Recently, the co-authored paper Public Discourse and Socially Responsible Market Behavior by Tenured Professor Yao Lan from the Department of Microeconomics, School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE), has been formally published in American Economic Review, a top international journal in economics.
Abstract
We investigate the causal impact of public discourse on socially responsible market behavior. Across three laboratory experiments, having market participants engage in public discourse generally increases market social responsibility. These positive impacts are robust to variation in several characteristics of the discourse. We provide evidence that discourse strengthens beliefs that others support socially responsible exchange. However, relaxing requirements to engage in discourse sharply reduces its effectiveness. Our findings suggest that campaigns encouraging discussion of appropriate market behavior can have sizable impacts on addressing inefficiencies due to market failures but that policies encouraging broad public engagement may be important.
Author Profile
Yao Lan is a Tenured Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE). She is a Young Scholar of the National Talent Program of the Ministry of Education. Her primary research fields are behavioral economics and experimental economics. In recent years, she has published numerous papers in journals including the American Economic Review, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Quantitative Economics, European Economic Review, as well as China’s top journals Economic Research Journal and The Journal of World Economy. She received the Second Prize of the 8th Outstanding Scientific Research Achievements in Higher Education Institutions awarded by the Ministry of Education. She leads sub-projects of Major Programs, General Programs and Young Scientists Programs of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and projects funded by the Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation of the Ministry of Education. She serves as Associate Editor of Journal of Finance and Economics.
