Institutions and Behavior: Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Democracy / Pedro Dal Bó, Andrew Foster, Louis Putterman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dal Bó, Pedro.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Foster, Andrew.

Putterman, Louis.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w13999.

NBER working paper series no. w13999

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Institutions and Behavior

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2008.

Summary:

A novel experiment is used to show that the effect of a policy on the level of cooperation is greater when it is chosen democratically by the subjects than when it is exogenously imposed. In contrast to the previous literature, our experimental design allows us to control for selection effects (e.g. those who choose the policy may be affected differently by it). Our finding implies that democratic institutions may affect behavior directly in addition to having effects through the choice of policies. Our findings have implications for the generalizability of the results of randomized policy interventions.

Notes:

Print version record

May 2008.