PUBLICNESS AND MICRO-LEVEL RISK BEHAVIOUR: Experimental Evidence on Stereotypical Discounting Behaviour (DATASET & CODE)

Data set and analytical code associated with Weißmüller's (2021) study "Publicness and micro-level risk behaviour: experimental evidence on stereotypical discounting behaviour." Public Management Review, 24(4), 601-630. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2020.1862287

Anti-public stereotypes suggest that public agents are more likely to shun risk and tolerate delay vis-à-vis private agents. Based on context dependency of administrative behaviour, this study reports experimental evidence from 22,800 choice tasks exploring the effects of publicness (i.e., sectoral context) as a mental frame for individual’s biases in decision making under risk. The findings of this research project are published in the international peer-reviewed journal Public Management Review.

Analysis of this data reveals that decision makers do not automatically deviate from predicted economic discounting behaviour when switching from a public to a private sector context. However, actual public sector employees in this sample systematically overestimate risks and tolerate delay in rewards compared with the general population. This result links public sector affiliation with biases in risk behaviour. The study discussed the impact of these novel insights for theory and practice.

Citation of study: Weißmüller, K. S. (2021). Publicness and micro-level risk behaviour: experimental evidence on stereotypical discounting behaviour. Public Management Review, 24(4), 601–630. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2020.1862287

Link to Supplementary material: https://www.tandfonline.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1080%2F14719037.2020.1862287&file=rpxm_a_1862287_sm6690.txt