TY - JOUR

T1 - School-track environment or endowment

T2 - What determines different other-regarding behavior across peer groups?

AU - John, Katrin

AU - Thomsen, Stephan L.

N1 - Funding information: We thank Dirk Sliwka for helpful comments as well as discussants at the GfeW conference 2013, the SOLE conference 2014, the CEA conference 2014, Kenneth Harttgen, Natalia Mishagina, and two anonymous referees. Financial support from the Wissenschaftszentrum Sachsen-Anhalt Lutherstadt Wittenberg (WZW) in the course of the project “Analyse des Bestands und der ökonomischen Bedeutung kognitiver und nicht-kognitiver Fähigkeiten in Sachsen-Anhalt zur Identifikation (bildungs-)politischer Handlungsbedarfe” (grant number 5235AD/0609T ) is gratefully acknowledged.

PY - 2015/10/15

Y1 - 2015/10/15

N2 - Using data from dictator (DG) and public goods (PGG) game experiments run in classrooms with German pupils (ages 10-16) we analyze the differences in other-regarding behavior across two distinct school tracks which are entered at age 10. We find that pupils in the academic track give more and choose the equal split more often than pupils in the vocational track in the DG, but there are no robust track differences in the PGG. Selection into tracks results in differences in IQ, in personality and in socio-economic background, but these differences appear insufficient to account for the DG differences. A propensity-score-matching econometric model, based on a rich set of individual characteristics, provides evidence that the DG behavior of pupils with similar endowments is directly affected by the distinct track environments. We conclude that the existence of a treatment effect of tracks on other-regarding behavior in the DG of pupils is likely.

AB - Using data from dictator (DG) and public goods (PGG) game experiments run in classrooms with German pupils (ages 10-16) we analyze the differences in other-regarding behavior across two distinct school tracks which are entered at age 10. We find that pupils in the academic track give more and choose the equal split more often than pupils in the vocational track in the DG, but there are no robust track differences in the PGG. Selection into tracks results in differences in IQ, in personality and in socio-economic background, but these differences appear insufficient to account for the DG differences. A propensity-score-matching econometric model, based on a rich set of individual characteristics, provides evidence that the DG behavior of pupils with similar endowments is directly affected by the distinct track environments. We conclude that the existence of a treatment effect of tracks on other-regarding behavior in the DG of pupils is likely.

KW - Experiments

KW - IQ

KW - Other-regarding preferences

KW - Personality traits

KW - School tracking

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84945903176&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.geb.2015.10.007

DO - 10.1016/j.geb.2015.10.007

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84945903176

VL - 94

SP - 122

EP - 141

JO - Games and economic behavior

JF - Games and economic behavior

SN - 0899-8256

ER -