Does market interaction erode moral values?

Björn Bartling, Ernst Fehr and Yagiz Özdemir

No 360, ECON - Working Papers from Department of Economics - University of Zurich

Abstract: The widespread use of markets leads to unprecedented material well-being in many societies. We study whether market interaction, as a side effect, erodes moral values. In an influential paper, Falk and Szech (2013) provide experimental data that seem to suggest that “market interaction erodes moral values.” Although we replicate their main treatment effect, we show that additional treatments are necessary to corroborate their conclusion. These treatments reveal that playing repeatedly, and not market interaction, causes the erosion of moral values. Our paper thus shows that neither Falk and Szech’s data nor our data support the claim that markets erode morals.

Keywords: Market interaction; moral values (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D02 D62 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-08, Revised 2021-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-hpe and nep-neu
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Does Market Interaction Erode Moral Values? (2023)
Journal Article: Does Market Interaction Erode Moral Values? (2023)
Working Paper: Does Market Interaction Erode Moral Values? (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zur:econwp:360

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