Motivations behind prosocial behavior: Evidence from the Philippines

Yusuke Kuroishi and Yasuyuki Sawada

Journal of Asian Economics, 2019, vol. 64, issue C, -

Abstract: What are the motivations behind seemingly prosocial behavior? Does altruism play a key role especially after a disaster? We address these questions by combining two datasets from a Philippine village affected by strong floods in 2012: Satellite-based natural experimental data on damage caused by a natural hazard; and lab-in-the-field experimental data collected by incentivized dictator games. Lab experiments were conducted twice in 2014 and 2018, enabling us to explore temporal as well as medium-term impacts of a disaster. We build a simple theory that allows us to interpret empirical findings using data from a dictator game. Three main findings emerge from our analysis. First, on average, senders in our dictator game transfer more money to a person affected by disaster losses than do those who face no loss. This finding empirically supports the model of pure altruism, especially in the aftermath of a disaster. However, this pattern decays over time, reflecting erosion of altruism in non-disaster environments. Second, the results on own damages are consistent with the theoretical prediction of pure altruism as well as warm-glow giving. Comparisons of the results using data from two waves in 2014 and 2018, show overall erosion of altruism and warm-glow. Finally, as a byproduct, our estimation result is consistent with the prior literature, specifically the zero prudence coefficient or the negligible third derivative (NTD) in utility function under the additive separability assumption.

Keywords: Disaster; Altruism; Warm glow; Dictator game; Natural experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D81 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:asieco:v:64:y:2019:i:c:3

DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2019.06.003

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