Social Exclusion and Social Preferences: Evidence from Colombia's Leper Colony

Diego Ramos-Toro

American Economic Review, 2023, vol. 113, issue 5, 1294-1333

Abstract: This paper explores the intergenerational consequences of social exclusion on prosociality. A lab-in-the-field approach in the historical region of Colombia's leper colony reveals that descendants of socially excluded individuals are locally altruistic and extend such altruism to outsiders who have undergone similar circumstances. These individuals also display mistrust toward those who have, historically, been exclusionary—in this case, doctors. The content of historical narratives shared by ancestors who were excluded, which emphasize the endured mistreatment and doctors' historical misinformation, is one mechanism that partially explains the intergenerational patterns.

JEL-codes: D64 H51 I12 I18 N36 N96 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20201332 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.3886/E183509V1 (text/html)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20201332.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20201332.ds (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

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:aea:aecrev:v:113:y:2023:i:5:p:1294-1333

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

DOI: 10.1257/aer.20201332

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo

More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().