Where do social preferences come from?

C-Tier
Journal: Economics Letters
Year: 2015
Volume: 137
Issue: C
Pages: 25-28

Authors (2)

Jang, Chaning (not in RePEc) Lynham, John (University of Hawaii-Manoa)

Score contribution per author:

0.503 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Where do preferences for fairness come from? We use a unique field setting to test for a spillover of sharing norms from the workplace to a laboratory experiment. Fishermen working in teams receive random income shocks (catching fish) that they must regularly divide among themselves. We demonstrate a clear correlation between sharing norms in the field and sharing norms in the lab. Furthermore, the spillover effect is stronger for fishermen who have been exposed to a sharing norm for longer, suggesting that our findings are not driven by selection effects. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that work environments shape social preferences.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:ecolet:v:137:y:2015:i:c:p:25-28
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25