Trust and cooperation at a confluence of worlds: An experiment in Xinjiang, China

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Year: 2019
Volume: 161
Issue: C
Pages: 128-144

Authors (3)

Zhang, Zhe (not in RePEc) Zhang, Xu (not in RePEc) Putterman, Louis (Brown University)

Score contribution per author:

0.670 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

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

Abstract

We study trust and willingness to cooperate among and between Uyghur and Han college students in Xinjiang, China. In our incentivized laboratory-style decision-making experiment, within and between group interactions occur among identifiable participants without traceability of individual decisions and without explicitly referencing ethnicity. We find that members of each ethnicity show favoritism towards those of their own ethnicity in both trust and cooperation and that communication enhances inter-ethnic cooperation significantly. Other results include that Uyghur and Han subjects behave differently in their willingness to cooperate relative to willingness to trust, consistent with a conjecture about cultural persistence and centuries-old differences in lifeway.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:jeborg:v:161:y:2019:i:c:p:128-144
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-29