Experimental results from student and other non-representative convenience samples often suggest that men, on average, are more risk taking and competitive than women. We explore whether these gender preference gaps also exist in incentivized tasks in a simple random sample of the Swedish adult population. Our design comprises four different conditions to systematically explore how the experimental context may impact gender gaps; a baseline condition, a condition where participants are primed with their own gender, and two conditions where the participants know the gender of their counterpart (man or woman). We further look at competitiveness in two domains: a math task and a verbal task. We find no gender gap in risk taking or competitiveness in the verbal task in this random sample. There is some support for men being more competitive than women in the math task in the pooled sample, but the effect size is small. We further find no consistent impact of the respective conditions on (the absence of) the gender gap in preferences.

We study gender differences in altruism in a large random sample of the Swedish population using a standard dictator game. Beside a baseline treatment we implement a priming treatment where participants are reminded of their gender, and two treatments with known male and female counterpart respectively. We find suggestive evidence that women are more altruistic than men only in the priming treatment. A post-hoc analysis using data on interviewer gender to explore gender context effects indicates that priming affects behavior only in mixedgender contexts.

Experimental results from student or other non-representative convenience samples often suggest that men, on average, are more risk-taking and competitive than women. Here we explore whether these gender preference gaps also exist in a simple random sample of the Swedish adult population. Our design comprises four different treatments to systematically explore how the experimental context may impact gender gaps; a baseline treatment, a treatment where participants are primed with their own gender, and a treatment where the participants know the gender of their counterpart (man or woman). We look at willingness to compete in two domains: a math task and a verbal task. We find no gender differences in risk preferences or in willingness to compete in the verbal task in this random sample. There is some support for men being more competitive than women in the math task, in particular in the pooled sample. The effect size is however considerably smaller than what is typically found. We further find no consistent impact of treatment on (the absence of) the gender gap in preferences.

We extend the work of Grossman and Shapiro (J Econ 103:79–100, 1988) on consumption externalities in prestige goods markets, and model a general aversion towards large levels of output interacting with an aversion towards copies in particular. These externalities play the role of protecting the market share of the producer of originals. We show that the well-established result under positive network externalities, that piracy is an equilibrium, extends to the case of negative consumption externalities. When externalities are pronounced enforcement should be strict, while in markets subject to moderate externalities there are no strong arguments in favor of a strict policy.

Målsättningen har varit att ta fram ny kunskap inom miljötillsynen och därigenom uppnå en effektivare miljötillsyn samt att få in nya vetenskapliga perspektiv på miljötillsyn.

I rapporten studeras metoder för inspektioner och det kommunikativa samspelet mellan inspektören och företrädare för den verksamhet som inspekteras, hur den institutionella ramen för inspektionsprocessen fungerar samt visar på möjligheter att mäta effekterna av inspektioner och tillsyn.

Naturvårdsverket kommer att ha resultatet som ett kunskapsunderlag i fortsatt arbete med tillsynsvägledning och utveckling av hur tillsyn och tillsynsvägledning kan följas upp och utvärderas.

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) has financed the interdisciplinary research program “Efficient Environmental Inspections and Enforcement” (“Effektiv miljötillsyn”). The researchers are affiliated to Stockholm University, which is the responsible research institution, the Royal Institute of Technology (Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan), the Karolinska Institutet, and the Swedish Defense Research Agency (Totalförsvarets forskningsinstitut). The goal has been to develop new knowledge, thereby achieving more efficient environmental inspections and enforcement and obtaining new scientific perspectives on environmental inspections and enforcement.

The report studies methods for inspections and the communication between the inspector and the representative of the inspected facility, how the institutional framework for the inspection process works, and demonstrates the possibilities of measuring the effects of inspections and enforcement. The researchers involved in the program are fully responsible for the content of this report.

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency will use the results as a base for its continuing efforts to improve inspection and enforcement guidance and to develop the following up and evaluation of inspections and enforcement and guidance.

I en serie experiment har vi visat att människor lätt kan manipuleras att bete sig i enlighet med välkända könsstereotyper. I synnerhet är det män som låter sig påverkas av ”oskyldiga” förändringar i den experimentella miljön. Ett resultat visar att män omgivna av andra män blir mer förlåtande mot normbrytare. Ett annat resultat visar att män i könsblandade miljöer blir mindre generösa när de påminns om sitt kön. Slutsatsen är att könsspecifikt beteende till viss del är en social konstruktion.

We study the effects of experimental design on male and female behavior in a dictator game. Following social identity we investigate how experimental procedure may affect outcome through gender priming, i.e. the activation of gender stereotypes specifying that women behave altruistically and men egoistically. We prime subjects by asking them to indicate their gender in a questionnaire, before playing the game. In our experiment, such gender priming is effective (i.e. creates a gender difference in generosity) in gender-mixed environments, but not in single-sex environments. Further, men are more sensitive to priming than women are.