You’ve earned it: estimating the impact of human capital on social preferences

Pamela Jakiela, Edward Miguel and Vera L te Velde

Department of Economics, Working Paper Series from Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley

Abstract: We combine data from a randomized evaluation and a laboratory experiment to measure the causal impact of human capital on respect for earned property rights, a component of social preferences with important implications for economic growth and development. We find that higher academic achievement reduces the willingness of young Kenyan women to appropriate others’ labor income, and shifts players toward a 50–50 split norm in a modified dictator game. This study demonstrates that education may have long-run impacts on social preferences, norms and institutions beyond the human capital directly produced.

Keywords: Economics; Applied Economics; Economic Theory; Behavioral and Social Science; Basic Behavioral and Social Science; Clinical Research; Social preferences; Education; Experiment; Marketing; Banking; finance and investment; Applied economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-09-01
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Journal Article: You’ve earned it: estimating the impact of human capital on social preferences (2015)
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