Naoufel Mzoughi

French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) | INRAE · Unité de Recherche Écodéveloppement

Conventional wisdom suggests that allowing offenders to choose alternative punishments to a previously existing punishment cannot enhance deterrence, because offenders can simply select the least costly option available. After reviewing the deterrence research literature, we argue that punishment menus may encourage individuals to focus more on how...

While nonspeech communication and “metaphorical” silence (in opposition to voice) have benefited from a considerable academic attention, less is known about quiet environments and the intentional practice of silence. We theorize these silences as potential catalysts of internal and collective reflection. Such silences can strongly impact individual...

Although many contributions examine how individuals and various entities (e.g., organizations and countries) manage to obtain a (competitive) advantage, there is a knowledge gap on how to make the best of disadvantages. Using notably the theories of self‐enhancement and psychological reactance, the existing literature has explained the mechanisms t...

While conventional analyses of farm hospitality upsides and downsides exist, the emotional labour requirements of such service-intensive activity are frequently overlooked. Ignoring this emotional component and its consequences (e.g. identity loss vs. reinforcement, emotional harmony) can explain project fates. By applying emotional labour to farm-...

Scandals are frequently considered as detrimental for involved businesses. When hotels serve as a backdrop and are collateral victims of scandals caused by high-profile individuals, we argue that entrepreneurially minded executives can envision scandals as an unexpected opportunity, likely to bring good news to the involved hotels. Tourism business...

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has remained a focus in business and society for decades. Existing research, however, has only begun to examine moral violations, or incidences of corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). In this article, we identify perceptual fluency-the ease with which information is processed-as an influential factor. Throu...

We posit that, once scandals become unavoidable, they can be considered for transformation into opportunities for research institutions, scientific communities and science regulators to implement in-depth changes and policies they would otherwise oppose. Research institutions and scientific communities can take advantage of scandals by participatin...

Behavioral public administration theory suggests that seemingly irrelevant word choice manipulations can influence behavior. We contend that the power of words has frequently been overlooked in the COVID-19 crisis. Given that most decisions mobilize System 1 cognition, words can be an important tool in pursuing socially-desirable outcomes. Beyond t...

While the literature has notably focused on the meanings, conceptualizations, causes, consequences and solutions to greenwashing, we propose a counterintuitive perspective to fill a gap by considering whether and how greenwashing can be leveraged to transform greenwashers into green(er) performers. To address this issue, we overview the literature...

Si certaines entreprises sont soupçonnées de mentir ou d’exagérer leurs politiques environnementales, accusées de « greenwashing », d’autres préfèrent taire leurs gestes écologiques. Animées par leurs pures convictions, pour ne pas véhiculer l’image de produits moins performants, ou par simple méconnaissance. Mais ce « greenhushing » n’est pas sans...

Environment‐related decisions can be taken in situ or remotely. We discuss theoretically why and how this seemingly irrelevant factor, that is, the distance between the place of decision and the place where it is applied, affects the moral judgment by external third parties. We mobilize the out‐group bias and the construal level theory to predict t...

Building on previous literature on corporate behavior, we examine the impact of an nongovernmental organization’s (NGO) foreign status on the moral judgment of its actions in a host country. Individuals in Algeria ( N = 450) rated the ethicality of analogous ethical and unethical actions of domestic (Algerian) and foreign NGOs (European). For ethic...

Punishment menus allow offenders to choose the punishment to which they will be subjected from a set of options. We present several behaviorally informed rationales for why punishment menus may serve as effective deterrents, notably by causing people to refrain from entering a calculative mindset; reducing their psychological reactance; causing the...

People often appear to use irrelevant information in forming judgments about others. Using survey experiments, we show that seemingly irrelevant facts may actually be informative of actors’ choices, which third parties can use to update their beliefs. Specifically, we show that subjects’ perceived severity and recommended punishment for offenses ar...

We characterize negative awards. Their pervasiveness in various domains as well as the objectives of their designers and promoters are documented. We discuss the outcomes generated by negative awards and provide some rationales explaining why individuals and organizations may be interested in getting them. Several issues deserve further exploration...

In contrast with the increasing green demands from various stakeholders, corporations might prefer green blushing, that is, deliberately avoiding communicating their efforts for sustainable development. Surprisingly, these companies make substantial green achievements, but decide not to communicate their greenness. Using a broad literature review o...

Drawing on the literature on innovation climate and employee attitudes, we discuss how innovations could impact job satisfaction. Using lagged predictors and relevant control variables, we investigate empirically this relationship on a large sample of French firms. Our estimation results show that employees in companies that engage in innovation ac...

We analyze positional concerns in the unethical domain. We introduce an original distinction between “selective” positionality—where individuals prefer behaving unethically but to a lesser extent than peers—and “ego” positionality—where they prefer behaving unethically but to a higher extent than peers, regardless of the absolute level. We also rep...

Article dans le journal Le Monde (https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2021/09/27/sciences-le-recours-aux-metriques-et-aux-nombres-presente-des-revers-souvent-ignores-ou-sous-estimes_6096140_3232.html)

A common practice in managerial and public service contexts is to quantity, calculate, and use numbers and metrics which provide a presumption of scientificity, a sense of measurability, objectivity, reliability, and precision upon which smarter decisions can be made. Besides providing a theoretical background, we analyze counter-productive effects...

The moral judgment of theft against a company is related to the company origin, but all origins are not created equal. Foreign companies are not systematically disadvantaged compared to domestic ones. Foreign companies from in‐group origins could be at an advantage compared to similar foreign companies from out‐group origins. A theft is judged more...

Many organizations, especially businesses, make heavy use of euphemisms when communicating on sensitive issues. We explore whether the use of euphemisms, as opposed to equivalent plain terms, influences the moral judgments made by recipients of these messages, notably pertaining to (un)ethical behaviors in corporate social responsibility (CSR) prac...

Words matter when talking about climate change. They influence thinking and ultimately behaviors. We contend that certain kinds of words frequently used in climate change communication, namely euphemisms, can undermine the objectives of raising climate change awareness and changing behaviors to reduce emissions. We characterize euphemisms related t...

We blend the institutional and social identity theories to explain why foreign companies may endure a differentiated treatment compared to domestic ones. We extend the “liability of foreignness” (LOF) reasoning to the moral domain. Using a survey experiment in Algeria and France, we examine whether observers judge similarly or differently the same...

Do outside observers judge differently an identical act of robbery if the victim is known as a robber rather than an honest individual? Popular wisdom, as magnified in several proverbs, suggests that most people do. We examine such a tenet using an experimental survey in Algeria (North-Africa). We also examine whether a differentiated moral judgeme...

Recent findings in behavioural sciences suggest that individuals may engage more in pro-social behaviour if they are prompted to reflect on how they will be remembered. Using experimental survey data with a between-subjects design, we examine the relevance of activating legacy concerns in the context of small businesses. More precisely, we investig...

Scandals are pervasive in many areas of society. We propose a characterization of scandals that explicitly considers their potential benefits to transgressors. Although scandals are frequently considered to be undesirable to the targets or transgressors implicated, we develop four rationales by which a scandal can actually be beneficial to them. Fi...

Some experimental and archival studies have found support for the scope-severity paradox (SSP), according to which the perceived harm of the same crime or wrongdoing decreases when the number of victims is greater. In the context of environmental wrongdoing, we investigate whether the SSP applies when the number of perpetrators of a wrongdoing incr...

Previous literature found empirical evidence to the scope-severity paradox (SSP), corresponding to situations where the perceived harm of a wrongdoing or crime decreases with the number of victims. We examine this phenomenon for the perpetrators’ side. Using a survey experiment, we examine whether increasing the number of perpetrators of a crime, n...

In a contribution conducted in the French Southern Alps, Hinojosa et al. (2016) suggested that place attachment is relatively higher where it is difficult to live. We examine whether this figure holds in other environments bringing insight on a likely general tenet. A study using comparable survey data in two different ecosystems of Ecuador (the mo...

Health messaging interventions frequently make three well-intentioned but mistaken choices in their communications strategies. To increase their persuasiveness, these messages frequently call attention to the greatest possible numbers of people engaging in undesirable behavior, victims of this behavior, and reasons why one should change the behavio...

We use survey data to test whether it pays to cooperate in innovation activities with rivals (also referred to as coopetition) compared to other cooperative arrangements, notably with non‐rival partners. Applying an ordinary least squares regression to a large sample of French firms (N = 2957), we found evidence of a positive and significant relati...

Individuals have mainly preferences for ethical jobs, and companies with bad ethical reputation have to offer higher wages to recruit. Social responsibility concerns are context dependent. Individuals' choices are not all predominantly oriented toward the moral high ground. A significant proportion of respondents refuse to trade‐off ethical prefere...

We argue that farmers exhibit identity concerns that can be conducive or detrimental to environmental conservation. In addition to recognizing the existence and importance of these concerns, we posit how they modify traditional predictions in unexpected directions. We characterize the propensity to adopt environmental measures within a two-dimensio...

Using two studies, we examine the dilution effect for green products, by testing whether advertising green benefits decreases their perceived instrumentality and thus harms sustainable development. We use a between‐subject design and ask participants to evaluate the efficacy of a pen (Study 1) and a dish detergent (Study 2) with and without environ...

We propose that words can be an object of systematic study in the field of economics and outline an approach to the study of word choice in behavioral economics. We consider words as strategic instruments of influence and review how they can impact behaviors in several subtle and distinctive ways, namely through their capacity to elicit affect, sup...

Campaigns aiming to encourage people to reduce their energy consumption frequently make three well-intentioned but inadvertent mistakes in their communications strategies. These mistakes are driven by a deeply embedded yet often counterproductive popular intuition: that ‘more is better.’ We identify three messaging pitfalls that can result from thi...

Numerous studies showed that people respond more generously to individual identified victims than to equivalent statistical victims, which is referred to as the “identifiable victim effect” (IVE). While the previous literature examined the IVE for human and animal victims, we focus on vegetal entities that can be threatened. Thanks to a between des...

Using an original and large database on more than 6000 French firms over a 5 years period we add empirical evidence regarding the effect of environmental investments on economic performance, measured by firms' net profits. We apply a fixed-effects model at the firm year level which controls for unobserved heterogeneity. We show that this effect fol...

Better aligning agriculture and environmental policies is an important issue for Mediterranean areas. Minimizing conflicts between the two sectors requires better understanding farmers’ concerns. Using survey data among a sample of livestock farmers in the French Mediterranean Alps, we examine the main constraints they are confronted with. While Fr...

We examine the relevance of relative standings in the financial domain. We introduced innovative hypotheses by testing whether framing (gain versus loss, risk level, amounts versus percentage, and money origin) affects stated positional preferences. Based on a quasi-experimental survey in Algeria (North Africa), our results show that while egalitar...

People in several countries are overwhelmed with green tips in order to encourage them protecting the environment. The effectiveness of these tips, however, highly depends on the context and the person targeted by the tips. In particular, we contend that some green tips may do more harm than good when individuals have cognitive and behavioral biase...

Even in a world with zero transaction costs, status seeking can prevent efficient Coasean bargaining. Using simple illustrations and various examples, we show that ignoring this impediment can explain the failure of some negotiations where an efficient bargain seems a priori reachable and expected. Rather than just emphasizing this neglected issue,...

In France, agricultural land abandonment constitutes a critical issue. Mountains, in particular, are reckoned to be particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon; therefore, several policy measures attempt to maintain agricultural activities in mountains. In addition to the role of targeted subsidies in reducing abandonment of mountainous areas, we co...

We describe the different possibilities that a protagonist has to start a process to raise rival’s costs (RRC). We present the general RRC mechanism and necessary conditions to make it successful. We also expose the strengths and weaknesses of RRC theory.

We examine the relevance of relative standings in Algeria (North Africa). We focus on the workplace, by considering domains generally important in this specific context: income, extra wage, office size, free days, worked hours, days being ill, offered company car, traffic jam when going to work, and being praised and berated by supervisor. Responde...

We describe the different possibilities that a protagonist has to start a process to raise rival’s costs (RRC). We present the general RRC mechanism and necessary conditions to make it successful. We also expose the strengths and weaknesses of RRC theory.

The economic literature has devoted relatively strong attention to eco-labelling schemes. Nevertheless, while succeeding in some markets, they often fall short of their promises. We analyse the gap between the academic design of eco-labelling schemes and their real implementation. We contend that providing information is not enough. We then use rec...

Using a laboratory experiment in a developing country (Tunisia, North Africa), we investigate whether the level of monitoring and both the nature (monetary versus moral) and magnitude of sanctions influence cheating levels. Our findings show that the introduction of weak monetary sanctions and monitoring is likely to increase cheating. However, a p...

A recent behavioural economics literature argues that people are more likely to make 'should' choices rather than 'want' choices when the decision is scheduled in the future. We investigate this concern in the case of a soil conservation tax. Surveying both a convenience and randomlyselected samples of individuals in a French region suffering from...

We examine empirically whether environmental management practices (EMPs) (environmental audits, ISO 14001 standard, etc.) promote (or not) additional innovations delivering environmental benefits. Using a large sample of French firms (N=4114) and simultaneous equations model (SEM), we found that EMPs positively influence the decision of firms to in...

Programme fédérateur "Agriculture et Développement Durable" (ADD)

We empirically investigate whether labor productivity is related to work recognition. Using survey data about a large sample of French firms (N = 5309), we find that firms in which employees think their work is recognized are likely to report higher labor productivity, compared with firms where employees do not feel recognized. Our estimation resul...

We examine the relationship between organic farming and subjective well-being or life satisfaction. Applying an ordered probit model to a sample of French farmers located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA) area (Southeast), we find that organic farmers report higher levels of life satisfaction, compared to the conventional ones. Moreover, thi...

Depuis de nombreuses années, les politiques publiques, notamment agro-environnementales, s’appuient sur des incitations (ou sur des désincitations) monétaires afin d’encourager (ou de décourager) des comportements jugés socialement désirables (indésirables). Leur efficacité est souvent jugée décevante. A partir de quelques apports récents de l’écon...

We examine empirically the relationship between workplace atmosphere and innovation activities. A generalized method of moments estimator of Poisson regression is applied to a set of 5574 observations in French firms. Our estimation results show that firms in which employees report good workplace atmosphere are more likely to engage in innovation a...

We investigate the relationship between French firms’ business performance and registration of quality (QS) and environmental-related standards (ES). Using a propensity score matching method, we found that QS/ES registered firms report higher sales. However, registration is not significantly related to firms’ profits and EBITDA. Our findings also p...

Dossier "Ecologisation, une voie pour reconditionner les modèles agricoles et dépasser leur simple évolution incrémentale"

Based on a simple theoretical framework, we show that when individuals exhibit positional, prosocial or conformist preferences which are endogenous, the end outcomes in terms of private provision of public goods can differ significantly from traditional neo-classical predictions. Indeed, when a given individual selects a specific subset of preferen...

We study the role of positional concerns in explaining the (non-) diffusion of profitable and environmentally friendly innovations in situations where there is no conventional prisoner dilemma. Based on anecdotal evidence from farming activities, we introduce the concept of negative positional goods, that is, goods that destroy status in a given re...

We explore empirically the relevance of positional concerns in France. Unlike previous literature, we use two types of surveys, one addressed to a convenience sample, and the other to a random sample of French households living in the metropolitan area of Montpellier. Surveys are composed of a set of hypothetical questions related to several domain...

Thanks to an original database on French firms we investigate the impact of environmental-related standards on employees’ recruitment. Using a bivariate probit model, we show that voluntary environmental-related standards (i.e., ISO 14001 standard, organic labeling, fair trade, etc.) improve the recruitment of professional and non-professional empl...

We investigate empirically the role of moral and social concerns in farmers' decision to adopt integrated crop protection (IP) and organic farming (OF). A survey questionnaire has been sent to 1286 fruit-growers and vegetable producers located in the French areas of Alpes de Haute Provence, Hautes-Alpes and Vaucluse. Analysis of individual response...

La réussite des écolabels tient dans la combinaison des deux principaux facteurs que constituent, d’un côté, les interactions entre la nature privée ou publique des attributs environnementaux (c’est-à-dire le type de bénéfices individuels ou collectifs qu’ils procurent) et, de l’autre, la part des consommateurs ayant une attitude sociale égoïste ou...

In line with Veblen's contributions on the "dark side" of commercial and political relationships, we show how promises can be used to manipulate the "common man." By imposing excessive access costs on potential promisees (e.g., citizens or consumers), a promiser (e.g., a politician or a firm) can benefit from making a promise without having to whol...

On se propose dans ce document de passer en revue les travaux, principalement en économie, visant à identifier les déterminants des conversions des exploitations à l’agriculture biologique. Les documents scientifiques retenus ont été alimentés d’une part par une interrogation des bases de données bibliographiques internationales (Web Of Knowledge,...

ECOLABELS. L’écolabellisation : un mode d’action efficace pour le développement durable ? ; ANR-06-PADD-009

Envy is a complex emotion that influences the behavior of envious and envied individuals. Because envy can imply ill will, discontent or dislike of the envied individual who possesses something that the envious individual desires, or aspiration to emulate the envied position, it can lead the envious individual to undertake costly efforts to reduce...

Success of eco-labeling schemes, broadly defined, varies among products and across countries. Based on a simple theoretical framework, we show that the nature of environmental attributes among products (i.e., private versus public) and the consumer type (i.e., egoist versus altruist) shape the overall performance of such schemes. In addition, we de...

This paper examines which factors determine the participation of households in long term contracting with local farmers. Are households motivated by reducing the environmental impacts of their food consumption? A discrete-choice model of community supported agriculture (CSA) participation is applied to a sample of 264 French households. The finding...

A theoretical framework combining the two branches of TCE, i.e., the governance branch (Williamson 2005) and the measurement branch (Barzel 2005) may explain the choice of the governance structure for private environmental transactions. Four case studies, i.e., the market for pure air in polluted cities, the contractual arrangement between La Esper...

Individuals exhibit systematic cognitive biases which make their behavior 'deviant' when compared to the benchmark of perfectly rational individuals. The person's tendency to make errors in judgment based on cognitive factors, are thought to be based upon heuristics and lead to decisions that are sub-optimal. Ignoring cognitive biases can affect di...

Producers in the recording industry frequently market products for which a part of the proceeds goes to charitable causes. We investigate whether a corporate pledge to donate a portion of profits to a charitable cause will decrease the extent to which customers illegally obtain that company's products. Donations to charitable causes may increase th...

Nous réalisons une investigation empirique visant à identifier les déterminants de la diffusion différenciée de la norme ISO 14001 selon les pays. Nos estimations corroborent les travaux antérieurs sur plusieurs déterminants et montrent que, même si les facteurs reflétant des considérations d’ordre ‘environnemental’jouent un rôle non négligeable da...

Green Alliances between Firms and Environmental Associations : Successful Marriage or Strategic Manipulation ? « Green alliances » between businesses and environmental groups are based on mutual benefits and include several forms and degrees of cooperation. Despite promises of win-win results, several adverse effects could occur. We define and char...

This paper critiques the multifarious ways whereby academic qualifications may be falsified in the international marketplace. The objectives are fourfold: (1) defining the main terms used such as fake degrees and diploma mills; (2) providing a brief history of fake degrees and identifying the factors that explain their recent development; (3) devel...

Based on Solnick and Hemenway [1998], we empirically investigate the inter-dependence of utility functions using French data. Our estimations partially confirm the results of Solnick and Hemenway. We show that (1) relative position matters, (2) positional concerns differ among domains, (3) goods are more positional than bads, and (4) position matte...

Based on a real case of contracting for environmental property rights, we explore several implications of Coase's insights. The case study adds empirical content to basic transaction costs concepts by analysing the design and implementation of a contractual arrangement between a pollutee-a bottler of mineral water-and several polluting farmers. We...

We conduct an empirical examination of national conditions that promote the diffusion of the ISO 14001 standard. Our estimates confirm earlier studies on several determinants. While environmental considerations are important in the diffusion of the ISO 14001 standard, we show that other factors play a significant role as well, such as the prior dif...

Programme fédérateur "Agriculture et Développement Durable" (ADD)

We conduct an empirical examination of national conditions that promote the diffusion of the ISO 14001 standard. Our estimates confirm earlier studies on several determinants. While environmental considerations are important in the diffusion of the ISO 14001 standard, we show that other factors play a significant role as well, such as the prior dif...

Based on Solnick and Hemenway [1998], we empirically investigate the interdependence of utility functions using Frence data. Our estimations partially confirm the results of Solnick and Hemenway. We show that (1) relative position matters, (2) positional concerns differ among domains, (3) goods are more positional than bads, and (4) position maters...

This paper critiques the multifarious ways whereby academic qualifications may be falsified in the international marketplace. The objectives are fourfold : (1) defining the main terms used such as fake degrees and diploma mills ; (2) providing a brief history of fake degrees and identifying the factors that explain their recent development ; (3) de...