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Contribution Details

Type Working Paper
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Why Social Preferences Matter - The Impact of Non-Selfish Motives on Competition, Cooperation and Incentives
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Ernst Fehr
  • Urs Fischbacher
Language
  • English
Institution University of Zurich
Series Name Working paper series / Institute for Empirical Research in Economics
Number No. 84
ISSN 1424-0459
Date 2002
Abstract Text A substantial number of people exhibit social preferences, which means they are not solely motivated by material self-interest but also care positively or negatively for the material payoffs of relevant reference agents. We show empirically that economists fail to understand fundamental economic questions when they disregard social preferences, in particular, that without taking social preferences into account, it is not possible to understand adequately (i) the effects of competition on market outcomes, (ii) laws governing cooperation and collective action, (iii) effects and the determinants of material incentives, (iv) which contracts and property rights arrangements are optimal, and (v) important forces shaping social norms and market failures.
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