Trust and Trustworthiness among Economics Majors

Utteeyo Dasgupta and Arjun Menon ()
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Arjun Menon: Franklin and Marshall College; NERA Economic Consulting

Economics Bulletin, 2011, vol. 31, issue 4, 2799-2815

Abstract: We use a simple trust-game to elicit trusting and trustworthy behavior among students majoring in economics and other disciplines. We also administer a Social Values Orientation (SVO) survey to evaluate any possible correlation between an individual's levels of trust indicated in the survey and his/her action in the game. Our results suggest that although students pursuing a major in economics appear to be no different than other students in choosing trusting actions, when it comes to being trustworthy, the former group always chooses the self payoff maximizing action rather than the trustworthy action. Scores from the SVO survey do not help in predicting trusting or trustworthy behavior in our experiment.

Keywords: Trust; Trustworthiness; Major of Study; Social Value Orientation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C9 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-10-05
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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