The Dynamics of Personal Norms and the Emergence of Cultural Diversity

Vicente Calabuig (), Gonzalo Olcina () and Fabrizio Panebianco
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Vicente Calabuig: ERICES, Universidad de Valencia

No 514, Discussion Papers in Economic Behaviour from University of Valencia, ERI-CES

Abstract: In this paper we study cultural diversity in values or personal norms concerning effort or work ethics, the related and observable diversity in behavior and its economic consequences. Our goal is to investigate the impact on this type of cultural diversity of primitive economic and behavioral parameters of the group such as the distribution of skills in the group population, the sharing rule on total income that determines income distribution and the levels of materialism, conformism and consistency in the group. Agents participate each period in a team production game by choosing their level of costly effort. We analyze the emergence and evolution of a culture in a group in which members are guided by economic incentives and also follow personal norms of behavior. We take materialism, skills and the income distribution rule as given, but personal norms evolve along the life-cycle of the individuals according to two psychological forces: cognitive dissonance or consistency and informational conformity. We characterize the long-run outcomes of the group and study how the levels of diversity, both in personal norms and in behavior and the level of incoherence between both variables are determined by the primitives of the model. We also analyze how these parameters affect group aggregate production and social welfare.

Keywords: Cultural Diversity; Personal Norms; Consistency; Conformity JEL (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C69 C72 D03 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-cul, nep-evo and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dbe:wpaper:0514

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