This article refines the theory of economic agents’ motivations beyond the alternative between egoistic self-interest and a generic altruism. It addresses the potential weakness of ‘altruism’ theories that the number of ‘others’ claiming empathy and care is potentially infinite. It...

Tipping is a multi-billion dollar phenomenon and a major source of income for millions of workers. The results of a study conducted in the US and Israel suggest that people tip mainly to show gratitude, conform to the social norm, and because they know that waiters' income depends on tips....

This paper adds three dimensions to the received literature: it models migration when the individuals' preferences regarding their relative income are ordinal, it works out the resulting spatial steady state distribution of the individuals, and it shows that the aggregate of the individuals'...

If individuals care about their status, defined as their rank in the distribution of conspicuous consumption, a fall in the level of visible inequality is likely to cause them to spend more on conspicuous goods due to increased status competition. I examine this hypothesis using micro data from...

We analyze changes in pedestrian behavior over a 30-year period in four urban public spaces located in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Building on William Whyte's observational work from 1980, where he manually recorded pedestrian behaviors, we employ computer vision and deep learning...

Using a laboratory experiment, we study the evolution of economic networks in the context of fragmented social identity. We create societies in which members can initiate and delete links to others, and then earn payoffs from a public goods game played within their network. We manipulate whether...

We develop a two-period overlapping generations model in which both the structure of the family and the decision to commit crime are endogenous and the dynamics of moral norms of good conduct (honesty trait) is transmitted intergenerationally by families and peers. Having a father at home might...

This paper analyzes how private decisions and public policies are shaped by personal and societal preferences ("values"), material or other explicit incentives ("laws") and social sanctions or rewards ("norms"). It first examines how honor, stigma and social norms arise from individuals'...

Auf der Basis eines mittels einer Onlinebefragung erhobenen Datensatzes wird auf der Basis der haushalts- bzw. konsumgütertheoretischer Überlegungen und verhaltenstheoretischer Konzepte untersucht, wie der Umfang der von ehrenamtlich Engagierten in Fußballvereinen geleisteten Arbeit von der...

Lütkenhöner (2011) konzipierte Feldexperimente, mit denen untersucht wurde, ob Vornamen den Erfolg von Marktteilnehmern beeinflussen. Dabei wurden für 12 fiktive Personen Kleinanzeigen auf dem Beziehungs-, Nachhilfe- und Wohnungsmarkt geschaltet. Bei der ersten Auswertung von 2011 wurde...