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Institutions and Behavior: Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Democracy

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  • Pedro Dal Bó
  • Andrew Foster
  • Louis Putterman

Abstract

A novel experiment is used to show that the effect of a policy on the level of cooperation is greater when it is chosen democratically by the subjects than when it is exogenously imposed. In contrast to the previous literature, our experimental design allows us to control for selection effects (e.g. those who choose the policy may be affected differently by it). Our finding implies that democratic institutions may affect behavior directly in addition to having effects through the choice of policies. Our findings have implications for the generalizability of the results of randomized policy interventions.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 13999.

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Date of creation: May 2008
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13999

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Ernesto Dal Bó & Pedro Dal Bó & Jason Snyder, 2007. "Political Dynasties," NBER Working Papers 13122, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Kenju Kamei & Louis Putterman & Jean-Robert Tyran, 2011. "State or Nature? Formal vs. Informal Sanctioning in the Voluntary Provision of Public Goods," Working Papers 2011-3, Brown University, Department of Economics.
  3. Markussen, Thomas & Reuben, Ernesto & Tyran, Jean-Robert, 2012. "Competition, Cooperation, and Collective Choice," IZA Discussion Papers 6620, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  4. J. Atsu Amegashie & Bazoumana Ouattara, 2011. "An Empirical Inquiry into the Nature of Welfarism," CESifo Working Paper Series 3318, CESifo Group Munich.
  5. Erik O. Kimbrough & Jared Rubin & Roman M. Sheremeta & Timothy Shields, 2013. "Commitment Problems in Conflict Resolution," Working Papers 13-11, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.
  6. Mertins, Vanessa & Egbert, Henrik & Könen, Tanja, 2013. "The effects of individual judgments about selection procedures: Results from a power-to-resist game," The Journal of Socio-Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 112-120.
  7. Nese, Annamaria & Sbriglia, Patrizia, 2009. "Social norms in repeated public good games," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 266-281, December.
  8. Thomas Markussen & Louis Putterman & Jean-Robert Tyran, 2011. "Self-Organization for Collective Action: An Experimental Study of Voting on Formal, Informal, and No Sanction Regimes," Working Papers 2011-4, Brown University, Department of Economics.
  9. Noussair, C.N. & Tan, F., 2009. "Voting on Punishment Systems Within a Heterogeneous Group," Discussion Paper 2009-19, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
  10. Luca Corazzini & Sebastian Kube & Michel André Maréchal & Antonio Nicolò, 2009. "Elections and deceptions: an experimental study on the behavioral effects of democracy," IEW - Working Papers 421, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich, revised May 2012.
  11. Alexander W. Cappelen & Ulrik H. Nielsen & Erik Ø. Sørensen & Bertil Tungodden & Jean-Robert Tyran, 2012. "Give and Take in Dictator Games," Discussion Papers 12-05, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
  12. Annamaria Nese & Patrizia Sbriglia, 2009. "Individuals' Voting Choice and Cooperation in Repeated Social Dilemma Games," Labsi Experimental Economics Laboratory University of Siena 025, University of Siena.
  13. Mellizo, Philip & Carpenter, Jeffrey P. & Matthews, Peter Hans, 2011. "Workplace Democracy in the Lab," IZA Discussion Papers 5460, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  14. Rafael Di Tella & Ricardo Pérez-Truglia, 2010. "Conveniently Upset: Avoiding Altruism by Distorting Beliefs About Others," NBER Working Papers 16645, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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