Policies for increasing prosocial behavior : evidence from three experimental studies.

Authors
Publication date
2013
Publication type
Thesis
Summary The essays in this thesis use empirical evidence to answer two questions that are of central importance given our growing understanding of the relationship between social preferences and economic growth and welfare at the country level: the basis for prosocial behavior and the impact of policies aimed at increasing it. Levels of prosocial behavior have often been taken as fixed, but these tests provide evidence that they are susceptible to change from policy interventions. Given that there are few interventions specifically focused on trust and cooperation, there may be considerable scope for improving well-being by increasing policy focus on this issue. This is what is demonstrated in these essays. Chapter 1 discusses the foundations of pro-social behavior using different frameworks in demands for a contribution to the public good, and shows that information about the social norm is the most powerful motivating factor. Chapter 2 provides empirical and theoretical results that pro-social behavior at the community level (by contributing to local public services) depends on the expected effectiveness of that behavior. Chapter 3 provides new results on the impact of trust at the individual level, and shows that a childhood training program that increased trust (as well as improved attention and reduced delinquency), triggered a chain of events to improve long-term outcomes in terms of education, crime, and economic performance.
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