Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-sk4tg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-17T04:36:27.222Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Identity and social exclusion: an experiment with Hispanic immigrants in the U.S.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Natalia Candelo*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Queens College CUNY, 65-30 Kissena Boulevard, 11367 Queens, NY, USA
Rachel T. A. Croson*
Affiliation:
College of Business, UT Arlington, 701 S West Street, 76019 Arlington, TX, USA
Sherry Xin Li*
Affiliation:
School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, UT Dallas, 800 West Campbell Road, GR31, 75080 Richardson, TX, USA

Abstract

In this study we conduct a lab-in-the-field experiment with low-income Hispanics in three neighborhoods in a large city in the U.S. to investigate how identity and social exclusion influences individual contributions to fund local public goods. We find that while the strength of identity has a significant and positive impact on individual contributions to local public goods, the perception of social exclusion significantly decreases contributions. Our findings thus suggest factors that may impede full civic participation, and shed important light on potential policies to increase integration of immigrants and ethnic minorities into mainstream society.

Type
Original Paper
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 Economic Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-016-9492-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

References

Afridi, F, Li, SX, & Ren, Y (2015). Social identity and inequality: the impact of China’s Hukou System. Journal of Public Economics, 123, 1729. 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.12.011CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akerlof, GA, & Kranton, R (2000). Economics and identity. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115, 715753. 10.1162/003355300554881CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akerlof, GA, Kranton, R Basu, K, Nayak, PB, & Ray, R (2003). A model of poverty and oppositional culture. Markets and governments, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Alesina, A, Baqir, R, & Easterly, W (1999). Public goods and ethnic divisions. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(4), 12431284. 10.1162/003355399556269CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andreoni, J (1989). Giving with impure altruism: applications to charity and ricardian equivalence. Journal of Political Economy, 97, 14471458. 10.1086/261662CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andreoni, J (1990). Impure altruism and donations to public goods: a theory of warm-glow giving. Economic Journal, 100, 464477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ariely, D, Bracha, A, & Meier, S (2009). Doing good or doing well? Image motivation and monetary incentives in behaving prosocially. American Economic Review, 99, 544555. 10.1257/aer.99.1.544CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bénabou, R, & Tirole, J (2006). Incentives and prosocial behavior. American Economic Review, 96(5), 16521678. 10.1257/aer.96.5.1652CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benartzi, S, & Thaler, R (2001). Naive diversification strategies in defined contribution saving plans. American Economic Review, 91(1), 7998. 10.1257/aer.91.1.79CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benjamin, DJ, Choi, J, & Strickland, AJ (2010). Social identity and preferences. American Economics Review, 100(4), 19131928. 10.1257/aer.100.4.1913CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bernhard, H, Fehr, E, & Fischbacher, U (2008). Group affiliation and altruistic norm enforcement. American Economic Review, 96(2), 217221. 10.1257/000282806777212594CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Botelho, A, Harrison, G, Pinto, L, & Rutström, E (2009). Testing static game theory with dynamic experiments: a case study of public goods. Games and Economic Behavior, 67(1), 253265. 10.1016/j.geb.2008.11.013CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, MB (1991). The social self: on being the same and different at the same time. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 475482. 10.1177/0146167291175001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byrne, D (2005). Social exclusion, New York: McGraw-Hill Education.Google Scholar
Calonico, S, Candelo, N, Cardenas, JC, Chong, A, Nopo, H, Polania, S, & Marquez, G (2007). To what extent do Latin Americans trust and cooperate? Field experiments on social exclusion in six Latin American countries. Outsiders? The changing patterns of exclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean. Economic and social progress in Latin America, 2008 Report, Washington DC: IADB and DRCLAS Harvard.Google Scholar
Charness, G, Gneezy, U, & Kuhn, M (2013). Experimental methods: extra-laboratory experiments-extending the reach of experimental economics. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 91, 93100. 10.1016/j.jebo.2013.04.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charness, G, Rigotti, L, & Rustichini, A (2007). Individual behavior and group membership. The American Economic Review, 97(4), 13401352. 10.1257/aer.97.4.1340CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaudhuri, A (2011). Sustaining cooperation in laboratory public goods experiments: a selective survey of the literature. Experimental Economics, 14(1), 4783. 10.1007/s10683-010-9257-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, R, & Chen, Y (2011). The potential of social identity for equilibrium selection. American Economic Review, 101(6), 25622589. 10.1257/aer.101.6.2562CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Y, & Li, SX (2009). Group identity and social preference. American Economic Review, 99(1), 431457. 10.1257/aer.99.1.431CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Oliveira, ACM, Croson, R, & Eckel, C (2011). The giving type: identifying donors. Journal of Public Economics, 95(5–6), 428435. 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.11.012CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Oliveira, ACM, Eckel, C, & Croson, R (2012). The stability of social preferences in a low-income neighborhood. Southern Economic Journal, 79(1), 1545. 10.4284/0038-4038-79.1.15CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DellaVigna, S, List, J, & Malmendier, U (2012). Testing for altruism and social pressure in charitable giving. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 127(1), 159. 10.1093/qje/qjr050CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eckel, C, & Grossman, P (2005). Managing diversity by creating team identity. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 58(3), 371392. 10.1016/j.jebo.2004.01.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eckel, C, & Grossman, P (2008). Forecasting risk attitudes: an experimental study using actual and forecast gamble choices. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 68, 117. 10.1016/j.jebo.2008.04.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischbacher, U, & Gächter, S (2010). Social preferences, beliefs, and the dynamics of free riding in public goods experiments. American Economic Review, 100(1), 541556. 10.1257/aer.100.1.541CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frey, B, & Meier, S (2004). Social comparisons and pro-social behavior: testing conditional cooperation in a field experiment. American Economic Review, 94(5), 17171722. 10.1257/0002828043052187CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goette, L, Huffman, D, & Meier, S (2006). The impact of group membership on cooperation and norm enforcement: evidence using random assignment to real social groups. American Economic Review, 96(2), 212216. 10.1257/000282806777211658CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habyarimana, J, Humphreys, M, Posner, D, & Weinstein, J (2007). Why does ethnic diversity undermine public goods provision?. American Political Science Review, 101, 709725. 10.1017/S0003055407070499CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, C, Starkey, H, & Green, A (2010). The politics of ESOL (English for speakers of other languages): implications for citizenship and social justice. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 29(1), 6376. 10.1080/02601370903471304CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrington, D (2008). Confirmatory factor analysis, New York: Oxford University Press 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195339888.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoff, K, & Pandey, P (2006). Discrimination, social identity, and durable inequalities. American Economic Review, 96(2), 206211. 10.1257/000282806777212611CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karlan, D, & List, J (2007). Does price matter in charitable giving? Evidence from a large-scale field experiment. American Economic Review, 97(5), 17741793. 10.1257/aer.97.5.1774CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ledyard, J Kagel, J, & Roth, A (1995). Public goods experiments. Handbook of experimental economics, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Leonard, T, Croson, R, & de Oliveira, A (2010). Social capital and public goods. Journal of Socio-Economics, 39(4), 474481. 10.1016/j.socec.2010.02.009Google Scholar
Li, S. X., de Oliveira, A. & Eckel, C. (2015). Common identity and provision of public goods: an experimental investigation. Richardson: UT Dallas working paper.Google Scholar
List, JA, & Lucking-Reiley, D (2002). The effects of seed money and refunds on charitable giving: experimental evidence from a university capital campaign. Journal of Political Economy, 110(1), 215233. 10.1086/324392CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massey, D., & Sánchez, M. (2009). Restrictive immigration policies and latino immigrant identity in the United States. Human Development Research Paper 43.Google Scholar
Milani, T (2008). Language testing and citizenship: a language ideological debate in Sweden. Language in Society, 37, 2759. 10.1017/S0047404508080020CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morton, RB, & Williams, K (2010). Experimental political science and the study of causality: from nature to the lab, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 10.1017/CBO9780511762888CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostrom, E (2000). Collective action and the evolution of social norms. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(3), 137158. 10.1257/jep.14.3.137CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phinney, J (1992). The multigroup ethnic identity measure: a new scale for use with adolescents and young adults from diverse groups. Journal of Adolescent Research, 7, 156176. 10.1177/074355489272003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, R (2000). Language policy & identity in The U.S., Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Scotchmer, S (2010). Openness, open source, and the veil of ignorance. American Economic Review, 100(2), 165171. 10.1257/aer.100.2.165CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shang, J, & Croson, R (2009). A field experiment in charitable contribution: the impact of social information on the voluntary provision of public goods. The Economic Journal, 119(540), 14221439. 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2009.02267.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stewart, F, Barron, M, Brown, G, & Hartwell, M (2006). Social exclusion and conflict: analysis and policy implications, Oxford: CRISE Policy Paper, Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University.Google Scholar
Tajfel, H, Billig, M, Bundy, R, & Flament, C (1971). Social categorization and intergroup behaviour. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1(2), 149178. 10.1002/ejsp.2420010202CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, H, Turner, J Worchel, Stephen, & Austin, William (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. The social psychology of intergroup relations, Monterey: Brooks/Cole.Google Scholar
Tajfel, H, Turner, J Worchel, S, & Austin, W (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. The social psychology of intergroup relations, Chicago: Nelson-Hall.Google Scholar
Census, U.S. (2010). U.S. American fact finder. U.S. Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov.Google Scholar
Wooldridge, J (2002). Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data, Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Candelo et al. supplementary material

Candelo et. al. supplementary material
Download Candelo et al. supplementary material(File)
File 461.5 KB