Students

Ing. Ondřej Dohnal

Advanced experimental approach to bank runs

Current research proves that despite deposit insurance bank runs are severe problem which can occur anywhere in the world. Experimental literature suggests that bank runs can be random events unrelated to changes in real economy and should rather be attributed to non-fundamental economic factors as described in seminal Diamond and Dybvig model (1983) recently awarded with Nobel prize.

My research follows afore-mentioned experimental research of bank runs and enhance it with advanced analysis of loss aversion and sunspots. Sunspots, often present in environment with great strategic uncertainty, are events or factors, which influence the outcome of the game even if they are completely unrelated to economic fundaments. Further, our previous research inspired by Arifovic and Jiang (2019) suggested that loss aversion can be an instrument to mitigate influence of sunspots and even prevent bank runs itself. Therefore, we will conduct laboratory experiment through which we will assesses the impact of loss aversion incorporated directly into the payoff function on the occurrence of bank runs. If such an impact will be proven it can have significant implications for policy makers and it could substantially lower the power of sunspots in modern world.

 Ing. Berenika Tužilová

The Czech Republic and Slovakia are dealing with an unknown number of abandoned animals. The law clearly assigns the care of abandoned, stray and abused animals to the hands of the state and municipalities. Dog shelters replace this role, but their costs are not compensated from the state and they must find their own source of funding. Their communication with public is often emotional and may evoke strong good or bad feelings in potential donors. We plan to conduct a lab experiment, which will help to identify whether positive or negative emotions are correlated with an increase (or a decrease) of willingness to help. Based on the data obtained, we will be able to analyze the effect of the messages on subjectively reported emotions and with a face-reader even compare that to an objective measurement. Obtained insights may help dog shelters to nudge helping behavior by proper framing of their posts and messages. More generally, this project will contribute to our understanding of charitable behaviors where the recipients of donations are non-profit organizations, dealing with animals instead of people and with the factors influencing the adoption of animals, instead of standard one-time monetary gifts.