IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v115y2025i1p43-76.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Universalism: Global Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Alexander W. Cappelen
  • Benjamin Enke
  • Bertil Tungodden

Abstract

This paper leverages nationally representative surveys across 60 countries and 64,000 respondents to present novel stylized facts about the relationship-specific nature of altruism. Across individuals, universalist preferences systematically vary with demographics such as age and religiosity and are predictive of many left-wing political views, albeit in culturally highly heterogeneous ways. Across countries, universalism is strongly linked to a broader radius of trust. Looking at origins, universalism varies with the economic, political, and religious organization of societies in ways that are consistent with the idea that the scope of altruism is partly shaped by economic incentives and democracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander W. Cappelen & Benjamin Enke & Bertil Tungodden, 2025. "Universalism: Global Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 115(1), pages 43-76, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:115:y:2025:i:1:p:43-76
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20230038
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20230038
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E205581V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20230038.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20230038.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/aer.20230038?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angelo Romano & Matthias Sutter & James H. Liu & Toshio Yamagishi & Daniel Balliet, 2021. "National parochialism is ubiquitous across 42 nations around the world," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. World Bank, 2016. "World Development Indicators 2016," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 23969.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tellioglu, Isin & Konandreas, Panos, 2017. "Agricultural Policies, Trade and Sustainable Development in Egypt," National Policies, Trade and Sustainable Development 320158, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD).
    2. Spiteri, Jonathan & von Brockdorff, Philip, 2019. "Economic development and health outcomes: Evidence from cardiovascular disease mortality in Europe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 37-44.
    3. Cheick Haïballa Kounta & Luis Sagaon-Teyssier & Pierre-Julien Coulaud & Marion Mora & Gwenaelle Maradan & Michel Bourrelly & Abdoul Aziz Keita & Stéphane-Alain Babo Yoro & Camille Anoma & Christian Co, 2019. "Transactional sex among men who have sex with men participating in the CohMSM prospective cohort study in West Africa," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(11), pages 1-18, November.
    4. Sunder Ramaswamy & Abishek Choutagunta & Santhosh K. Sahu, 2016. "Evaluating Asian FTAs: What do Gravity Equation Models Tell Us?," Working Papers id:11377, eSocialSciences.
    5. Jan Fagerberg & Bengt-Åke Lundvall & Martin Srholec, 2018. "Global Value Chains, National Innovation Systems and Economic Development," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(3), pages 533-556, July.
    6. Jarosz-Angowska, Aneta & Kąkol, Magdalena, 2016. "Comparative Analysis of Support to Agriculture in the QUAD Countries in 1986-2014," Problems of World Agriculture / Problemy Rolnictwa Światowego, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, vol. 16(31), pages 1-15, December.
    7. Bahta, S. & Temoso, O. & Mekonnen, D. & Malope, P. & Staal, S., 2018. "Technical efficiency of beef production in agricultural districts of Botswana: A Latent Class Stochastic Frontier Model Approach," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277207, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    8. Keller, Wolfgang & Utar, Hale, 2023. "International trade and job polarization: Evidence at the worker level," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    9. Deakin, Simon & Sarkar, Prabirjit & Siems, Mathias, 2018. "Is There a Relationship Between Shareholder Protection and Stock Market Development?," Journal of Law, Finance, and Accounting, now publishers, vol. 3(1), pages 115-146, May.
    10. Joglekar, Alison B. & Pardey, Philip G., 2016. "Proximity to African Agricultural Markets, Down to the Last Kilometer," Briefs 253951, HarvestChoice.
    11. Yusnidah Ibrahim & Jimoh Olajide Raji, 2018. "Cross-border merger and acquisition activities in Asia: the role of macroeconomic factors," Studies in Economics and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(2), pages 307-329, May.
    12. Burhan, Nik Ahmad Sufian & Che Razak, Razli & Salleh, Fauzilah & Labastida Tovar, María Elena, 2017. "The higher intelligence of the ‘creative minority’ provides the infrastructure for entrepreneurial innovation," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 93-106.
    13. Julia Bredtmann & Fernanda Martínez Flores & Sebastian Otten, 2019. "Remittances and the Brain Drain: Evidence from Microdata for Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(7), pages 1455-1476, July.
    14. Le, Thai-Ha & Chang, Youngho & Park, Donghyun, 2016. "Governance, Vulnerability to Climate Change, and Green Growth: International Evidence," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 500, Asian Development Bank.
    15. Gang, Ira N. & Schmillen, Achim, 2017. "Sometimes, winners lose: Economic disparity and indigenization in Kazakhstan," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 605-621.
    16. Chrysovalantis Amountzias, 2018. "The Effects of Competition, Liquidity and Exports on Markups: Evidence from the UK Food and Beverages Sector," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 187-208, June.
    17. Docquier, Frédéric & Iftikhar, Zainab, 2019. "Brain drain, informality and inequality: A search-and-matching model for sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 109-125.
    18. Almeida, Alexandre N. & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E., 2019. "Agricultural productivity, shadow wages and off-farm labor decisions in Nicaragua," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 99-110.
    19. Bruno Lanz & Simon Dietz & Tim Swanson, 2018. "Global Economic Growth and Agricultural Land Conversion under Uncertain Productivity Improvements in Agriculture," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 100(2), pages 545-569.
    20. Rostam J. Neuwirth, 2017. "Global Law and Sustainable Development: Change and the “Developing–Developed Country” Terminology," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(4), pages 911-925, August.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:115:y:2025:i:1:p:43-76. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.