IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-01163937.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Evolution of "Kantian Trait": Inferring from the Dictator Game

Author

Listed:
  • Lorenzo Cerda Planas

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is twofold. Starting from the population dynamics literature, which usually finds the resulting distribution of a trait in a population, according to some parents' preferences, I answer the inverted question: Which preference function would yield into a given trait distribution? I solve this using a continuous trait, instead of finite types of agents. Using this result, I connect this transmission theory of social traits with the well-known results of Dictator Game (DG) experiments. I use a specific definition of a Kantian trait applied to DG results, and determine the distribution of this trait that is commonly found in these experiments. With these two ingredients, I show that homo-œconomicus parents have a greater' dislike' or disutility of having offspring with different traits from them compared to their Kantian counterparts. This could be a result of myopic empathy being stronger in homo-œconomicus parents, driving this dislike of difference.

Suggested Citation

  • Lorenzo Cerda Planas, 2015. "The Evolution of "Kantian Trait": Inferring from the Dictator Game," Post-Print halshs-01163937, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01163937
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01163937
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01163937/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Julie Novakova & Jaroslav Flegr, 2013. "How Much Is Our Fairness Worth? The Effect of Raising Stakes on Offers by Proposers and Minimum Acceptable Offers in Dictator and Ultimatum Games," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(4), pages 1-9, April.
    2. Daniel Friedman, 1998. "On economic applications of evolutionary game theory," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 15-43.
    3. Sáez-Martı´, Maria & Zenou, Yves, 2012. "Cultural transmission and discrimination," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 137-146.
    4. Bisin, Alberto & Verdier, Thierry, 2000. "A model of cultural transmission, voting and political ideology," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 5-29, March.
    5. Christoph Engel, 2011. "Dictator games: a meta study," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 14(4), pages 583-610, November.
    6. Hauk, Esther & Saez-Marti, Maria, 2002. "On the Cultural Transmission of Corruption," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 311-335, December.
    7. Bisin, Alberto & Verdier, Thierry, 2001. "The Economics of Cultural Transmission and the Dynamics of Preferences," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 298-319, April.
    8. Maria Sáez-Marti & Yves Zenou, 2007. "Cultural transmission and discrimination," IEW - Working Papers 348, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich, revised Apr 2012.
    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. Lorenzo Cerda Planas, 2015. "The Evolution of a "Kantian Trait": Inferring from the Dictator Game," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 15032, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    2. Lorenzo Cerda Planas, 2015. "The Evolution of "Kantian Trait": Inferring from the Dictator Game," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01163937, HAL.
    3. Maystre, Nicolas & Olivier, Jacques & Thoenig, Mathias & Verdier, Thierry, 2014. "Product-based cultural change: Is the village global?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 212-230.
    4. Bethencourt, Carlos & Kunze, Lars, 2014. "On the intergenerational nature of criminal behavior," MPRA Paper 58344, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Forquesato, Pedro, 2016. "Social norms of work ethic and incentives in organizations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 231-250.
    6. Ingela Alger & Jörgen W. Weibull, 2013. "Homo Moralis—Preference Evolution Under Incomplete Information and Assortative Matching," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 81(6), pages 2269-2302, November.
    7. Bezin, Emeline & Moizeau, Fabien, 2017. "Cultural dynamics, social mobility and urban segregation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 173-187.
    8. Liwen Chen & Bobby Chung & Guanghua Wang, 2022. "Stay-at-Home Peer Mothers and Gender Norms: Short-run Effects on Educational Outcomes," Working Papers 2022-039, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    9. Bethencourt, Carlos & Kunze, Lars, 2022. "The economics of crime and socialization: The role of the family," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 579-597.
    10. Guido Tabellini, 2008. "The Scope of Cooperation: Values and Incentives," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(3), pages 905-950.
    11. Bervoets, Sebastian & Zenou, Yves, 2017. "Intergenerational correlation and social interactions in education," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 13-30.
    12. Doepke, Matthias & Zilibotti, Fabrizio, 2014. "Culture, Entrepreneurship, and Growth," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1-48, Elsevier.
    13. Zenou, Yves, 2013. "Spatial versus social mismatch," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 113-132.
    14. Eleonora Patacchini & Yves Zenou, 2016. "Social networks and parental behavior in the intergenerational transmission of religion," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 7(3), pages 969-995, November.
    15. Spiro, Daniel, 2020. "Multigenerational transmission of culture," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    16. Patacchini, Eleonora & Zenou, Yves, 2004. "Intergenerational Education Transmission: Neighborhood Quality and/or Parents' Involvement?," Working Paper Series 631, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    17. Jean-Baptiste Michau, 2013. "Unemployment Insurance And Cultural Transmission: Theory And Application To European Unemployment," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11(6), pages 1320-1347, December.
    18. Ennio Bilancini & Leonardo Boncinelli & Jiabin Wu, 2016. "The Interplay of Cultural Aversion and Assortativity for the Emergence of Cooperation," Center for Economic Research (RECent) 121, University of Modena and Reggio E., Dept. of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    19. Alberto Bisin & Thierry Verdier, 2010. "The Economics of Cultural Transmission and Socialization," Post-Print halshs-00754788, HAL.
    20. Pichler, Michael, 2011. "Culture formation and endogenous cultural distance," Center for Mathematical Economics Working Papers 403, Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    population dynamics; Kantian morale; evolutionary equilibrium;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:hal:journl:halshs-01163937. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.