Redistribution and Group Participation : Experimental Evidence from Africa and the UK

We investigate whether the prospect of redistribution hinders the formation of efficiency-enhancing groups. We conduct an experiment in a Kenyan slum, Ugandan villages, and a UK university town. We test, in an anonymous setting with no feedback, whether subjects join a group that increases their end...

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Main Authors:	Fafchamps, Marcel, Vargas Hill, Ruth
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank 2021
Subjects:	INCOME DISTRIBUTION INEQUALITY REDISTRIBUTION SLUMS STEALING BURNING
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35428

id	okr-10986-35428
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-354282021-04-23T14:02:21Z Redistribution and Group Participation : Experimental Evidence from Africa and the UK Fafchamps, Marcel Vargas Hill, Ruth INCOME DISTRIBUTION INEQUALITY REDISTRIBUTION SLUMS STEALING BURNING We investigate whether the prospect of redistribution hinders the formation of efficiency-enhancing groups. We conduct an experiment in a Kenyan slum, Ugandan villages, and a UK university town. We test, in an anonymous setting with no feedback, whether subjects join a group that increases their endowment but exposes them to one of three redistributive actions: stealing, giving, or burning. We find that exposure to redistributive options among group members operates as a disincentive to join a group. This finding obtains under all three treatments—including when the pressure to redistribute is intrinsic. However the nature of the redistribution affects the magnitude of the impact. Giving has the least impact on the decision to join a group, while forced redistribution through stealing or burning acts as a much larger deterrent to group membership. These findings are common across all three subject pools, but African subjects are particularly reluctant to join a group in the burning treatment, indicating strong reluctance to expose themselves to destruction by others. 2021-04-12T19:35:46Z 2021-04-12T19:35:46Z 2019-10 Journal Article World Bank Economic Review 1564-698X http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35428 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) Kenya Uganda United Kingdom
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	INCOME DISTRIBUTION INEQUALITY REDISTRIBUTION SLUMS STEALING BURNING
spellingShingle	INCOME DISTRIBUTION INEQUALITY REDISTRIBUTION SLUMS STEALING BURNING Fafchamps, Marcel Vargas Hill, Ruth Redistribution and Group Participation : Experimental Evidence from Africa and the UK
geographic_facet	Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) Kenya Uganda United Kingdom
description	We investigate whether the prospect of redistribution hinders the formation of efficiency-enhancing groups. We conduct an experiment in a Kenyan slum, Ugandan villages, and a UK university town. We test, in an anonymous setting with no feedback, whether subjects join a group that increases their endowment but exposes them to one of three redistributive actions: stealing, giving, or burning. We find that exposure to redistributive options among group members operates as a disincentive to join a group. This finding obtains under all three treatments—including when the pressure to redistribute is intrinsic. However the nature of the redistribution affects the magnitude of the impact. Giving has the least impact on the decision to join a group, while forced redistribution through stealing or burning acts as a much larger deterrent to group membership. These findings are common across all three subject pools, but African subjects are particularly reluctant to join a group in the burning treatment, indicating strong reluctance to expose themselves to destruction by others.
format	Journal Article
author	Fafchamps, Marcel Vargas Hill, Ruth
author_facet	Fafchamps, Marcel Vargas Hill, Ruth
author_sort	Fafchamps, Marcel
title	Redistribution and Group Participation : Experimental Evidence from Africa and the UK
title_short	Redistribution and Group Participation : Experimental Evidence from Africa and the UK
title_full	Redistribution and Group Participation : Experimental Evidence from Africa and the UK
title_fullStr	Redistribution and Group Participation : Experimental Evidence from Africa and the UK
title_full_unstemmed	Redistribution and Group Participation : Experimental Evidence from Africa and the UK
title_sort	redistribution and group participation : experimental evidence from africa and the uk
publisher	Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank
publishDate	2021
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35428
_version_	1764483012506943488

Redistribution and Group Participation : Experimental Evidence from Africa and the UK

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