Georgia Leads in Prosociality: Comparison to Cross-Cultural Economic Experiment

Mekvabishvili, Rati (2021): Georgia Leads in Prosociality: Comparison to Cross-Cultural Economic Experiment. Published in: Economics and Business , Vol. 13, No. 1 (23 March 2021): pp. 140-149.

Abstract

Recent experimental economic research highlights the importance of Altruism and prosociality in many economic relations. Our experiment replicates the cross-cultural public goods game experiment conducted in 16 different countries by (Herrmann, Thöni, and Gächter 2008). We find that the mean contributions in standard public goods experiment with voluntary contribution in Tbilisi participant pool appears the highest compared to 16 experiment participant pool of different countries. Moreover, our experimental results show surprisingly flat pattern of mean contributions, indicating on strong evidence of altruism and prosociality. Individual level experimental data tentatively suggests, the repeated game incentives and considerable portion of altruism seems to reinforce each other and motivate subjects' genuine generosity reputation building, as it is a distinct and esteemed character of Georgian culture. In our view, our results of strong evidence of altruism contributes to the cross-cultural economic research of human cooperation.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Prosociality, Altruism, Culture, Human cooperation, Public Goods Experiment
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C92 - Laboratory, Group Behavior; H - Public Economics > H4 - Publicly Provided Goods > H41 - Public Goods

References

Arechar A., Gächter S., Molleman L. (2018). Conducting Interactive Experiments Online. “Experimental Economics”, No. 21 (1), p. 99-131

Fehr E., Fischbacher U. (2003). The Nature of Human Altruism. “Nature”, No. 425, p.785-791

Fehr E., Gächter S., (2000). Cooperation and Punishment in Public Goods Experiments. “American Economic Review”, No. 90 (4), p. 980-994

Fischbacher U., Gächter S., Fehr E., (2001). Are People Conditionally Cooperative? Evidence from a Public Goods Experiment. “Economics Letters”, No. 71 (3), p.397-404

Herrmann B., Thöni Ch., Gächter S., (2008). Antisocial Punishment Across Societies. “Science”, No. 319, p.1362-1367

Ledyard J.O. (1995). Public Goods: A Survey of Experimental Research." In The Handbook of Experimental Economics, edited by J. Kagel A. E. Roth, Princeton: Princeton University Press. p.111–194.

Samuelson P.A. (1954). The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure. “The Review of Economics and Statistics”. p. 387-389