Revealing the Economic Consequences of Group Cohesion

Simon Gaechter (), Chris Starmer () and Fabio Tufano
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Simon Gaechter: School of Economics, University of Nottingham
Chris Starmer: School of Economics, University of Nottingham
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Simon Gächter

No 2017-09, Discussion Papers from The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham

Abstract: We introduce the concept of 'group cohesion' to capture the economic consequences of ubiquitous social relationships in group production. We measure group cohesion, adapting the 'oneness scale' from psychology. A comprehensive program of new experiments reveals the considerable economic impact of cohesion: higher cohesion groups are significantly more likely to achieve Pareto-superior outcomes in classic weak-link coordination games. We show that effects of cohesion are economically large, robust, and portable. We identify social preferences as a primary mechanism explaining the effects of cohesion. Our results provide proof of concept for group cohesion as a productive new tool of economic research.

Date: 2017-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-exp, nep-soc and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Revealing the Economic Consequences of Group Cohesion (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:not:notcdx:2017-09

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