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Contribution Details

Type Working Paper
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Political Economists are Neither Selfish nor Indoctrinated
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Bruno Frey
  • Stephan Meier
Language
  • English
Institution University of Zurich
Series Name Working paper series / Institute for Empirical Research in Economics
Number No. 69
ISSN 1424-0459
Date 2000
Abstract Text Most professional economists believe that economist in general are more selfish than other persons and that this greater selfishness is due to economic education. In this paper we offer empirical evidence against this widely held belief. Using a unique data set about giving behaviour to two social funds at the University of Zurich, it is shown that economic training does not make people act more selfish. However, the 'natural experiment' supports the hypothesis that the different behaviour of economist can be explained by a selection effect.
Official URL http://www.econ.uzh.ch/wp.html
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