Kinship, Incentives, and Evolution

S-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review
Year: 2010
Volume: 100
Issue: 4
Pages: 1725-58

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

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

Abstract

We analyze how family ties affect incentives, with focus on the strategic interaction between two mutually altruistic siblings. The siblings exert effort to produce output under uncertainty, and they may transfer output to each other. With equally altruistic siblings, their equilibrium effort is nonmonotonic in the common degree of altruism, and it depends on the harshness of the environment. We define a notion of local evolutionary stability of degrees of sibling altruism and show that this degree is lower than the kinship-relatedness factor. Numerical simulations show how family ties vary with the environment, and how this affects economic outcomes. (JEL D13, D64, J12, Z13)

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aecrev:v:100:y:2010:i:4:p:1725-58
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-24