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Confucianism and Preferences: Evidence from Lab Experiments in Taiwan and China

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • Elaine Liu

    ()

    (University of Houston)

  • Juanjuan Meng

    ()

    (Peking University Guanghua School of Management)

  • Joseph Wang

    ()

    (National Taiwan University)

Abstract

This paper investigates how Confucianism affects individual decision making in Taiwan and in China and whether the Cultural Revolution in China, which denounced Confucian teaching, has had a long-lasting impact. We found that Chinese subjects in our experiments became less accepting of Confucian values, such that they became more risk loving, less loss averse, and more impatient after being primed with Confucianism, whereas Taiwanese subjects became more trustworthy and more patient after being primed by Confucianism. Combining the evidence from the incentivized laboratory experiments and subjective survey measures, we found evidence that Chinese subjects and Taiwanese subjects reacted differently to Confucianism.

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File URL: http://www.uh.edu/econpapers/RePEc/hou/wpaper/2013-199-49.pdf
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Paper provided by Department of Economics, University of Houston in its series Working Papers with number 2013-199-49.

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Date of creation: 18 Jul 2013
Handle: RePEc:hou:wpaper:2013-199-49
Contact details of provider: Postal:
Houston TX 77023

Web page: http://www.uh.edu/class/economics/

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Keywords: social norm; Confucianism; time preferences; risk aversion; trust;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
  • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General

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Cited by:

  1. James Andreoni & Charles Sprenger, 2015. "Risk Preferences Are Not Time Preferences: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(7), pages 2287-2293, July.
  2. Booth, Alison L. & Fan, Elliott & Meng, Xin & Zhang, Dandan, 2016. "Gender Differences in Willingness to Compete: The Role of Culture and Institutions," IZA Discussion Papers 10364, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  3. Lin, Wanchuan & Liu, Yiming & Meng, Juanjuan, 2014. "The crowding-out effect of formal insurance on informal risk sharing: An experimental study," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 184-211.

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