eprintid: 25085
rev_number: 15
eprint_status: archive
userid: 3114
dir: disk0/00/02/50/85
datestamp: 2018-07-12 06:16:41
lastmod: 2018-09-06 10:14:43
status_changed: 2018-07-12 06:16:41
type: workingPaper
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Fehr, Dietmar
creators_name: Rau, Hannes
creators_name: Trautmann, Stefan T.
creators_name: Xu, Yilong
title: Inequality, Fairness and Social Capital
subjects: 330
divisions: 181000
abstract: We study the impact of unjust inequality on social trust and trustworthiness, and its separate effect on the economically successful and the unsuccessful, in a controlled economic experiment. We find evidence for a negative effect of unfair economic inequality on social interactions. Probing the boundaries of this effect, we document that this erosion of social capital critically depends on the context: if a well-off person is not directly responsible for the outcome of the worse-off person, then we observe no negative effects on trust and trustworthiness in the aggregate. Moreover, our data do not support the view that higher status or wealth leads to an erosion of pro-social attitudes: the successful are always more generous; groups of unsuccessful persons are least efficient and least generous in the trust game.
date: 2018-07-10
id_scheme: DOI
id_number: 10.11588/heidok.00025085
schriftenreihe_cluster_id: sr-3
schriftenreihe_order: 0650
ppn_swb: 102705322X
own_urn: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-250853
language: eng
bibsort: FEHRDIETMAINEQUALITY20180710
full_text_status: public
series: Discussion Paper Series, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics
volume: 0650
place_of_pub: Heidelberg
pages: 39
citation:   Fehr, Dietmar ; Rau, Hannes ; Trautmann, Stefan T. ; Xu, Yilong  (2018) Inequality, Fairness and Social Capital.  [Working paper]     
document_url: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/25085/1/Fehr%2C%20Rau%2CTrautmann%2C%20and%20Xu_2018_dp_0650.pdf