Fear or Greed? Duty or Solidarity? Motivations and Stages of Moral Reasoning: Experimental Evidences from Public-Goods Provision Dilemmas

Leandro Fredrico Ferraz Meyer and Marcelo Braga

No 53249, Working Papers in Applied Economics from Universidade Federal de Vicosa, Departamento de Economia Rural

Abstract: As economists increasingly recognize the limits of the canonical self-interest assumption, the lack of a theory of human valuation that clearly specifies what determines an individual’s utility judgments renders the prediction of behavior in social dilemmas virtually impossible. In this study, we examined the explanatory power of a structuralist-constructivist theory of adult development and this theory’s analytical significance to the understanding of behavioral diversity in situations where individual and collective interests collide. Experimental results suggest that the theoretical constructs built into the selected theory provide a reliable basis for predicting participants’ behavior when presented with two different collective-action dilemmas under diverse institutional conditions.

Keywords: Institutional; and; Behavioral; Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25
Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:ufvdwp:53249

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.53249

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