Trust, inequality and the market

S.P. Hargreaves Heap, D.J. Zizzo, J.H.W. Tan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This article examines, experimentally, whether inequality affects the social capital of trust in non-market and market settings. We consider three experimental treatments, one with equality, one with inequality but no knowledge of the income of other agents, and one with inequality and knowledge. Inequality, particularly when it is known, has a corrosive effect on trusting behaviours in this experiment. Agents appear to be less sensitive to known relative income differentials in markets than they are in the non-market settings, but trust in markets appears generally more vulnerable to the introduction of inequality than in the non-market setting. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)311-333
Number of pages23
JournalTheory and Decision
Volume74
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2013

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