The Unintended Psychological and Behavioral Drawbacks of Big Push Strategies

Governments and policymakers often adopt big push strategies to help under-developing regions achieve economic growth and shake off poverty. Although numerous studies have documented big push strategies' positive impacts on indicators of economic development (e.g., poverty rate, unemployment rate, etc.), the current research presents evidence of serious psychological and behavioral drawbacks of such policies. Specifically, we examine China's Great Western Development (GWD) Program as a recent prominent example of a big push strategy, in which about 370 million people receive preferential benefits while more than 1 billion people do not. Using a regression discontinuity design based on distance from the boundary of the GWD Program (+/- 100 km), we find that individuals residing in non-GWD regions report higher levels of psychological entitlement compared to their counterparts residing in GWD regions. As a result of increased psychological entitlement, these individuals engage in more selfish behavior and less prosocial behavior. Our results offer initial evidence of the unintended psychological and behavioral consequences of big push strategies