Argun Aman Hild
©ZEW

Argun Aman Hild

Research

Work in Progress

  • Competing Against Stereotypes: Meta-Study of Gender Differences in Competitiveness. Joint work with Michael Hilweg-Waldeck.
    • The experimental literature on gender differences in competitiveness has published over 280 studies, each utilizing a particular real-effort task. We exploit the natural variation in task-specific gender stereotypes to examine how stereotypes shape gender differences in competitiveness. In our meta-study, we compile data on gender competition and performance levels from previous studies. In addition, we collect beliefs about performance differences through an online experiment (n=765). Our key finding is that stereotypical beliefs, rather than actual performance differences, explain the variation in gender competition gaps across tasks. In a followup laboratory experiment (n = 749), we manipulate stereotypes through framing and informational cues about others’ beliefs. These interventions shift stereotypical beliefs, but the changes are not large enough to affect gender differences in competitiveness.
    • Draft available soon.
  • Why don’t you deduct to donate more? Joint work with Michael Hilweg-Waldeck.
    • Many donors leave tax benefits unclaimed even when filing is almost costless. Administrative records from Austria underscore the puzzle: a 2017 reform that automated reporting raised deduction take-up by only 0.6 percentage points (from 19.8%) and lowered the average claim. Donation context widens the gap: in data from a large national charity, 85% of anonymous online gifts are deducted, but only 0.5% of door-to-door gifts are declared. A representative survey identifies two frictions—confusion about the filing steps and misperceived norms, with respondents underestimating moral approval of deducting by 24 percentage points. We test concise procedural instructions and a one-sentence norm cue in two field settings. Neither message matters online, where take-up already exceeds 80%. Printed once in parish journals before a door-to-door drive, the combined message raises the number of deductors by 7.7%, whereas instructions alone have no effect.Monetary incentives aimed at public-good provision may therefore underperform when they conflict with misperceived norms or image concerns, unless paired with adequate norm-shaping campaigns.
    • Draft available soon.

  • Inequality as a constraint on (repugnant) markets. Joint work with Jakob Schmidhäuser.

  • Non-Standard Choice and Matching. Joint work with Gian Caspari, Michael Hilweg-Waldeck, Manshu Khanna, Vincent Meisner.

  • Don’t hate your luck, hate its shape. Joint work with Michael Hilweg-Waldeck.

  • Think before you act. Joint work with Michael Hilweg-Waldeck and Jonathan Stäbler.
  • Meritocracy. Joint work with Henrik Orzen and Jonathan Stäbler.