Cooperation, Fairness, and Rational Altruism in the Making of the Modern Living Standards. The Case of Maresme (1853-2022)

Jose Luis Martínez-González
Additional contact information
Jose Luis Martínez-González: Universitat de Barcelona – Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

No 2304, Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) from Asociación Española de Historia Económica

Abstract: Can attitudes and beliefs within each community, as well as their social capital, explain some of the differences in their development? Conducting a macro study in the Maresme region using data from the Contribution Territorial, which includes 5,412 agricultural farms, 2,537 owners, and 13 municipalities (1853-1864), we find levels of rational altruism approaching 50%, confirming recent evidence from experimental economics studies. A particularly interesting finding is the correlation between the most altruistic municipalities 160 years ago and those today with higher levels of human capital and per capita family income, as well as the influence of certain study variables on the prosocial behavior of local oligarchies. This result suggests that the attitudes, beliefs, values, and informal rural rules of the past are factors that complement the quality of national institutions today. Economic history not only helps to explain the origins and different trajectories of local economic development, but, more importantly, informs us that investing in regional policies that promote community spirit is a worthwhile endeavor for the future.

Keywords: Altruism; peasant communities; human capital; informal institutions; development; social change; collective action (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B52 D03 D64 N33 O43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2023-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-evo, nep-his, nep-hme, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://media.timtul.com/media/web_aehe/DT2304_20240108092750.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:2304

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) from Asociación Española de Historia Económica Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Andreu Seguí Beltrán ().