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Not Guilty? Another Look at the Nature and Nurture of Economics Students

Author

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  • Haucap, Justus

    (Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg)

  • Just, Tobias

    (Deutsche Bank Research)

Abstract

In this paper, we examine students' attitudes towards various allocation mechanisms for a scarce resource. For this purpose, we have run a survey among officers of the German military who are enrolled in different courses of study (such as economics) at the University of the German Federal Armed Forces. We find that significantly more economics than noneconomics students judge price increases as fair. Moreover, this tendency strengthens as economics students advance in their studies. In addition, fewer advanced economics students judge allocation through the local community as fair when compared to first-year economists or other students. These results stand in contrast to results obtained by Frey, Pommerehne and Gygi (1993) on the same survey. In summary, we find evidence for both nature and nurture effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Haucap, Justus & Just, Tobias, 2003. "Not Guilty? Another Look at the Nature and Nurture of Economics Students," Working Paper 8/2003, Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:vhsuwp:2003_008
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    Cited by:

    1. Hamza Bennani, 2015. "Dissecting the brains of central bankers: The case of the ECB’s Governing Council members on reforms," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 141, pages 97-114.
    2. Haucap, Justus & Heimeshoff, Ulrich, 2014. "The happiness of economists: Estimating the causal effect of studying economics on subjective well-being," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 85-97.
    3. Maité Laméris & Pierre-Guillaume Méon & Anne-Marie Van Prooijen, 2019. "What have we done? The impact of choosing and studying different academic disciplines on beliefs and values," Working Papers CEB 19-007, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    4. Ruske René & Suttner Johannes, 2012. "Wie (un-)fair sind Ökonomen? – Neue empirische Evidenz zur Marktbewertung und Rationalität / How (un-)fair are economists? New empirical evidence on market valuation and rationality," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 63(1), pages 179-194, January.
    5. İbrahim Erdem SEÇİLMİŞ, 2014. "Seniority: A Blessing or A Curse? The Effect of Economics Training on the Perception of Distributive Justice," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society, issue 22(22).
    6. Kirchgassner, Gebhard, 2005. "(Why) are economists different?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 543-562, September.
    7. Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde & David Leiser & Rinat Benita, 2010. "Human Foibles or Systemic Failure -- Lay Perceptions of the 2008-09 Financial Crisis," Post-Print ijn_00445611, HAL.
    8. Amélie Goossens & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2010. "The impact of studying economics, and other disciplines, on the belief that voluntary exchange makes everyone better off," Working Papers CEB 10-012.RS, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    9. Kaiser, Tim & Oberrauch, Luis, 2021. "Economic education at the expense of indoctrination? Evidence from Germany," EconStor Preprints 245801, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    10. Amélie Goossens & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2015. "The Belief that Market Transactions Are Mutually Beneficial: A Comparison of the Views of Students in Economics and Other Disciplines," Post-Print CEB, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 46(2), pages 121-134, April.
    11. João Carlos Graça & João Carlos Lopes & Rita Gomes Correia, 2014. "Economics education: literacy or mind framing? Evidence from a survey on the social building of trust in Portugal," Working Papers Department of Economics 2014/20, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.
    12. Tim Rosengart & Bernhard Hirsch & Christian Nitzl, 2019. "The effects of legal versus business education on decision making in public administrations with a Weberian tradition," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 12(2), pages 455-478, December.
    13. Bauman, Yoram & Rose, Elaina, 2011. "Selection or indoctrination: Why do economics students donate less than the rest?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 79(3), pages 318-327, August.
    14. Fischer, Mira & Kauder, Björn & Potrafke, Niklas & Ursprung, Heinrich W., 2017. "Support for free-market policies and reforms: Does the field of study influence students' political attitudes?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 180-197.
    15. Tom Coupé, 2004. "What Do We Know about Ourselves? on the Economics of Economics," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(2), pages 197-215, May.
    16. Cipriani, Giam Pietro & Lubian, Diego & Zago, Angelo, 2009. "Natural born economists?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 455-468, June.
    17. Suttner, Johannes R., 2014. "Sensitivity of economists during market allocation," CIW Discussion Papers 3/2014, University of Münster, Center for Interdisciplinary Economics (CIW).
    18. Potrafke, Niklas & Fischer, Mira & Ursprung, Heinrich, 2013. "Does the Field of Study Influence Students' Political Attitudes?," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79934, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    19. Haucap, Justus & Müller, Andrea, 2014. "Why are economists so different? Nature, nurture, and gender effects in a simple trust game," DICE Discussion Papers 136, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    20. Silvia Blum & Till van Treeck, 2019. "Ordoliberalism: The Next Generation. What Do Prospective Social Science Teachers in Germany Think About the Euro Crisis?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 787-804, July.
    21. Ruske, René & Suttner, Johannes, 2012. "Wie (un-)fair sind Ökonomen? Neue empirische Evidenz zur Marktbewertung und Rationalität," CIW Discussion Papers 03/2012, University of Münster, Center for Interdisciplinary Economics (CIW).
    22. Nikola Erceg & Zvonimir Galic & Andreja Bubic, 2018. "The Psychology of Economic Attitudes - Moral Foundations Predict Economic Attitudes beyond Socio-Demographic Variables," Croatian Economic Survey, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb, vol. 20(1), pages 37-70, June.
    23. Adam T. Jones & Lester Hadsell & Robert T. Burrus, 2019. "Capitalist Views and Religion," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 45(3), pages 384-414, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economists; fairness; learning; selection; attitudes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • A20 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - General
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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