Experimental currency units in investment tasks

Sascha Füllbrunn; Wolfgang Luhan; Paul-Emile Mangin

doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107400

Experimental currency units in investment tasks

Sascha Füllbrunn, Wolfgang Luhan, Paul-Emile Mangin

School of Accounting, Economics and Finance

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

Abstract

Incentivized experiments employ various designs of experimental currency units, yet there is typically little justification for choosing a particular currency framework. We study how different nominal values of experimental currency units affect risky decision-making in investment tasks. Our online experiments find no difference in risk-taking even if conversion rates vary by a factor of 1,000. Hence, we empirically reconfirm the experimental practice used for decades.

Original language	English
Article number	107400
Number of pages	38
Journal	Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
Volume	242
Early online date	6 Jan 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107400
Publication status	Early online - 6 Jan 2026

Keywords

experimental design
experimental currency
tangibility
game-board effect
numerosity

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107400

Experimental currency units in investment tasksFinal published version, 13.4 MBLicence: CC BY

Experimental Currency Units in Investment Tasks
Luhan, W. (Creator), Füllbrunn, S. (Creator) & Mangin, P.-E. (Creator), Open Science Framework, 27 Mar 2025
DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/UAV4W, https://osf.io/uav4w/overview
Dataset

Cite this

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AU - Füllbrunn, Sascha

AU - Luhan, Wolfgang

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AB - Incentivized experiments employ various designs of experimental currency units, yet there is typically little justification for choosing a particular currency framework. We study how different nominal values of experimental currency units affect risky decision-making in investment tasks. Our online experiments find no difference in risk-taking even if conversion rates vary by a factor of 1,000. Hence, we empirically reconfirm the experimental practice used for decades.

KW - experimental design

KW - experimental currency

KW - tangibility

KW - game-board effect

KW - numerosity

U2 - 10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107400

DO - 10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107400

M3 - Article

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VL - 242

JO - Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

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ER -

Experimental currency units in investment tasks

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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Experimental Currency Units in Investment Tasks

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