Roger Spranz

After several months of preparing and conducting field experiments in Indonesia, I finally arrived in Innsbruck at the end of May to analyse the data collected. In Innsbruck I was able to work closely together with Dr. Björn Vollan, member of my PhD Panel and co-author of the publications planned, who has not only provided valuable support in the preparation and design of the field experiments, but has also been on site when we conducted the first experiment. His familiarity with the data collected, experience and expertise in the analysis of such data, made me look very much forward to working with him and progress further with my PhD work.

The members of the Public Finance Institute in Innsbruck gave me a warm welcome and it was a pleasure to be their guest in the weeks ahead. I had been able to discuss my work with several of Dr. Vollan’s colleagues and I enjoyed to exchange and receive feedback on my work.

During the upcoming three weeks Dr. Vollan and I were to focus on the quantitative data analysis of the natural field experiments Nr.1 “What works best in convincing local shop owners in Indonesia to help distribute reusable bags” in order to present the results at the WOW5 conference in Bloomington later on in June. We did however also start with the analysis of the second experiment “From plastic bag consumption towards the use of reusable bags – Testing economic and normative interventions for customers in Indonesia”. Having only three weeks available we were facing a tight schedule. Including the elaboration of a systematic approach to analyze the data, Dr. Vollan was also expected to further my skills in the application of respective methods in the statistical analysis software STATA. After the examination of various statistical tests as part of the data analysis, we wanted to interpret our findings. This could serve as an extended basis for discussion of the results at the WOW5 conference.

I am glad to say that we have been able to meet the goals we set ourselves and finished just in time to present the results at the conference in Bloomington. Although I had not been able to join the conference as previously planned, the results were presented by my supervisor Prof. Dr. Achim Schlüter, and we were content about the feedback received.

The research stay in Innsbruck has been a big contribution to the successful completion of my PhD project. The intensive phase of data analysis has helped me greatly to move from data collection towards the analysis and discussion of results. For the support of this research stay in Innsbruck, but also in general for my PhD project, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to GLOMAR, Christina Klose and Dierk Hebbeln. Thank you so much!