Inequality, institutions, and cooperation

Thomas Markussen, Smriti Sharma, Saurabh Singhal and Finn Tarp

No wp-2020-127, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: We examine the effects of randomly introduced economic inequality on voluntary cooperation, and whether this relationship is influenced by the quality of local institutions, as proxied by corruption. We use representative data from a large-scale lab-in-the-field public goods experiment with over 1,300 participants across rural Vietnam. Our results show that inequality adversely affects aggregate contributions, and this is on account of high endowment individuals contributing a significantly smaller share than those with low endowments.

Keywords: Inequality; Institutions; Corruption; Public goods; Lab-in-field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-sea and nep-tra
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Inequality, institutions and cooperation (2021)
Working Paper: Inequality, Institutions and Cooperation (2020)
Working Paper: Inequality, institutions and cooperation (2020)
Working Paper: Inequality, institutions and cooperation (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2020-127

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