Selfish and Indoctrinated Economists?

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Selfish and Indoctrinated Economists?

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Bruno S. Frey
Stephan Meier

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Abstract

Many people believe that economists in general are more selfish than other people and that this greater selfishness is due to economics education. This paper offers empirical evidence against this widely held belief. Using a unique data set on giving behaviour in connection with two social funds at the University of Zurich, it is shown that economics education does not make people act more selfishly. Rather, this natural experiment suggests that the particular behaviour of economists can be explained by a selection effect.

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Paper provided by Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW in its series IEW - Working Papers with number iewwp103.

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Handle: RePEc:zur:iewwpx:103

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Article
- Bruno Frey & Stephan Meier, 2005. "Selfish and Indoctrinated Economists?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 165-171, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)

Find related papers by JEL classification:
A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
A20 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - General
H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

NEP-ALL-2004-02-10 (All new papers)
NEP-HPE-2002-02-15 (History & Philosophy of Economics)
NEP-PBE-2002-02-15 (Public Economics)
NEP-PKE-2002-02-15 (Post Keynesian Economics)

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

Laband, David N & Beil, Richard O, 1999. " Are Economists More Selfish Than Other 'Social' Scientists?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 100(1-2), pages 85-101, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Frank, Robert H & Gilovich, Thomas & Regan, Dennis T, 1993. "Does Studying Economics Inhibit Cooperation?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 159-71, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Yezer, Anthony M & Goldfarb, Robert S & Poppen, Paul J, 1996. "Does Studying Economics Discourage Cooperation? Watch What We Do, Not What We Say or How We Play," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 177-86, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Frank, Bjorn & Schulze, Gunther G., 2000. "Does economics make citizens corrupt?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 101-113, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Marwell, Gerald & Ames, Ruth E., 1981. "Economists free ride, does anyone else? : Experiments on the provision of public goods, IV," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 295-310, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Frank, Robert H & Gilovich, Thomas D & Regan, Dennis T, 1996. "Do Economists Make Bad Citizens?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 187-92, Winter. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Carter, John R & Irons, Michael D, 1991. "Are Economists Different, and If So, Why?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 171-77, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)

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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

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