We would like to invite you to a seminar at 11:00 on Thursday, 22 October 2026.
Date Thursday, 22 October 2026
Time 11:00 - 12:00
Venue Room B1-204, UEH Campus B
Presenter Assoc. Prof. Ramon Cobo-Reyes, Georgetown University in Qatar
Title: Delegation and Children’s Decision-Making: Evidence from Thailand
Abstract
We study whether children's behavior changes when their caregiver deliberately chooses to delegate a decision to them, rather than making it on their behalf. Using a lab-in-the-field experiment with caregiver-child pairs in rural Thailand, we implement a design in which caregivers can either retain decision rights or delegate them to their child across four incentivized tasks covering time preferences, risk preferences, competitive preferences, and social preferences. Our results show that the effects of delegation are domain-specific. Delegation significantly increases patience in intertemporal choices, making children more willing to delay payment and increasing the number of patient decisions they make. We find no evidence that delegation affects risk preferences, competitive choices, or prosocial behavior. To rationalize this pattern, we develop a simple theoretical framework in which delegation triggers reciprocity, shifting the weight children place on aligning their choices with those of their caregiver. The model predicts that delegation matters most when caregivers and children have conflicting preferences and the decision allows for partial adjustment rather than a binary choice. Our findings identify a novel mechanism to foster patience in children, and contribute to the literature on children's autonomy and parental decision-making.
About the presenter
Ramon Cobo-Reyes is Associate Professor of Economics at Georgetown University in Qatar. He specializes in behavioral economics, with a focus on labor markets, institutions, and health. Professor Cobo-Reyes’s peer-reviewed journal articles have been published in American Economic Review, Games and Economic Behavior, Experimental Economics, European Economic Review, and Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Professor Cobo-Reyes has been awarded research grants from the governments of Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and the British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies. Prior to joining GU-Q in June 2022, Professor Cobo-Reyes was an assistant professor at the University of Granada, associate professor and co-director of the Finance and Economics Experimental Laboratory at the University of Exeter Business School, and professor of economics at the American University of Sharjah.
We would be glad to see you there. For questions, please contact kkt@ueh.edu.vn.
