Public discourse and socially responsible market behavior

Björn Bartling, Vanessa Valero, Roberto Weber and Lan Yao

No 359, ECON - Working Papers from Department of Economics - University of Zurich

Abstract: We investigate the causal impact of public discourse on socially responsible market behavior. Across three laboratory experiments, having market participants engage in public discourse generally increases market social responsibility. These positive impacts are robust to variation in several characteristics of the discourse. We provide evidence that discourse strengthens beliefs that others support socially responsible exchange. However, relaxing requirements to engage in discourse sharply reduces its effectiveness. Our findings suggest that campaigns encouraging discussion of appropriate market behavior can have sizable impacts on addressing inefficiencies due to market failures, but that policies encouraging broad public engagement may be important.

Keywords: Public discourse; market failure; externalities; social responsibility; experiment; communication (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C92 D62 D83 M14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-08, Revised 2024-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-env, nep-exp and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Public Discourse and Socially Responsible Market Behavior (2024)
Working Paper: Public discourse and socially responsible market behavior (2024)
Working Paper: Public Discourse and Socially Responsible Market Behavior (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zur:econwp:359

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