The Behavioural Mechanisms of Voluntary Cooperation in WEIRD and Non-WEIRD Societies

Till Weber (), Benjamin Beranek, Simon Gaechter (), Fatima Lambarraa-Lehnhardt () and Jonathan Schulz ()
Additional contact information
Till Weber: University of Newcastle
Simon Gaechter: University of Nottingham
Fatima Lambarraa-Lehnhardt: IZA, CESifo, ZALF, University of Goettingen
Jonathan Schulz: George Mason University
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Fatima Lambarraa Lehnhardt and Simon Gächter

No 2021-03, Discussion Papers from The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham

Abstract: We provide a framework to uncover behavioural mechanisms driving potential cross-societal differences in voluntary cooperation. We deploy our framework in one-shot public goods experiments in the US and the UK, and in Morocco and Turkey. We find that cooperation is higher in the US and UK than in Morocco and Turkey. Our framework shows that this result is driven mostly by differences in beliefs rather than in cooperative preferences, or peer punishment, which are both similar in the four subject pools. Our results highlight the central role of beliefs in explaining differences in voluntary cooperation within and across societies.

Keywords: voluntary cooperation; experiments; public goods; cross-societal differences; behavioural framework (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara, nep-evo, nep-exp, nep-hme and nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:not:notcdx:2021-03

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