IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/kch/wpaper/sdes-2016-10.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Intergenerational sustainability and the degree of capitalism in the society: A field experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Shibly Shahrier

    (Kochi University of Technology)

  • Koji Kotani

    (School of Economics and Management, Kochi University of Technology)

  • Tatsuyoshi Saijo

    (School of Economics and Management, Kochi University of Technology)

Abstract

Maintaining intergenerational sustainability is a minimum requirement for the existence of humankind, but it is now becoming one of the biggest challenges. Thus, it is necessary to understand what factors determine human preference and behavior for intergenerational sustainability. We hypothesize that ongoing modernization of competitive societies, which we call "capitalism," affects individual social preferences and other factors of human nature, compromising intergenerational sustainability. To examine this hypothesis, we implement an intergenerational sustainability dilemma game (ISDG) with "imaginary future generation" (IFG) as a policy tool (to prime people for future generations) in two types of Bangladeshi fields: (i) urban (capitalistic) and (ii) rural (less-capitalistic) areas. The analysis reveals that the likelihood of choosing intergenerational sustainable options significantly increases with the number of prosocial people in one generation and a regional dummy of rural areas. Since a considerable portion of people in rural areas are prosocial, rural people are identified to choose intergenerational sustainable options much more frequently than urban people. Moreover, the IFG treatment is not effective for urban people, implying that some stronger devices shall be necessary in capitalistic societies. Overall, our findings demonstrate that as societies become more capitalistic, intergenerational sustainability shall be further compromised through a change in both people's social preference and other factors captured by the regional effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Shibly Shahrier & Koji Kotani & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2016. "Intergenerational sustainability and the degree of capitalism in the society: A field experiment," Working Papers SDES-2016-10, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Jul 2016.
    • Handle: RePEc:kch:wpaper:sdes-2016-10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.souken.kochi-tech.ac.jp/seido/wp/SDES-2016-10.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2016
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Katerina Sherstyuk & Nori Tarui & Majah-Leah V. Ravago & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2016. "Intergenerational Games with Dynamic Externalities and Climate Change Experiments," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(2), pages 247-281.
    2. Yoshio Kamijo & Asuka Komiya & Nobuhiro Mifune & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2016. "Negotiating with the future: Incorporating imaginary future generations into negotiations," Working Papers SDES-2016-13, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Oct 2016.
    3. Brosig-Koch, Jeannette & Helbach, Christoph & Ockenfels, Axel & Weimann, Joachim, 2011. "Still different after all these years: Solidarity behavior in East and West Germany," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1373-1376.
    4. Fischer, Maria-Elisabeth & Irlenbusch, Bernd & Sadrieh, Abdolkarim, 2004. "An intergenerational common pool resource experiment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 811-836, September.
    5. Harbaugh, William T & Krause, Kate, 2000. "Children's Altruism in Public Good and Dictator Experiments," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(1), pages 95-109, January.
    6. Uri Gneezy & Andreas Leibbrandt & John List, 2016. "THE RISE AND FALL OF COMPETITIVENESS: Experimental Evidence from Individualistic and Collectivistic Societies," Natural Field Experiments 00579, The Field Experiments Website.
    7. Ockenfels, Axel & Weimann, Joachim, 1999. "Types and patterns: an experimental East-West-German comparison of cooperation and solidarity," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 275-287, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Timilsina, Raja R. & Kotani, Koji & Nakagawa, Yoshinori & Saijo, Tatsuyoshi, 2022. "Intragenerational deliberation and intergenerational sustainability dilemma," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    2. Raja Timilsina & Koji Kotani & Yoshinori Nakagawa & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2018. "Does deliberation change individual opinions and hence resolve the intergenerational sustainability dilemma in societies?," Working Papers SDES-2018-7, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Oct 2018.
    3. Mostafa Shahen & Koji Kotani & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2020. "How do individuals behave in the intergenerational sustainability dilemma? A strategy method experiment," Working Papers SDES-2020-1, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised May 2020.
    4. Shibly Shahrier & Koji Kotani & Makoto Kakinaka, 2016. "Social Value Orientation and Capitalism in Societies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-19, October.
    5. Mostafa Shahen & Koji Kotani & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2020. "Does perspective-taking promote intergenerational sustainability?," Working Papers SDES-2020-12, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Sep 2020.
    6. Raja Timilsina & Koji Kotani & Yoshio Kamijo, 2016. "Sustainability of common pool resources: A field-experimental approach," Working Papers SDES-2016-6, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Apr 2016.
    7. Raja Timilsina & Koji Kotani & Yoshio Kamijo, 2016. "Generativity and social value orientation between rural and urban societies," Working Papers SDES-2016-11, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Oct 2016.
    8. Pankaj Koirala & Raja Rajendra Timilsina & Koji Kotani, 2021. "Deliberative Forms of Democracy and Intergenerational Sustainability Dilemma," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-18, July.
    9. Johannes Diederich & Timo Goeschl, 2013. "To Give or Not to Give: The Price of Contributing and the Provision of Public Goods," NBER Working Papers 19332, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Raja Rajendra Timilsina & Koji Kotani & Yoshinori Nakagawa & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2023. "Does Being Intergenerationally Accountable Resolve the Intergenerational Sustainability Dilemma?," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 99(4), pages 644-667.
    11. Raja Rajendra Timilsina & Yoshinori Nakagawa & Yoshio Komijo & Koji Kotani & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2021. "Imaginary future generations: A deliberative approach for intergenerational sustainability dilemma," Working Papers SDES-2021-12, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Nov 2021.
    12. Raja R Timilsina & Yutaka Kobayashi & Koji Kotani, 2022. "Non-kinship successors for resource sustainability," Working Papers SDES-2022-2, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Jan 2022.
    13. Yoshinori Nakagawa & Koji Kotani & Yoshio Kamijo & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2016. "Solving intergenerational sustainability dilemma through imaginary future generations: A qualitative-deliberative approach," Working Papers SDES-2016-14, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Oct 2016.
    14. Shibly Shahrier & Koji Kotani & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2017. "Intergenerational sustainability dilemma and a potential solution: Future ahead and back mechanism," Working Papers SDES-2017-9, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Aug 2017.
    15. Timilsina, Raja R & Kotani, Koji & Nakagawa, Yoshinori & Saijo, Tatsuyoshi, 2021. "Concerns for future generations in societies: A deliberative analysis of the intergenerational sustainability dilemma," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    16. Mostafa E. Shahen & Wada Masaya & Koji Kotani & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2020. "Motivational Factors in Intergenerational Sustainability Dilemma: A Post-Interview Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-16, August.
    17. Helena Fornwagner & Oliver P. Hauser, 2022. "Climate Action for (My) Children," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 81(1), pages 95-130, January.
    18. John, Katrin & Thomsen, Stephan L., 2015. "School-track environment or endowment: What determines different other-regarding behavior across peer groups?," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 122-141.
    19. Uwe Jirjahn, Cornelia Struewing, 2018. "Single Motherhood in East and West Germany: What Can Explain the Differences?," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 15(2), pages 197-229, December.
    20. Costa-Font, Joan & Nicińska, Anna, 2023. "Comrades in the family? Soviet communism and demand for family insurance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118472, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Intergenerational sustainability; capitalism; social preference; culture and evolution;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kch:wpaper:sdes-2016-10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sachiko Minami (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/smkocjp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.