Prosociality in variants of the dictator game: Evidence from children in El Salvador

被引:2
|
作者
Bonan, Jacopo [1 ,2 ]
Burlacu, Sergiu [3 ]
Galliera, Arianna [4 ,5 ]
机构
[1] Politecn Milan, Milan, Italy
[2] European Inst Econ & Environm, RFF, CMCC, Milan, Italy
[3] FBK IRVAPP, Trento, Italy
[4] Cattolica Univ, Milan, Italy
[5] Cattolica Univ, Dept Econ & Finance, Via Necchi 5, I-20123 Milan, Italy
关键词
Dictator game; Choice-set; Cognitive skills; Inequality aversion; El Salvador; SOCIAL PREFERENCES; EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS; PERRY PRESCHOOL; FAIRNESS; BEHAVIOR; VIOLENCE; INTERVENTION; MOTIVATIONS; ALTRUISM; ABILITY;
D O I
10.1016/j.socec.2023.102084
中图分类号
F [经济];
学科分类号
02 ;
摘要
We study prosocial behavior among primary school students in El Salvador. In a within-subject lab-in-the-field experiment, we examine the relationship between individual traits, i.e., cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills and violence exposure, and how sensitive children are to the changes in the setting of the dictator game. We propose two different variants of the dictator game: allowing the option to take and starting off with relatively unequal initial endowments. We find that prosocial behavior positively correlates with cognitive skills, while no significant correlation with non-cognitive skills and violence exposure arises. Our results show that children are sensitive to the widening of the choice set, with a significant drop in the amount given when the take option becomes available. Children with lower cognitive skills mainly drive the effect. Lastly, we find that children show a stable willingness to redistribute the final resources despite initial disparities, which is unaffected by the level of cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, and violence exposure. We conclude that cognitive abilities are not only positively related to prosociality, but also to consistency in prosocial behavior across changes in the choice-set of the dictator game.
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页数:13
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