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A survey of economic theories and field evidence on pro-social behavior

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  • Stephan Meier

Abstract

In recent years, a large number of economic theories have evolved to explain people?s pro-social behavior and the variation in their respective behavior. This paper surveys economic theories on pro-social behavior and presents evidence ? mainly from the field ? testing these theories. In addition, the survey emphasizes that institutional environment might significantly interact with pro-social preferences and explain some of the variation in observed pro-social behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephan Meier, 2006. "A survey of economic theories and field evidence on pro-social behavior," Working Papers 06-6, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedbwp:06-6
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Andreoni, James, 1990. "Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(401), pages 464-477, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Nicola Lacetera & Mario Macis & Robert Slonim, 2011. "Rewarding Altruism? A Natural Field Experiment," NBER Working Papers 17636, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Bengtsson, Niklas & Engström, Per, 2011. "Control and Efficiency in the Nonprofit Sector: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment," Working Paper Series, Center for Labor Studies 2011:6, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    3. Drevs, Florian & Gebele, Christoph & Tscheulin, Dieter K., 2014. "The patient perspective of clinical training—An empirical study about patient motives to participate," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 74-83.
    4. Elisabeth Gsottbauer & Jeroen Bergh, 2011. "Environmental Policy Theory Given Bounded Rationality and Other-regarding Preferences," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 49(2), pages 263-304, June.
    5. Götte, Lorenz & Huffman, David B. & Meier, Stephan & Sutter, Matthias, 2010. "Group Membership, Competition, and Altruistic versus Antisocial Punishment: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Army Groups," IZA Discussion Papers 5189, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. repec:ehl:lserod:33114 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Goette, Lorenz & Stutzer, Alois, 2020. "Blood donations and incentives: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 52-74.
    8. Dan Ariely & Anat Bracha & Stephan Meier, 2009. "Doing Good or Doing Well? Image Motivation and Monetary Incentives in Behaving Prosocially," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(1), pages 544-555, March.
    9. Jie, Yun, 2020. "Responding to requests for help: Effects of payoff schemes with small monetary units," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    10. Marcelo Arbex & Enlinson Mattos, 2020. "Tax Preferences and Optimal Income Taxation," Working Papers 2006, University of Windsor, Department of Economics.
    11. Iris Bohnet & Stephan Meier, 2005. "Deciding to distrust," Public Policy Discussion Paper 05-4, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    12. Aidin Hajikhameneh & Jared Rubin, 2019. "Exchange in the Absence of Legal Enforcement: Reputation and Multilateral Punishment under Uncertainty," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(1), pages 192-237.
    13. Lacetera, Nicola & Macis, Mario & Slonim, Robert, 2009. "Will There Be Blood? Incentives and Substitution Effects in Pro-social Behavior," IZA Discussion Papers 4567, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Bügelmayer, Elisabeth & Katharina Spiess, C., 2014. "Spite and cognitive skills in preschoolers," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 154-167.
    15. Holmås, Tor Helge & Kjerstad, Egil & Lurås, Hilde & Straume, Odd Rune, 2010. "Does monetary punishment crowd out pro-social motivation? A natural experiment on hospital length of stay," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 261-267, August.
    16. Stephan Meier, 2007. "Do Subsidies Increase Charitable Giving in the Long Run? Matching Donations in a Field Experiment," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 5(6), pages 1203-1222, December.
    17. Tor Helge Holmås & Egil Kjerstad & Hilde Lurås & Odd Rune Straume, 2008. "Does monetary punishment crowd out pro-social motivation? The case of hospital bed-blocking," NIPE Working Papers 17/2008, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    18. Yuki Sakura Kristi & Mohamad Fahmi & Martin Daniel Siyaranamual, 2016. "Pro-social Behavior of Bandung Schoolchildren:The Effects of Competition and Socioeconomic Status," Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS) 201604, Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University, revised Dec 2016.

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    Keywords

    Human behavior; Interpersonal relations;

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