Social preferences can make imperfect sanctions work: Evidence from a public good experiment

Christoph Engel

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2014, vol. 108, issue C, 343-353

Abstract: Sanctions are often so weak that a money maximizing individual would not be deterred. In this paper I test the hypothesis that imperfect sanctions may nonetheless serve a forward looking purpose if sufficiently many individuals are averse against advantageous inequity. Using a linear public good with centralized punishment, I find that participants increase contributions even if severity had been insufficient to deter a profit-maximizing individual. The more an individual is averse against exploiting others, the less it matters whether punishment was deterrent.

Keywords: Imperfect sanctions; Punishment; Inequity aversion; Social value orientation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C33 C91 D03 H41 K13 K14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:108:y:2014:i:c:p:343-353

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2014.02.015

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