Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-wdhn8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-16T16:18:17.078Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

You’ve earned it: estimating the impact of human capital on social preferences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Pamela Jakiela ,
Edward Miguel  and
Vera L. te Velde
Pamela Jakiela*
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Edward Miguel*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
Vera L. te Velde*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
*
pjakiela@umd.edu
emiguel@econ.berkeley.edu
vtevelde@econ.berkeley.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We combine data from a randomized evaluation and a laboratory experiment to measure the causal impact of human capital on respect for earned property rights, a component of social preferences with important implications for economic growth and development. We find that higher academic achievement reduces the willingness of young Kenyan women to appropriate others’ labor income, and shifts players toward a 50–50 split norm in a modified dictator game. This study demonstrates that education may have long-run impacts on social preferences, norms and institutions beyond the human capital directly produced.

Keywords

Social preferencesEducationExperiment
Type
Original Paper
Information
Experimental Economics , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , September 2015 , pp. 385 - 407
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 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/s10683-014-9409-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

References

Almas, I, Cappelen, A, Sorensen, E, & Tungodden, B (2010). Fairness and the development of inequality acceptance. Science, 328(5982), 1176–1178. 10.1126/science.1187300CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, TW, & Rubin, H (1949). Estimation of the parameters of a single equation in a complete system of stochastic equations. The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 20(1), 46–63. 10.1214/aoms/1177730090CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andreoni, J, & Miller, J (2002). Giving according to GARP: An experimental test of the consistency of preferences for altruism. Econometrica, 70(2), 737–753. 10.1111/1468-0262.00302CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angrist, JD, & Pischke, J-S (2009). Mostly harmless econometrics, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.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(1), 544–555. 10.1257/aer.99.1.544CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armer, M, & Youtz, R (1971). Formal education and individual modernity in African society. American Journal of Sociology, 76(4), 604–626. 10.1086/224974CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bardsley, N (2008). Dictator game giving: Altruism or artefact?. Experimental Economics, 11(2), 122–133. 10.1007/s10683-007-9172-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barr, A., & Stein, M. (2008). Status and egalitarianism in traditional communities: An analysis of funeral attendance in six Zimbabwean villages, CSAE Working Paper 26.Google Scholar
Barr, A., Wallace, C., Ensminger, J., Henrich, J., Barrett, C., Bolyanatz, A., Cardenas, J. C., Gurven, M., Gwako, E., Lesorogol, C., Marlowe, F., McElreath, R., Tracer, D., & Ziker, J. (2009). Homo aequalis: A cross-society experimental analysis of three bargaining games, Discussion Paper Series 422. Department of Economics, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Barr, A., Mugisha, F., Serneels, P., & Zeitlin, A. (2012). Information and collective action in the community monitoring of schools: Field and lab experimental evidence from Uganda, working paper.Google Scholar
Barro, RJ (1996). Democracy and growth. Journal of Economic Growth, 1(1), 1–27. 10.1007/BF00163340CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barro, R. J. (2001). Education and economic growth. In Helliwell, J.F. (Ed.), The contribution of human and social capital to sustained economic growth and well-being. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Bekkers, R (2007). Measuring altruistic behavior in surveys: The all-or-nothing dictator game. Survey Research Methods, 1(3), 139–144.Google Scholar
Bernard, T, de Janvry, A, & Sadoulet, E (2010). When does community conservatism constrain village organizations?. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 58(4), 609–641. 10.1086/649643CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camerer, C (2003). Behavioral game theory, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cappelen, Alexander W, Hole, AD, Sorensen, EO, & Tungodden, B (2007). The pluralism of fairness ideals: An experimental approach. American Economic Review, 97(3), 818–827. 10.1257/aer.97.3.818CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charness, G, & Rabin, M (2002). Understanding social preferences with simple tests. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117(3), 817–869. 10.1162/003355302760193904CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cherry, TL (2001). Mental accounting and other-regarding behavior: Evidence from the lab. Journal of Economic Psychology, 22(5), 605–615. 10.1016/S0167-4870(01)00058-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cherry, TL, Frykblom, P, & Shogren, JF (2002). Hardnose the dictator. American Economic Review, 92(4), 1218–1221. 10.1257/00028280260344740CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deaton, A (1997). The analysis of household surveys: A microeconometric approach to development policy, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press 10.1596/0-8018-5254-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tella, D (2007). The formation of beliefs: Evidence from the allocation of land titles to squatters. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(1), 209–241. 10.1162/qjec.122.1.209CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duflo, E (2001). Schooling and labor market consequences of school construction in Indonesia: Evidence from an unusual policy experiment. American Economic Review, 91(4), 795–813. 10.1257/aer.91.4.795CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dufour, J-M (1997). Some impossibility theorems in econometrics with applications to structural and dynamic models. Econometrica, 65(6), 1365–1387. 10.2307/2171740CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easterlin, RA (1981). Why isn’t the whole world developed?. Journal of Economic History, 41(1), 1–19. 10.1017/S0022050700042674CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fahr, R, & Irlenbusch, B (2000). Fairness as a constraint on trust in reciprocity: Earned property rights in a reciprocal exchange experiment. Economics Letters, 66(3), 275–282. 10.1016/S0165-1765(99)00236-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falk, A, & Ichino, A (2006). Clean evidence on peer pressure. Journal of Labor Economics, 24(1), 39–57. 10.1086/497818CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fearon, JD, Humphreys, M, & Weinstein, JM (2009). Can development aid contribute to social cohesion after civil war? Evidence from a field experiment in post-conflict Liberia. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 99(2), 287–291. 10.1257/aer.99.2.287CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fehr, E, Bernhard, H, & Rockenbach, B (2008). Egalitarianism in young children. Nature, 454(7208), 1079–1083. 10.1038/nature07155CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fisman, Raymond., Jakiela, Pamela, and Kariv, Shachar. (2014). “How Did Distributional Preferences Change During the Great Recession?”, working paper.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisman, R, Kariv, S, & Markovits, D (2007). Individual preferences for giving. American Economic Review, 97(5), 1858–1876. 10.1257/aer.97.5.1858CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisman, Raymond., Kariv, Shachar, and Markovits, Daniel. (2009). “Exposure to Ideology and Distributional Preferences”, working paper.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forsythe, Robert, Horowitz, Joel, Savin, N. S., and Sefton, Martin. (1994). “Fairness in Simple Bargaining Games”. Games and Economic Behavior, 6(3), 347–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, JH (2006). Altruism and turnout. Journal of Politics, 68(3), 674–683. 10.1111/j.1468-2508.2006.00453.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, W., Kremer, M., Miguel, E., & Thornton, R. (2011). Economics as liberation? NBER Working Paper 16939.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gintis, H (2007). The evolution of private property. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 64(1), 1–16. 10.1016/j.jebo.2006.02.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaeser, EL, LaPorta, R, Lopes de Silanes, F, & Shleifer, A (2004). Do institutions cause growth?. Journal of Economic Growth, 9(3), 271–303. 10.1023/B:JOEG.0000038933.16398.edCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldin, C, & Katz, LF (2008). The race between education and technology, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Greig, Fiona. (2006). “Gender and the Social Costs of Asking: A Cost-Benefit Analysis”, working paper.Google Scholar
Grossman, SJ, & Hart, OD (1986). The costs and benefits of ownership: A theory of vertical and lateral integration. Journal of Political Economy, 94(4), 691–719. 10.1086/261404CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanushek, EA, & Kimko, DD (2000). Schooling, labor-force quality, and the growth of nations. American Economic Review, 90(5), 1184–1208. 10.1257/aer.90.5.1184CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henrich, J, Ensminger, J, McElreath, R, Barr, A, Barrett, C, Bolyanatz, A et al., (2010). Markets, religion, community size, and the evolution of fairness and punishment. Science, 327(5972), 1480–1484. 10.1126/science.1182238CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henrich, JP, Boyd, R, Bowles, S, Camerer, C, Ernst, F, & Gintis, H (2004). Foundations in human sociality: Economic experiments and ethnographic evidence from fifteen small-scale societies, New York: Oxford University Press 10.1093/0199262055.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henrich, PJ, Boyd, R, Bowles, S, Camerer, CF, Fehr, E, & McElreath, R (2001). In search of homo economicus: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies. American Economic Review, 91(2), 73–78. 10.1257/aer.91.2.73CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henrich, H, Steven, J, & Norenzayan, A (2010). The weirdest people in the world?. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2/3), 1–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoffman, E, McCabe, KA, Shachat, K, & Smith, VL (1994). Preferences, property rights, and anonymity in bargaining games. Games and Economic Behavior, 7(3), 346–380. 10.1006/game.1994.1056CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglehart, R, & Baker, WE (2000). Modernization, cultural change, and the persistence of traditional values. American Sociological Review, 65(1), 19–51. 10.2307/2657288CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inkeles, A (1969). Making men modern: On the causes and consequences of individual change in six developing countries. American Journal of Sociology, 75(2), 208–225. 10.1086/224767CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inkeles, A, & Smith, DH (1974). Becoming modern: Individual change in six developing countries, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 10.4159/harvard.9780674499348CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jakiela, P. (2009). “How Fair Shares Compare: Experimental Evidence from Two Cultures”, working paper.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D, Knetsch, J, & Thaler, R (1986). Fairness and the assumptions of economics. Journal of Business, 59(4), S285–S300. 10.1086/296367CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Konow, J (2000). Fair shares: Accountability and cognitive dissonance in allocation decisions. American Economic Review, 90(4), 1072–1091. 10.1257/aer.90.4.1072CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kremer, M, Miguel, E, & Thornton, R (2009). Incentives to learn. Review of Economics and Statistics, 91(3), 437–456. 10.1162/rest.91.3.437CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, DK (1998). Modeling altruism and spitefulness in experiments. Review of Economic Dynamics, 1(3), 593–622. 10.1006/redy.1998.0023CrossRefGoogle Scholar
List, JA (2007). On the interpretation of giving in dictator games. Journal of Political Economy, 115(3), 482–493. 10.1086/519249CrossRefGoogle Scholar
List, JA, & Cherry, TL (2008). Examining the role of fairness in high stakes allocation decisions. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 65(1), 1–8. 10.1016/j.jebo.2003.09.021CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locke, J. (1980[1690]). Second treatise of government. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.Google Scholar
Lucas, AM, & Mbiti, IM (2012). Access, sorting, and achievement: The short-run effects of free primary education in Kenya. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 4(4), 226–253.Google Scholar
Malmendier, U, & Nagel, S (2011). Depression babies: Do macroeconomic experiences affect risk-taking?. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126(1), 373–416. 10.1093/qje/qjq004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattes, R, & Bratton, M (2007). Learning about democracy in Africa: Awareness, performance, and experience. American Journal of Political Science, 51(1), 192–217. 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00245.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ozier, Owen. (2010). “The Impact of Secondary Schooling in Kenya: A Regression Discontinuity Analysis”, working paper.Google Scholar
Paluck, EL, & Green, DP (2009). Deference, dissent, and dispute resolution: An experimental intervention using mass media to change norms and behavior in Rwanda. American Political Science Review, 103(4), 622–644. 10.1017/S0003055409990128CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Platteau, J-P (2000). Institutions, social norms, and economic development, Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Ray, D Banerjee, AV, Bénabou, R, & Mookherjee, D (2006). Aspirations, poverty, and economic change. Understanding poverty, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Roth, AE, Prasnikar, V, Okuno-Fujiwara, M, & Zamir, S (1991). Bargaining and market behavior in Jerusalem, Ljubljana, Pittsburgh, and Tokyo: An experimental study. American Economic Review, 81(5), 1068–1095.Google Scholar
Ruffle, BJ (1998). More is better, but fair is fair: Tipping in dictator and ultimatum games. Games and Economic Behavior, 23(2), 247–265. 10.1006/game.1997.0630CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staiger, D, & Stock, JH (1997). Instrumental variables regression with weak instruments. Econometrica, 65(3), 557–586. 10.2307/2171753CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stock, J. H., & Yogo, M. (2002). Testing for weak instruments in linear IV regression, NBER Technical Working Paper 284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations Development Program. (1993). Human Development Report 1993.Google Scholar
United Nations Development Program. (2013). Human Development Report 2013.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Jakiela et al. supplementary material

Online Appendix
Download Jakiela et al. supplementary material(File)
File 118.1 KB