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Esteem and social information: On determinants of prosocial behavior of clinicians in Tanzania

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  • Brock, J. Michelle
  • Lange, Andreas
  • Leonard, Kenneth L.

Abstract

We report experimental findings on the role of social information and esteem for prosocial behavior of clinicians in Tanzania. For this we conduct a lab experiment on variants of a dictator game, which allows us to classify types of clinicians by their responses to being chosen by their partner and to knowing more about the person they are paired with. We link this lab data to the effort exerted by the same sample of clinicians to their patients in the field. We show that clinicians who are responsive both to information and to being chosen in the lab exert more average effort in the field. Responsiveness to being chosen is also correlated with a smaller variance of effort in the field, while variance is larger for clinicians who respond to social information. Our combination of lab and field results suggests that behavioral traits identified in the lab are informative of clinician’ choices in their actual workplace.

Suggested Citation

  • Brock, J. Michelle & Lange, Andreas & Leonard, Kenneth L., 2015. "Esteem and social information: On determinants of prosocial behavior of clinicians in Tanzania," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 85-94.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:118:y:2015:i:c:p:85-94
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2015.03.013
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    2. Isaac Mbiti & Danila Serra, 2022. "Health workers’ behavior, patient reporting and reputational concerns: lab-in-the-field experimental evidence from Kenya," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 25(2), pages 514-556, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social preferences; Social distance; Laboratory experiments; Tanzania; Intrinsic incentives; Health care quality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O2 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy

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