Cooperation in a fragmented society: Experimental evidence on Syrian refugees and natives in Lebanon

Michalis Drouvelis, Bilal Malaeb, Michael Vlassopoulos and Jackline Wahba

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2021, vol. 187, issue C, 176-191

Abstract: Lebanon is the country with the highest density of refugees in the world, raising the question of whether the host and refugee populations can cooperate harmoniously. We conduct a lab-in-the-field experiment in Lebanon studying intra- and inter-group behavior of Syrian refugees and Lebanese nationals in a repeated public goods game without and with punishment. We randomly assign participants to Lebanese-only, Syrian-only, or mixed sessions. We find that randomly formed pairs in homogeneous sessions, on average, contribute and punish significantly more than those in mixed sessions, suggesting in-group cooperation is stronger. These patterns are driven by Lebanese participants. Further analysis indicates that behavior in mixed groups is more strongly conditioned on expectations about the partner's cooperation than in homogeneous groups.

Keywords: Refugees; Public goods game; Cooperation; Punishment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 F22 J5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268121001797
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Cooperation in a Fragmented Society: Experimental Evidence on Syrian Refugees and Natives in Lebanon (2020)
Working Paper: Cooperation in a Fragmented Society: Experimental Evidence on Syrian Refugees and Natives in Lebanon (2019)
Working Paper: Cooperation in a Fragmented Society: Experimental Evidence on Syrian Refugees and Natives in Lebanon (2019)
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:eee:jeborg:v:187:y:2021:i:c:p:176-191

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2021.04.032

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization is currently edited by Houser, D. and Puzzello, D.

More articles in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().