Institutions and Behavior: Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Democracy

这个项目研究了民主对行为的总体影响，并认为总体影响可能包括两个效应：工具效应和直接效应。工具效应指的是民主可能导致社会选择不同的政策。直接影响是指人们对某一政策的反应可能取决于该政策是否是民主选择的。民主可能对行为产生直接影响的观点可以追溯到托克维尔的《美国的民主》。本课题运用实验经济学的方法，对这两种效果的相对重要性进行了探讨。衡量民主的直接效果的困难在于，民主社会与非民主社会的区别是复杂的。 因此，简单地比较民主社会和不民主社会是不可取的。然而，我们有可能检验实验对象对民主选择的政策的反应是否与他们对非民主强加的相同政策的反应不同。也有可能测试可能构成民主直接效应基础的替代机制，这里提出的研究预计会产生两种不同类型的更广泛的影响。首先，民主制度是否以及如何影响所采取的政策类型和对这些政策的反应的证据可以帮助设计有效的制度。第二，研究结果可能会对一些实证研究得出的政策建议的有效性产生怀疑。社会科学中的许多应用工作都试图确定政策、制度或产品的治疗效果。由于人们通常会选择他们的政策、机构和购买，因此通常有必要考虑群体之间的差异，以衡量“真正的”治疗效果。根据这些估计，可以提出政策建议，其中包括在没有选择的情况下分配治疗。如果治疗效果因选择或实施而异，则此类政策建议可能是不必要的。

This project examines the total impact of democracy on behavior and argues that the total impact may consist of two effects: an instrumental effect and a direct effect. The instrumental effect refers to the fact that democracy may lead societies to choose different policies. The direct effect refers to the fact that the response of people to a given policy may depend upon whether or not it was chosen democratically. The idea that democracy may have a direct effect on behavior can be traced back to Tocqueville's Democracy in America. This project uses the methods of experimental economics to gain some insight into the relative importance of these two effects.The difficulty of measuring the direct effect of democracy lies in the fact that democratic societies differ from undemocratic ones in many and complex ways. This makes it inadvisable to simply compare democratic and undemocratic societies. It is possible, however, to examine whether experimental subjects respond to policies that are democratically selected in a different way than they do to the same policies imposed undemocratically. It is also possible to test for alternative mechanisms that may underlie any observed direct effects of democracy.The research proposed here is expected to have two different types of broader impact. First, evidence on whether and how democratic institutions affect the types of policies adopted and the responses to these policies can aid in the design of efficient institutions. Second, the results may cast doubt on the validity of the policy recommendations derived from some empirical studies. Much applied work in social sciences seeks to identify the treatment effect of policies, institutions, or products. Since people usually choose their policies, institutions, and purchases, it is usually necessary to account for difference between groups to measure the "true" treatment effect. Based on such estimates, policy recommendations may be made that involve assigning the treatment without choice. If the treatment effect differs based on whether it is chosen or imposed such policy recommendations may be unwarranted.