publications

2025

1. JPE

   The effect of war on redistribution preferences

   Alexei Zakharov, and Philipp Chapkovski

   Journal of Public Economics, Jan 2025

   Abs DOI

   Do wars change preferences for redistributive state policies? We analyze this question using a preregistered survey experiment involving N=3920 respondents in Russia conducted during the Russo-Ukrainian war. The order of questions in the survey was manipulated to remind some respondents of the war before measuring the outcome variables. We find that among individuals who favor the war, the war reminder increases preferences for redistribution. Our two-part design allows us to investigate the channels for this effect; we find that it is partly due to increased trust in the government. We also observe an increase in prosocial preferences among individuals who support the war, but this effect is not associated with the increase in redistribution preferences.

2024

1. NSR

   Background uncertainty does not increase risk aversion in decision making

   Johannes Leder, Philipp Chapkovski, Astrid Schütz, and 2 more authors

   Scientific Reports, Oct 2024

   Publisher: Nature Publishing Group

   Abs DOI

   Some theories in economics and psychology propose that background uncertainty, which is uncertainty that is independent of a person’s actual decision, can alter people’s risk-taking behavior with respect to that decision. However, previous empirical research mostly relying on single experiments is inconclusive regarding the existence of this effect. Here, we systematically investigate the effect of background uncertainty on decision-making. After reviewing the literature, we argue that two types of background uncertainty should be distinguished: (a) background ambiguity, where the decision maker does not know the probability of the outcomes of the background event, and (b) background risk, where the outcome probabilities are known. We tested the hypotheses (i) that background uncertainty does affect risk-taking in the decision at hand, and (ii) the type of background uncertainty moderates that effect. In four experiments (total N =863), we induced background uncertainty (ambiguity or risk) using different methods and measured risk-taking with multiple behavioral tasks. We did not find a significant effect of background uncertainty on risk-taking behavior.

2. MS

   Trading Gamification and Investor Behavior

   Philipp Chapkovski, Mariana Khapko, and Marius Zoican

   Management Science, Jun 2024

   Publisher: INFORMS

   Abs DOI

   We study the effect of gamification on retail traders’ behavior using a randomized online experiment. Participants with lower financial literacy prefer platforms with hedonic gamification elements, such as confetti and achievement badges. On average, hedonic gamification increases trading volume by 5.17%. However, the difference in trading activity between gamified and nongamified platforms is driven primarily by self-selection (70%) rather than gamification (30%). Participants who prefer hedonic gamification exhibit noisy trading strategies, whereas those favoring nongamified platforms display stronger contrarian behavior. Further, price trend notifications enhance learning for investors with accurate beliefs, but they reinforce trading mistakes for those with incorrect beliefs.This paper has been This paper was accepted by Jean-Edouard Colliard for the special issue on the human-algorithm connection.Funding: P. Chapkovski acknowledges funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [Germany’s Excellence Strategy—EXC 2126/1-390838866]. M. Khapko and M. Zoican acknowledge the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [Insight Development Grant 430-2018-00125] and the Canadian Securities Institute Research Foundation [research grant]. M. Zoican acknowledges financial support from the Quantitative Management Research Initiative (QMI) under the aegis of the Fondation du Risque, a joint initiative by Université Paris-Dauphine, l’École Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration ParisTech, and LFIS, France.Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.02650.

3. PC

   Appealing, threatening or nudging? Assessing various communication strategies to promote tax compliance

   Andris Saulitis, and Philipp Chapkovski

   Public Choice, Sep 2024

   Abs DOI

   This study examines the effect of various communication strategies on wage underreporting and tax compliance. Employing a field experiment with 3813 businesses in Latvia—a country marked by substantial wage underreporting—this research utilizes advanced data analytics to disseminate messages from the tax authority to firms whose declared wages substantially lag behind industry and regional averages. Messages ranged from normative appeals to audit probabilities and nudges. The immediate result was a notable increase in compliance in the first four months after the intervention, with firms elevating average wage levels. While the specific content of messages did not result in distinct long-term compliance behavior, the overall effectiveness of sending messages was affirmed. We identify a message combining 5% audit probability with normative appeals as the most effective one in enhancing tax revenues and triggering minimal negative feedback from the message receivers.

2023

1. JBEF

   Conducting interactive experiments on Toloka

   Philipp Chapkovski

   Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Mar 2023

   Abs DOI

   Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the popularity of online behavioral experiments grew steadily. Due to lockdowns, online studies often became the only available option for behavioral economists, sociologists, and political scientists. The use of the most well-known platforms, such as mTurk, was so intensive that the quality of data was harmed. However, even before the pandemic-induced quality crisis, online studies were limited in scope; real-time interactions between participants were hard to achieve due to the large proportion of drop-outs and issues with creating stable groups. Using the relatively unknown crowdsourcing platform, Toloka, we successfully ran several multi-round interactive experiments. Toloka’s sizeable online population, fairly low exposure of participants to sociological surveys and behavioral studies, and convenient application programming interface can make it a useful addition to the toolbox of an experimentalist who needs to run behavioral studies that require real-time interactions between participants.

2022

1. JBEE

   Information avoidance in a polarized society

   Philipp Chapkovski

   Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Mar 2022

   HTML
2. R&P

   Solid support or secret dissent? A list experiment on preference falsification during the Russian war against Ukraine

   Philipp Chapkovski, and Max Schaub

   Research & Politics, Mar 2022

   HTML

2021

1. PLOS

   Strike one hundred to educate one: Measuring the efficacy of collective sanctions experimentally

   Philipp Chapkovski

   PloS one, Mar 2021

   HTML
2. FIP

   Does Whistleblowing on Tax Evaders Reduce Ingroup Cooperation?

   Philipp Chapkovski, Luca Corazzini, and Valeria Maggian

   Frontiers in psychology, Mar 2021

   HTML

2019

1. JBEF

   Real-time interactions in oTree using Django Channels: Auctions and real effort tasks

   Philipp Chapkovski, and Essi Kujansuu

   Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Mar 2019

   HTML
2. JBEF

   Introducing otree_tools: A powerful package to provide process data for attention, multitasking behavior and effort through tracking focus

   Philipp Chapkovski, and Christian Zihlmann

   Journal of behavioral and experimental finance, Mar 2019

   HTML

2017

1. “We Should be Proud Not Sorry”: Neo-Stalinist Literature in Contemporary Russia

   Philipp Chapkovski

   In War and Memory in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, Mar 2017

   HTML