Decency: Theory and Test
We develop a formal theory of decency. People are fundamentally selfish, but feel guilty if they fail to promote socially valuable outcomes. In our structural formulation of social values, society endorses efficiency and equality. Society also condemns ill-gotten gains, that is, private gains that are obtained by violating social values. We use a past experiment to estimate the model’s (culture-specific) parameters. In addition to behaviors that are also captured by related models other-regarding preferences, the model rationalizes intention-based negative reciprocity and betrayal aversion.

Please sign up for meetings here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Tf4YtDeDdmv3Dv379EyhWTL6lszs2Dy6yiff7yJeJAY/edit#gid=0
Date: 7 February 2020, 14:15 (Friday, 3rd week, Hilary 2020)
Venue: Manor Road Building, Manor Road OX1 3UQ
Venue Details: Seminar Room A
Speaker: Tore Ellingsen (Stockholm School of Economics)
Organising department: Department of Economics
Part of: Nuffield Economic Theory Seminar
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Melis Clark