RSSE: Christian Thöni (University of Lausane) The Complementarity of Good Institutions and Voluntary Cooperation: Experimental Evidence from 43 So

It is our pleasure that Christian Thöni (University of Lausane) will present on Thursday, November 14, 2024, at 12:45 in room RB437 about the topic “The Complementarity of Good Institutions and Voluntary Cooperation: Experimental Evidence from 43 Societies.“ 

Registration is not required and anyone who would like to attend is warmly invited.

It is also possible to participate online via MS Teams at this link.

Abstract: Do well-functioning institutions foster or crowd out voluntary cooperation? The theoretical and empirical literature – often solely relying on attitudinal surveys – gives mixed answers. In a large-scale experimental dataset spanning 43 diverse societies, we show that societies’ quality of institutions is strongly positively related to cooperation absent any formal institutions. This is the case both in public goods games with and without peer punishment. In laboratory experiments, we provide causal evidence that experiencing well-functioning institutions increases voluntary cooperation even if well-functioning institutions are absent. The experiments highlight one channel: the increase in voluntary cooperation is driven by more optimistic beliefs about others’ willingness to cooperate. These positive beliefs in turn increase voluntary cooperation. Our results suggest that well-functioning institutions generate positive spillovers onto strategic interactions outside of the realm of legal enforcement.