Public discourse and socially responsible market behavior

Björn Bartling, Vanessa Valero, Roberto A. Weber and Lan Yao

We investigate the causal impact of public discourse on socially responsible market behavior. Across three laboratory experiments, having market participants engage in public discourse generally increases market social responsibility. These positive impacts are robust to variation in several characteristics of the discourse. We provide evidence that discourse strengthens beliefs that others support socially responsible exchange. However, relaxing requirements to engage in discourse sharply reduces its effectiveness. Our findings suggest that campaigns encouraging discussion of appropriate market behavior can have sizable impacts on addressing inefficiencies due to market failures, but that policies encouraging broad public engagement may be important.

MoreLess

Year of publication:	[2024] ; Revised version, August 2024
Authors:	Bartling, Björn ; Valero, Vanessa ; Weber, Roberto A. ; Yao, Lan
Publisher:	Zurich : University of Zurich, Department of Economics
Subject:	Public discourse \| market failure \| externalities \| social responsibility \| experiment \| communication \| Corporate Social Responsibility \| Corporate social responsibility \| Marktversagen \| Market failure \| Diskurstheorie \| Discourse theory \| Kommunikation \| Communication