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Beware of Broken Windows!First Impressions in Public-good Experiment

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Author Info
Martin Beckenkamp
Christoph Engel () (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods)
Andreas Glöckner
Bernd Irlenbusch
Heike Hennig-Schmidt
Sebastian Kube
Michael Kurschilgen
Alexander Morell
Andreas Nicklisch
Hans-Theo Normann
Emanuel Towfigh

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Abstract

Broken Windows: the metaphor has changed New York and Los Angeles. Yet it is far from undisputed whether the broken windows policy was causal for reducing crime. In a series of lab experiments we show that first impressions are indeed causal for cooperativeness in three different institutional environments: absent targeted sanctions; with decentralised punishment; with decentralised punishment qualified by the risk of counterpunishment. In all environments, the effect of first impressions cannot be explained with, but adds to, participants’ initial level of benevolence. Mere impression management is not strong enough to stabilise cooperation though. It must be combined with some risk of sanctions.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in its series Working Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods with number 2009_21.

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Date of creation: Jul 2009
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Handle: RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2009_21

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Related research
Keywords: Broken Windows; Impression Management; Criminal Policy; Public Good Experiment;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Economics; Underlying Principles
D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
K14 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Criminal Law
K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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This page was last updated on 2009-11-6.


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