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Inequality, envy and personality in public goods: An experimental study

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  • Bereket Kebede
  • Nicole Gross-Camp
  • Adrian Martin
  • Shawn McGuire
  • Joseph Munyarukaza

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of inequality on contributions to public goods focusing on the mediating role of personality using an inequality aversion model as a theoretical framework and experimental data from rural Rwanda. As predicted by the theoretical model, low-income players contribute less. We examine the predictive power of two personality approaches. The first is a person-centred approach using latent class analysis (LCA) to identify types of individuals with specific constellation of Big Five dimensions. The second focuses on individual dimensions of Big Five. While the person-centred approach has no explanatory power, one dimension of Big Five, Extraversion, is a significant and robust determinant; low-income players with higher Extraversion significantly reduce their contribution. Further exploratory analyses focusing on two dimensions of Big Five reveal that it does not provide any additional explanation compared to when each dimension is considered.

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  • Bereket Kebede & Nicole Gross-Camp & Adrian Martin & Shawn McGuire & Joseph Munyarukaza, 2018. "Inequality, envy and personality in public goods: An experimental study," CSAE Working Paper Series 2018-10, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    • Handle: RePEc:csa:wpaper:2018-10
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

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