Competitive Work Environments and Social Preferences: Field Experimental Evidence from a Japanese Fishing Community

Jeffrey Carpenter and Erika Seki

No 1691, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Models of job tournaments and competitive workplaces more generally predict that while individual effort may increase as competition intensifies between workers, the incentive for workers to cooperate with each other diminishes. We report on a field experiment conducted with workers from a fishing community in Toyama Bay, Japan. Our participants are employed in three different aspects of fishing. The first group are fishermen, the second group are fish wholesalers (or traders), and the third group are staff at the local fishing coop. Although our participants have much in common (e.g., their common relationship to the local fishery and the fact that they all live in the same community), we argue that they are exposed to different amounts of competition on-the-job and that these differences explain differences in cooperation in our experiment. Specifically, fishermen and traders, who interact in more competitive environments are significantly less cooperative than the coop staff who face little competition on the job. Further, after accounting for the possibility of personality-based selection, perceptions of competition faced on-the-job and the treatment effect of job incentives explain these differences in cooperation to a large extent.

Keywords: fishing; cooperation; social disapproval; social preference; competition; Japan; field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 C93 H41 M54 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2005-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab, nep-sea and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Published - published in: B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy: Contributions to Economic Analysis and Policy, 2006, 5 (2), Article 2

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Working Paper: Competitive work environments and social preferences: Field experimental evidence from a japanese fishing community (2006)
Journal Article: Competitive Work Environments and Social Preferences: Field Experimental Evidence from a Japanese Fishing Community (2005)
Working Paper: Competitive Work Environments and Social Preferences: Field experimental evidence from a japanese fishing community (2005)
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