The Misaddressed Letter Experiment

Gweneth Leigh; Andrew Leigh

doi:10.1080/13504851.2018.1430323

The Misaddressed Letter Experiment

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We design a new field experiment to test pro-social behaviour: will a household return a letter that has been incorrectly addressed? On average, we find that half of all letters were returned. Return rates do not vary significantly according to the gender, race or ethnicity of the fictitious addressee. However, return rates are higher in more affluent neighbourhoods.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1527-1530
Number of pages	4
Journal	Applied Economics Letters
Volume	25
Issue number	21
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2018.1430323
Publication status	Published - 15 Dec 2018
Externally published	Yes

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10.1080/13504851.2018.1430323

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title = "The Misaddressed Letter Experiment",

abstract = "We design a new field experiment to test pro-social behaviour: will a household return a letter that has been incorrectly addressed? On average, we find that half of all letters were returned. Return rates do not vary significantly according to the gender, race or ethnicity of the fictitious addressee. However, return rates are higher in more affluent neighbourhoods.",

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The Misaddressed Letter Experiment

Abstract

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