In the Dutch Post Code Lottery a postal code (19 households on average) is randomly
selected weekly, and sizeable prizes (€12,500 per lottery ticket) are awarded to lottery
participants living in that postal code. In addition to the monetary prizes, one of the
winners wins a BMW. We analyze data on consumption, labor supply, and reported
happiness of winners, and of nonwinners in winning and (adjacent)
nonwinning postal codes from our survey of over 2000 households. Respondents
provided information on both current behavior (six months after the prize) and,
retrospectively, behavior a year earlier (six months before the prize). This unique data
set allows us to make the key comparisons required to identify not only the “own” effects
of exogenous income shocks to households receiving them, but social
interaction effects as well. |
