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Effort, inequality and cooperation: evidence from the lab

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  • Kjetil Bjorvatn

    (NHH, Norwegian School of Economics)

  • Nicola Daniele Coniglio

    (Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro")

Abstract

We investigate the impact of inequality on cooperation using a linear public good game and focusing on heterogeneity in the source of income, where some participants work for their endowment (“workers”) while others do not (“non-workers”). The key finding of our paper is that cooperation is higher when workers are grouped with other workers, and we provide evidence that the underlying mechanism for this result is a higher degree of altruism between workers. Our results thus lend support to the concerns that inequality may have detrimental effects on economic efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Kjetil Bjorvatn & Nicola Daniele Coniglio, 2018. "Effort, inequality and cooperation: evidence from the lab," SERIES 02-2018, Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza - Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro", revised Apr 2018.
    • Handle: RePEc:bai:series:series_wp_02-2018
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    public goods; inequality; source of income heterogeneity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights

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