10.11588/data/10066Pollmann, MoniqueMoniquePollmannPotters, JanJanPottersTrautmann, Stefan T.Stefan T.TrautmannAlfred-Weber-Institute of EconomicsRisk taking by agents: The role of ex-ante and ex-post accountability [Dataset]heiDATA2016Social SciencesDecision under riskdecisions of agentsaccountabilityD81C91Stefan Trautmann; Alfred-Weber-Institute for Economics; University of Heidelberg; Bergheimer Str. 58; 69115 Heidelberg, Germany; Phone: +49 6221 54 2952; Fax: +49 6221 54 3592Alfred-Weber-Institute of EconomicsPollmann, MoniqueMoniquePollmannPotters, JanJanPottersTrautmann, Stefan T.Stefan T.TrautmannAlfred-Weber-Institute of EconomicsheiDATA: Heidelberg Research Data RepositoryUniversity of Heidelberg20112016-01-282017-04-05behavioral experiment; laboratorydoi:10.1016/j.econlet.2014.04.0041444812955357834192615440575application/octet-streamapplication/octet-streamtext/tab-separated-valuestext/x-stata-syntax; charset=US-ASCIIapplication/octet-streamtext/plain; charset=US-ASCII1.1We study the role of accountability in situations where an agent makes risky decisions for a principal. We observe that in the absence of accountability, agents choose less risk averse investments for the principal than investors who invest for their own account. Accountability mitigates the observed decrease in risk aversion. Differences are observed between situations where agents are accountable for their decision ("ex-ante") and where they are accountable for the outcome ("ex-post").Tilburg (Netherlands)