Three Essays in Behavioral & Experimental Economics

This dissertation explores how psychological factors impact economic decision making and market efficiency within different domains. It consists of three self-contained chapters using experiments to investigate the role that these psychological factors play. The present provides novel insights into how cooperation and pro-sociality can be increased or decreased by psychological mechanisms and how it can either increase or constrain market efficiency. Specifically, it provides new insights into designing psychological mechanisms in buyer-seller markets, understanding of how compassion fade operates, and finally why people find certain harmless transactions repugnant.