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| Shahar Sansani |
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| ''Are there economic benefits to being polite? Experimental evidence from the Israeli rental housing market'' |
| ( 2018, Vol. 38 No.1 ) |
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| In this paper, I perform a correspondence test to determine whether there are differential response rates to polite versus impolite requests to see apartments for rent. Being polite (impolite) can send a positive (negative) signal when the receiving party has limited information. Because showing apartments is costly, landlords may filter potential tenants by tenants' politeness. To conduct this test, I sent 1000 requests to view available apartments for rent, through email and text messages, half polite and half impolite. I find no statistically significant difference in the proportion of positive call-backs received based on politeness through both means of communication, demonstrating that in this context, manners do not matter. |
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| Keywords: Politeness, housing, correspondence study |
JEL: Z0 - Other Special Topics: General
R2 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics: Household Analysis: General |
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| Manuscript Received : Dec 23 2017 | | Manuscript Accepted : Mar 23 2018 |
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