Do lookers-on see most of the game? Evaluating job-seekers’ competitiveness of oneself versus of others in a labor market experiment

主讲人: 王云（人民大学经济学院副教授）

主持老师: （经院）吴泽南、石凡奇；（国发院）胡岠

参与老师: （经院）胡涛、吴泽南、石凡奇；（国发院）汪浩、胡岠；（光华）翁翕、刘烁

题目: Do lookers-on see most of the game? Evaluating job-seekers’ competitiveness of oneself versus of others in a labor market experiment

时间：2020年10月15日（周四）10:30-12:00

地点：北京大学经济学院302教室

报告摘要：

Competing in the labor market requires job-seekers to evaluate the competitiveness of themselves and of others. Will their evaluations of others be more objective and their evaluations of themselves be more biased? Will successful and unsuccessful job-seekers in the same labor market engage in different patterns while making their evaluations? We design a laboratory experiment to study the dynamics of job-seeking strategies and individuals’ belief updating in a labor market. The probability of being accepted for a job depends on external shocks as well as the individuals’ ability ranking. Our design features the decision-making and the evaluation of competitiveness for oneself versus for others. We find that subjects are less likely to evaluate others’ competitiveness as high as their own in the same situation. Subjects are more inclined to attribute failure to external shocks and to attribute success to their own competitiveness. Estimation results show that, compared to decision-making for others, subjects have a higher tolerance for failure and remain in applying for unsuitable jobs for longer periods when seeking jobs for themselves. Our findings provide evidence for the presence of self-serving attributional bias when individuals’ self-image affects their economic decisions.

主讲人简介：

王云，美国匹兹堡大学经济学博士。现任中国人民大学经济学院副教授。主要研究方向为微观经济理论，兼顾经济学实验方法，涉及信息经济学、机制设计、信息设计、个人信念与合作行为等题目，同时通过经济学实验的方法，关注理论在现实微观市场中的应用。论文发表在Journal of Economic Theory, China Economic Review, 《中国人民大学学报》、《南方经济》等国际国内高水平学术刊物上，并出版专著《信念、偏好与合作行为：基于博弈论和行为经济学的视角》。