but only 9.8% were female full Professors. Men had 55% more network relationships with other men than women had with men. Gender homophily was particularly pronounced at the higher academic ranks. Men compared to women in higher ranks had 157% more network relationships to other men in lower ranks. Multivariable regression models suggested direct association of these gender differences in relationships with more women in lower academic ranks. CONCLUSION Higher academic rank can be predicted by male gender, tenure, and number of meaningful relationships. Women are underrepresented at the leadership level in surgical departments. Gender homophily is present in collaboration networks among academic surgeons and is associated with impeded female career advancement. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 2 Laryngoscope, 2021.

We experimentally study the extent to which individuals are honest when lying can result in a gain of several months’ worth of income. Randomly selected individuals from villages in Bangladesh participated in a sender–receiver cheap talk game. We varied the potential benefits from providing false recommendations. While we find that individuals are more likely to provide false recommendations when stakes are very large, we still observe that almost half of the senders refrain from lying. In contrast, receivers are generally suspicious and the majority does not follow recommendations.

A popular solution to the Tragedy of the Commons is to create private property rights to access the commons. If resource users care about the welfare of others, they may be unwilling to respect property rights regimes that lead to unfair or inequitable outcomes. We explore in a series of laboratory experiments whether it is possible to undermine the efficacy of property rights solutions through the allocation process. We find that both the extent to which property rights are enforced and how they are allocated significantly affect extraction and compliance. Our findings suggest that one of the most popular allocation methods is suboptimal: we observe that occasional enforcement and the proportional allocation of property rights is dominated by no enforcement and the equal or inverse allocation of property rights. Our results support the view that allocation matters for property rights solutions to the commons problem.

Ricin is one of the most feared bioweapons in the world due to its extreme toxicity and easy access. Since no antidote exists, it is of paramount importance to identify the pathways underlying ricin toxicity. Here, we demonstrate that the Golgi GDP-fucose transporter Slc35c1 and fucosyltransferase Fut9 are key regulators of ricin toxicity. Genetic and pharmacological inhibition of fucosylation renders diverse cell types resistant to ricin via deregulated intracellular trafficking. Importantly, cells from a patient with SLC35C1 deficiency are also resistant to ricin. Mechanistically, we confirm that reduced fucosylation leads to increased sialylation of Lewis X structures and thus masking of ricin-binding sites. Inactivation of the sialyltransferase responsible for modifications of Lewis X (St3Gal4) increases the sensitivity of cells to ricin, whereas its overexpression renders cells more resistant to the toxin. Thus, we have provided unprecedented insights into an evolutionary conserved modular sugar code that can be manipulated to control ricin toxicity.

There is conflicting evidence about whether abundant resources are indeed a blessing or a curse. We make use of specially designed economic experiments to investigate how resource abundance affects cooperation in the absence or presence of regulatory institutions. We observe that in the absence of regulatory institutions, there is less cooperation in groups with access to large resource pools than in groups with access to small resource pools. However, if regulatory institutions are present, we show that there is more cooperation in groups with access to large resource pools than in groups with access to small resource pools. Our findings also reveal that resource users are more willing to regulate access to abundant than to small resource pools. These findings provide causal evidence for the “paradox of plenty” and identify the causes for the pitfalls and potentials of resource wealth.

Many environmental decisions are based on intrinsic motivations in addition to traditional economic incentives. Field experiments allow researchers to isolate a specific causal mechanism which can help advance our understanding of consumer and firm behavior in environmental markets. This article summarizes the literature on the use of field experiments in environmental economics, focusing on framed and artefactual field experiments as well as natural experiments targeting municipal energy and water demand. We set out a theoretical framework to improve the interpretation of results from field experiments in environmental economics. In addition to providing an overview of experimental methods and findings we also lay out a set of challenges for researchers interested in running a field experiment in environmental economics.

Labor force composition and the allocation of talent remain of vital import to modern economies. For their part, governments and companies around the globe have implemented equal employment opportunity (EEO) regulations to influence labor market flows. Even though such regulations are pervasive, surprisingly little is known about their impacts. We use a natural field experiment conducted across 10 U.S. cities to investigate if EEO statements in job advertisements affect the first step in the employment process, application rates. Making use of data from nearly 2,500 job seekers, we find considerable policy effects, but in an unexpected direction: the presence of an EEO statement dampens rather than encourages racial minorities’ willingness to apply for jobs. Importantly, the effects are particularly pronounced for educated job seekers and in cities with white majority populations. Complementary survey evidence suggests the underlying mechanism at work is “tokenism”, revealing that EEO statements backfire because racial minorities avoid environments in which they are perceived as regulatory, or symbolic, hires rather than being hired on their own merits. Beyond their practical and theoretical importance, our results highlight how field experiments can significantly improve policymaking. In this case, if one goal of EEO regulations is to enhance the pool of minority applicants, then it is not working.

This paper investigates the role of dry promotions for community participation in eight Brazilian fishing villages. We randomly promoted some fishermen to assistants before the start of an environmental program, increasing their responsibilities but not providing any monetary compensation. Thereafter, we study whether they engage more in conservation behavior during this program. The data shows that promoted fishermen provide substantially more effort, which suggests that such promotions may be a cost-effective tool to stimulate cooperation and community participation.

We experimentally study the effect of framing and size of large windfall gains on the redistribution of such gains. Randomly selected individuals from villages in Bangladesh were invited to take part in dictator experiments where they received endowments worth up to five months of average household income and were asked to distribute the endowment between themselves and other individuals. We manipulated whether dictators could GIVE to or TAKE from another individual (i.e. whether the endowment was allocated to the dictator or other individual) and whether the endowment was moderate (LOW) or very large (HIGH). We also provided dictators with the option to reconsider their original decision. We find that dictators allocate almost nine times more to other individuals under the TAKE than the GIVE frame when stakes are HIGH, even after they could reconsider their choices. In addition, we find that proportions allocated to other individuals dramatically drop when stakes increase under the GIVE but not the TAKE frame. The results provide novel evidence on the role of framing and stakes for pro-sociality.

An important line of research using laboratory experiments has provided a new potential reason for gender imbalances in labour markets: men are more competitively inclined than women. Whether, and to what extent, gender differences in attitudes toward competition lead to differences in naturally occurring labour markets remains an open question. To examine this, we run a natural field experiment on job-entry decisions where we randomize almost 9000 job-seekers into different compensation regimes. By varying the role that individual competition plays in setting the wage and the gender composition, we examine whether a competitive compensation regime, by itself, can cause differential job entry. The data highlight the power of the compensation regime in that women disproportionately shy away from competitive work settings. Yet, there are important factors that attenuate the gender differences, including whether the job is performed in teams, whether the position has overt gender associations, and the age of the job-seekers. We also find that the effect is most pronounced in labour markets with attractive alternative employment options. Furthermore, our results suggest that preferences over uncertainty can be just as important as preferences over competition per se in driving job-entry choices.

This experimental study investigates pricing and reactions to price discrimination and provides several novel insights. First, we identify the extent to which sellers intrinsically and strategically avoid price discrimination. Second, we find that sellers strategically overprice low value customers to avoid antagonizing high value customers. Third, we observe that customers are not generally antagonized by price discrimination: while they are less likely to buy if they are charged a higher price than another customer, they are more likely to buy if they are charged a lower price. Finally, we show that our findings hold regardless of whether sellers are monopolists or compete against other sellers. The observed behavioral patterns suggest a novel explanation for sticky prices and impulse purchase behavior.

In a period marked by extensive cross-national interactions, nationality may present an important focal point that individuals coordinate on. This study uses an experimental approach to study whether nationality serves as a coordination device. We let subjects from Japan, Korea, and China play coordination games in which we vary information about their partner. The results show that nationality serves as a coordination device if common nationality is the only piece of information available to the subjects. The strength of this device is nationality-dependent and diminishes when participants are provided with additional information about their partner. We also find that subjects are likely to coordinate on the Pareto-dominant equilibrium at about the same rate if the partner has a different nationality than if nationality is unknown. (JEL C91, C92, Z1, Z13)

Some of the greatest human achievements are difficult to imagine without prosociality. This paper employs a natural field experiment to investigate indirect reciprocity in natural social interactions. We find strong evidence of indirect reciprocity in one-shot interactions among drivers. Subjects for whom other drivers stopped were more than twice as likely to extend a similar act to a third party. This result is robust to a number of factors including age, gender, social status, presence of onlookers, and the opportunity cost of time. We provide novel evidence for the power of indirect reciprocity to promote prosocial behaviour in the field. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This paper studies the relevance of individual social integration and participation for cooperation during a partly successful environmental program that we implemented in several traditional fishing communities in Brazil. The findings show that fishermen who are more integrated into the social network of their community, and fishermen who participated in the development of this environmental program, cooperate more during this program. We also find that perceptions about the necessity of the program play an important role for cooperation. These results provide empirical evidence for the role of social integration, participation, and perceptions for community resource management.

Workplace misbehaviors are often governed by explicit monitoring and strict punishment. Such enforcement activities can serve to lessen worker productivity and harm worker morale. We take a different approach to curbing worker misbehavior—bonuses. Examining more than 6500 donor phone calls across more than 80 workers, we use a natural field experiment to investigate how different wage contracts influence workers’ propensity to cheat and sabotage one another. Our findings show that even though standard relative performance pay contracts, relative to a fixed wage scheme, increase productivity, they have a dark side: they cause considerable cheating and sabotage of co-workers. Yet, even in such environments, by including an unexpected bonus, the employer can substantially curb worker misbehavior. In this manner, our findings reveal how employers can effectively leverage bonuses to eliminate undesired behaviors induced by performance pay contracts.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

This paper explores the motivations behind punishment from unaffected third parties and affected second parties using a within-subjects design in ten simple games. We apply a classification analysis and find that a parsimonious model assuming that subjects are either inequity averse or selfish best explains the pattern of punishment from both third and second parties. Despite their unaffected position, we find that many third parties do not punish in an impartial or normative manner.

Numerous studies suggest that communication may be a universal means to mitigate collective action problems. In this study, we challenge this view and show that the communication structure crucially determines whether communication mitigates or intensifies rent-seeking for pure public goods. We observe the effect of different communication structures in the context of a finitely repeated intergroup contest and demonstrate that conflict expenditures are significantly higher if communication is restricted to one's own group as compared to a situation with no communication. However, expenditures are significantly lower if open communication within one's own group and between rivaling groups is allowed. We show that under open communication intergroup conflicts are avoided by groups taking turns in winning the contest. Our results do not only qualify the role of communication for collective action but may also provide insights on how to mitigate the destructive nature of intergroup conflict and group rent-seeking.

This paper combines laboratory with field data from professional sellers to study whether social preferences are related to performance in open-air markets. The data show that sellers who are more pro-social in a laboratory experiment are also more successful in natural markets: They achieve higher prices for similar quality, have superior trade relations and better abilities to signal trustworthiness to buyers. These findings suggest that social preferences play a significant role for outcomes in natural markets.

This paper examines the role of cooperativeness and impatience in the exploitation of common pool resources (CPRs) by combining laboratory experiments with field data. We study fishermen whose main, and often only, source of income stems from the use of fishing grounds with open access. The exploitation of a CPR involves a negative interpersonal and inter-temporal externality because individuals who exploit the CPR reduce the current and the future yield both for others and for themselves. Economic theory – which assumes the existence of general across-situational traits – thus predicts that fishermen who exhibit more cooperative and less impatient behavior in the laboratory should be less likely to exploit the CPR, which our findings confirm. We thus corroborate the economic theory and extend the scope of other-regarding preference theories to crucial economic decisions with lasting consequences for the people involved. In addition, we establish cooperativeness and impatience as two distinct traits related to resource conservation in the field and validate laboratory preference measures.

Progestins, used in contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy, have been linked to breast cancer. Two teams working independently have now found a mechanistic basis for this association. Schramek et al. show in a mouse model that synthetic progestins can promote mammary tumour formation by inducing the osteoclast differentiation factor RANKL, which acts on mammary epithelial cells through the RANKL receptor RANK. Gonzalez-Suarez et al. find that inhibition of RANKL reduces tumorigenesis in hormone-induced as well as in other mouse mammary gland tumour models, suggesting a new therapeutic approach. One RANKL inhibitor (denosumab) is in clinical trials as a treatment for bone loss in post-menopausal osteoporosis and for the treatment of skeletal-related symptoms in metastatic bone disease. Progestins, used in contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy, have been linked to breast cancer. These authors provide a mechanistic basis for this association. They show in a mouse model that synthetic progestins can promote mammary tumour formation by inducing RANKL (receptor activator of NF-KB ligand), which acts on mammary epithelial cells through the RANKL receptor RANK. Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in humans and will on average affect up to one in eight women in their lifetime in the United States and Europe1. The Women’s Health Initiative and the Million Women Study have shown that hormone replacement therapy is associated with an increased risk of incident and fatal breast cancer2,3. In particular, synthetic progesterone derivatives (progestins) such as medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), used in millions of women for hormone replacement therapy and contraceptives, markedly increase the risk of developing breast cancer. Here we show that the in vivo administration of MPA triggers massive induction of the key osteoclast differentiation factor RANKL (receptor activator of NF-κB ligand) in mammary-gland epithelial cells. Genetic inactivation of the RANKL receptor RANK in mammary-gland epithelial cells prevents MPA-induced epithelial proliferation, impairs expansion of the CD49fhi stem-cell-enriched population, and sensitizes these cells to DNA-damage-induced cell death. Deletion of RANK from the mammary epithelium results in a markedly decreased incidence and delayed onset of MPA-driven mammary cancer. These data show that the RANKL/RANK system controls the incidence and onset of progestin-driven breast cancer.

Anthrax Toxin Receptor 1 (ANTXR1; also known as Tumor Endothelial Marker 8, TEM8) is one of several genes that was recently found to be up-regulated in tumor-associated endothelial cells. In vitro, the protein can link extracellular matrix components with the actin cytoskeleton to promote cell adhesion and cell spreading. Both, ANTXR1 and the closely related ANTXR2 can bind anthrax toxin and interact with lipoprotein receptor-related protein 5 and 6, which also work as coreceptors in the WNT signaling pathway. Here, we report the cloning of chick ANTXR1 from a suppression subtractive hybridization screen for fibroblast growth factor (FGF) -inducible genes in chicken embryonic facial mesenchyme. We show that chicken ANTXR1 is dynamically expressed throughout embryogenesis, starting from Hamburger and Hamilton stage 10. Furthermore, we demonstrate that FGF signaling is sufficient, but not necessary, to induce ANTXR1 expression in chicken facial mesenchyme.

Innate Immunity in the Fly Gut Drosophila melanogaster is an important model system to study innate immunity, being both easy to manipulate and lacking an adaptive immune system. In order to identify genes that regulate innate immunity, Cronin et al. (p. 340 ; published online 11 June) performed an RNA interference screen on flies infected with the oral bacterial pathogen, Serratia marcescens . Genes involved in intestinal immunity and regulation of hemocytes, macrophage-like cells critical for phagocytosis and killing of the bacteria, were identified. Several hundred genes conferred either enhanced susceptibility or resistance to bacterial infection. Furthermore, the JAK/STAT signaling pathway was activated in intestinal stem cells after bacterial infection, resulting in enhanced susceptibility to infection, most likely through regulation of intestinal stem cell homeostasis.

Bone-related diseases, such as osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis, affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide and pose a tremendous burden to health care. By deepening our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of bone metabolism and bone turnover, it became possible over the past years to devise new and promising strategies for treating such diseases. In particular, three tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family molecules, the receptor activator of NF-kappaB (RANK), its ligand RANKL, and the decoy receptor of RANKL, osteoprotegerin (OPG), have attracted the attention of scientists and pharmaceutical companies alike. Genetic experiments revolving around these molecules established their pivotal role as central regulators of osteoclast development and osteoclast function. RANK-RANKL signaling not only activates a variety of downstream signaling pathways required for osteoclast development, but crosstalk with other signaling pathways also fine-tunes bone homeostasis both in normal physiology and disease. In addition, RANKL and RANK have essential roles in lymph node formation, establishment of the thymic microenvironment, and development of a lactating mammary gland during pregnancy. Consequently, novel drugs specifically targeting RANK, RANKL, and their signaling pathways in osteoclasts are expected to revolutionize the treatment of various ailments associated with bone loss, such as arthritis, periodontal disease, cancer metastases, and osteoporosis.

Apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) is an important regulator of stress-induced cell death. ASK1 is activated by oxidative stress, TNF and endoplasmatic reticulum stress and activates the JNK- and p38-dependent intracellular death pathways. A number of studies have suggested that ASK1 may also have other roles in addition to its pro-apoptotic activity. Expression of ASK1 during early embryonic development has so far not been analyzed. We have identified and cloned chick ASK1 in a screen for FGF8 inducible genes in chick facial mesenchyme. Here we report the expression of chick ASK1 from the gastrulation stage (HH4) to day 4 of development, its expression in the developing inner organs and limbs, and we compare its expression to the expression of Ask1 during mouse development. Furthermore, we provide evidence that FGF signaling is required for ASK1 expression in chick nasal mesenchyme. In contrast, expression in the mouse nasal region was restricted to the epithelium and was independent of FGF signaling. Our analysis demonstrates that ASK1 has a spatially restricted and temporally dynamic expression pattern in both chick and mouse embryos, which includes conserved as well as species-specific expression domains.

Hox genes are known key regulators of embryonic segmental identity, but little is known about the mechanisms of their action. To address this issue,we have analyzed how Hoxa2 specifies segmental identity in the second branchial arch. Using a subtraction approach, we found that Ptx1 was upregulated in the second arch mesenchyme of Hoxa2 mutants. This upregulation has functional significance because, in Hoxa2-/-;Ptx1-/- embryos, the Hoxa2-/- phenotype is partially reversed. Hoxa2interferes with the Ptx1 activating process, which is dependent on Fgf signals from the epithelium. Consistently, Lhx6, another target of Fgf8 signaling, is also upregulated in the Hoxa2-/-second arch mesenchyme. Our findings have important implications for the understanding of developmental processes in the branchial area and suggest a novel mechanism for mesenchymal patterning by Hox genes that acts to define the competence of mesenchymal cells to respond to skeletogenic signals.

We have identified a conserved sequence segment in transmembrane receptors (including SEFs, IL17Rs) and soluble factors (including CIKS/ACT1) in eukaryotes and bacteria - the SEFIR domain. This sequence domain is part of the new STIR domain superfamily comprising also the TIR domain known to mediate TIR-TIR homotypic interactions. In TOLL/IL1R-like pathways, the cytoplasmically localized TIR domain of a receptor and the TIR domain of a soluble adaptor interact physically and activate signalling. The similarity between the SEFIR and TIR domains involves the conserved boxes 1 and 2 of the TIR domain that are implicated in homotypic dimerization, but there is no sequence similarity between SEFIR domains and the TIR sequence box 3. By analogy, we suggest that SEFIR-domain proteins function as signalling components of Toll/IL-1R-similar pathways and that their SEFIR domain mediates physical protein-protein interactions between pathway components.

This study experimentally investigates gender quotas in light of peer review. We investigate competitions with and without gender quotas and a peer review process that allows for sabotage. Our findings show that the possibility of peer sabotage renders the gender quota ineffective in encouraging women to enter tournaments. Moreover, we provide evidence of a severe backlash against women, as they become targets of sabotage under gender quotas. Interestingly, this is the result of women focusing on sabotaging each other while men sabotage indiscriminately. Our results have implications for the use of quotas to mitigate the underrepresentation and underperformance of minority groups in environments in which peer sabotage is possible. Data and the online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2772 . This paper was accepted by Uri Gneezy, behavioral economics.