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Political Economists are Neither Selfish nor Indoctrinated

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Author Info
Bruno S. Frey
Stephan Meier

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Abstract

Most professional economists believe that economist in general are more selfish than other persons and that this greater selfishness is due to economic education. In this paper we offer empirical evidence against this widely held belief. Using a unique data set about giving behaviour to two social funds at the University of Zurich, it is shown that economic training does not make people act more selfish. However, the 'natural experiment' supports the hypothesis that the different behaviour of economist can be explained by a selection effect.

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Paper provided by Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW in its series IEW - Working Papers with number iewwp069.

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Handle: RePEc:zur:iewwpx:069

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Related research
Keywords: Economists; Public Good; Giving Behaviour;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
A20 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - General
H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

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  1. Laband, David N & Beil, Richard O, 1999. " Are Economists More Selfish Than Other 'Social' Scientists?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 100(1-2), pages 85-101, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Iris Bohnet & Bruno S. Frey, 1999. "Social Distance and Other-Regarding Behavior in Dictator Games: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 335-339, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Frank, Robert H & Gilovich, Thomas & Regan, Dennis T, 1993. "Does Studying Economics Inhibit Cooperation?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 159-71, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Frank, Bjorn & Schulze, Gunther G., 2000. "Does economics make citizens corrupt?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 101-113, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Stephanie Seguino & Thomas Stevens & Mark Lutz, 1996. "Gender and cooperative behavior: economic man rides alone," Feminist Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 1-21, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Bram Cadsby, C. & Maynes, Elizabeth, 1998. "Gender and free riding in a threshold public goods game: Experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 603-620, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Stanley, T. D. & Tran, Ume, 1998. "Economics students need not be greedy: Fairness and the ultimatum game," The Journal of Socio-Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 657-663. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. David N. Laband & Richard O. Biel, 1999. "Are Economists More Selfish than Other `Social' Scientists?," Artefactual Field Experiments 0064, The Field Experiments Website. [Downloadable!]
  9. Eichenberger, Reiner & Oberholzer-Gee, Felix, 1998. " Rational Moralists: The Role of Fairness in Democratic Economic Politics," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 94(1-2), pages 191-210, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Frank, Robert H & Gilovich, Thomas D & Regan, Dennis T, 1996. "Do Economists Make Bad Citizens?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 187-92, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Hoffman, Elizabeth & McCabe, Kevin & Smith, Vernon L, 1996. "Social Distance and Other-Regarding Behavior in Dictator Games," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 653-60, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Blais, Andre & Young, Robert, 1999. " Why Do People Vote? An Experiment in Rationality," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 99(1-2), pages 39-55, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Andreoni, James, 2006. "Philanthropy," Handbook on the Economics of Giving, Reciprocity and Altruism, Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Selten, Reinhard & Ockenfels, Axel, 1998. "An experimental solidarity game," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 517-539, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Matsusaka, John G & Palda, Filip, 1999. " Voter Turnout: How Much Can We Explain?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 98(3-4), pages 431-46, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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