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Can't Touch This! Similarity And The Willingness to Keep "Dirty Money"

Author

Listed:
  • Sebastian J. Goerg

    (Department of Economics, Florida State University)

  • David B. Johnson

    (Department of Economics, University of Calgary)

  • Jonathan D. Rogers

    (New York University, Abu Dhabi)

Abstract

Traditionally, allocations by dictators in Dictator Games (gifts) have been explained by aspects of altruism, reciprocity, and fairness. However, this assumes the gift to be desirable to the dictators and responder. Giving may also be driven by the source of the endowment. We examine this by using three sources to generate the endowment in a Dictator Game:(1) undergraduate students, (2) Amazon Mechanical Turk workers, and (3) users of a racially/ethnically charged web forum. This endowment is provided to subjects in a traditional laboratory experiment. We find dictator similarity with the source of the endowment influences their allocation decision; the more similar subjects feel to the source the more of the endowment they keep. Our results suggest that decisions can be strongly influenced by the provider of income shocks.

Suggested Citation

  • Sebastian J. Goerg & David B. Johnson & Jonathan D. Rogers, 2014. "Can't Touch This! Similarity And The Willingness to Keep "Dirty Money"," Working Papers wp2014_03_01, Department of Economics, Florida State University.
    • Handle: RePEc:fsu:wpaper:wp2014_03_01
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Experiment; Inequality; Approval;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C78 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • C99 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Other
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions

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