Charitable giving, suggestion, and learning from others: Pay-What-You-Want experiments at a coffee shop

an article by Sangkon Park (Korea Culture & Tourism Institute, Republic of Korea), Sohyun Nam (Sogang University, Republic of Korea) and Jungmin Lee (Seoul National University, Republic of Korea and IZA, Germany) published in Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics Volume 66 (February 2017)

Highlights

• We examine consumers' behavior under the Pay-What-You-Want pricing.
• We conducted a series of field experiments, implementing different pricing schemes.
• The PWYW combined with charity and reference price does not harm profitability.
• Buyers are sensitive to external references and seek to learn from others.
• Buyers try to behave in a socially appropriate manner in this unfamiliar environment.

Abstract

We examine consumer behavior under Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) pricing by conducting a series of field experiments that implemented different pricing schemes at a coffee shop: PWYW, PWYW with charitable giving, PWYW with charitable giving and a suggested price, and – for comparison – a regular fixed price group and a fixed price with giving group.

We find that the PWYW scheme, when combined with charitable giving and a suggested price, yields net revenue as large as that under the fixed price scheme. We also find that consumers under PWYW with charitable giving are responsive to a suggested price and seek to learn from others.

JEL classification: D49; H41; C93

Full text (PDF)

---

Too old to work, or too young to retire? The pervasiveness of age norms in Western Europe

an article by Jonas Radl (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain) published in Work, Employment& Society Volume 26 Number 5 (October 2012)

Abstract

The ageism debate has pointed to the persistence of negative age stereotypes that hinder the prolongation of working lives.

However, the actual holders of discriminatory norms have remained largely anonymous because there is limited understanding of the pervasiveness of age norms.

This article discusses arguments derived from life course and social norms theory regarding the degree of internalisation of age-related norms. The focus is on individual differences in terms of social class and gender.

Using 2006 data from the European Social Survey, the article gathers empirical evidence on attitudes towards the timing of retirement in 14 Western European societies. A set of tobit models (Wikipedia article here) examines the determinants of retirement age norms for men and women.

The results suggest that social class has a strong impact on retirement age norms. Moreover, the analysis reveals a complex pattern of gendered norms concerning the timing of retirement.

---