Working Papers

The WNE Working Papers series has been published by the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw since 2008.

The WNE Working Papers series provides a fast, open channel for disseminating research conducted at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw. The papers hosted here are working versions (pre-prints) and may evolve as authors refine their analyses, incorporate feedback, or progress through formal peer-review. What you read is the current version released by the authors, timestamped and assigned DOI/ISSN identifiers to ensure precise citation and version tracking. Copyright remains with the authors, who may, at any time, upload a revised file or add a note directing readers to a later, peer-reviewed publication.

The Working Papers series accepts articles by research employees of the Faculty and publications from conferences organised at the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw. Articles should be original research papers which have not been previously published, on the subject of economics.

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Number of Results 4

WP(19/2024)455. The Effects of Emotions on Stated Preferences for Environmental Change: a re-examination

Authors: Yilong Xu, Czajkowski Mikołaj, Nick Hanley, Leonhard Lades, Charles N. Noussair, Steven Tucker
A large literature in behavioral science suggests that people’s emotional condition can have an impact on their choices. We consider how people’s emotions affect their stated preferences and willingness to pay for changes in environmental…

WP455. The Effects of Emotions on Stated Preferences for Environmental Change: a re-examination

A large literature in behavioral science suggests that people’s emotional condition can have an impact on their choices. We consider how people’s emotions affect their stated preferences and willingness to pay for changes in environmental quality, focusing on the effects of incidental emotions. We use videos to induce emotional states and test the replicability of the results reported in Hanley et al. (2017). Additionally, we employ Face Reader software to verify whether the intended emotional states were successfully induced in our experimental treatments. We find that our treatments succeed in implementing the predicted emotional condition in terms of self-reported emotions, but had a variable effect on measured (estimated) emotional states. We replicate the key result from Hanley et al. (2017): induced emotional state has no significant effect on stated preference estimates or on willingness to pay for environmental quality changes. Moreover, we confirm that, irrespective of the treatment assignment or emotional state - be it self-reported or measured - we observe no significant effect of emotion on stated preferences. We conclude that stated preference estimates for environmental change are unaffected by changes in incidental emotions, and that preference estimates are robust to the emotional state of the responder.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2024.19.455
Yilong Xu, Czajkowski Mikołaj, Nick Hanley, Leonhard Lades, Charles N. Noussair, Steven Tucker
behavioural economics choice experiments emotions stated choice experimental economics

WP(22/2023)429. Framing-induced emotions affect performance in simple cognitive tasks under risk

Authors: Rachubik Joanna
In this study, we investigated how performance in a number of puzzles (decisions under risk) depended on the framing. The puzzles, drawn and adapted from existing literature, were designed to expose well-established cognitive biases could lead respon…

WP429. Framing-induced emotions affect performance in simple cognitive tasks under risk

In this study, we investigated how performance in a number of puzzles (decisions under risk) depended on the framing. The puzzles, drawn and adapted from existing literature, were designed to expose well-established cognitive biases could lead respondents to select intuitive yet incorrect answer. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: a third of the sample saw puzzles framed in terms of COVID-19, another third about a common cold, and the remaining group about unemployment. Across five continents, we collected over 8,000 observations. We found that framing of the puzzles affected performance, prompting questions regarding the external validity of these puzzles. Treatments associated with more severe threats, such as COVID and Unemployment, elicited stronger (negative) emotions compared to the common cold. Moreover, these emotional reactions were also linked to performance, and their levels correlated negatively with the number of correctly solved puzzles.


Rachubik Joanna
decision-making under risk framing emotions cognitive biases cognitive tasks COVID-19

WP(13/2015)161. The effects of emotions on preferences and choices for public goods

Authors: Boyce Christopher, Czajkowski Mikołaj, Hanley Nick, Noussair Charles, Townsend Michael, Tucker Steve
This paper tests whether changes in “incidental emotions” lead to changes in economic choices. Incidental emotions are experienced at the time of an economic decision but are not part of the payoff from a particular choice. As such, the s…

WP161. The effects of emotions on preferences and choices for public goods

This paper tests whether changes in “incidental emotions” lead to changes in economic choices. Incidental emotions are experienced at the time of an economic decision but are not part of the payoff from a particular choice. As such, the standard economic model predicts that incidental emotions should not affect behavior, yet many papers in the behavioral science and psychology literatures find evidence of such effects. In this paper, we used a standard procedure to induce different incidental emotional states in respondents, and then carried out a choice experiment on changes to an environmental good (beach quality). We estimated preferences for this environmental good and willingness to pay for changes in this good, and tested whether these were dependent on the particular emotional state induced. We also tested whether choices became more or less random when emotional states were induced, based on the notion of randomness in a standard random utility model. Contrary to our a-priori hypothesis we found no significant evidence of treatment effects, implying that economists need not worry about the effects of variations in incidental emotions on preferences and the randomness of choice, even when there is measured (induced) variation in these emotions.


Boyce Christopher, Czajkowski Mikołaj, Hanley Nick, Noussair Charles, Townsend Michael, Tucker Steve
choice experiments behavioral economics ecosystem services emotions rationality

WP(9/2014)126. Happy-go-lucky. Positive emotions boost demand for lotto.

Authors: Halicka Zuzanna, Krawczyk Michał
The objective of this work was to investigate whether situational emotions can influence consumers? decision to purchase lottery tickets. We conducted a field experiment in which positive or negative emotions were induced immediately prior to such a …

WP126. Happy-go-lucky. Positive emotions boost demand for lotto.

The objective of this work was to investigate whether situational emotions can influence consumers? decision to purchase lottery tickets. We conducted a field experiment in which positive or negative emotions were induced immediately prior to such a decision in 685 subjects unaware of their participation in a study. Two methods of induction?gambling related and gambling unrelated?were used to verify the robustness of the results. We found that subjects in whom positive emotions were induced, in both gambling and non-gambling contexts, bought lottery tickets significantly more often than subjects with negative emotions or those in the control group.


Halicka Zuzanna, Krawczyk Michał
decision making lotteries induced emotions gambling-related cues field experiment
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