JOIN VIRTUALLY! Altruism, Insurance, and Costly Solidarity Commitments

In this interdisciplinary seminar, Kellogg Distinguished Research Affiliate Chris Barrett will discuss research on inter-household transfers in the village economies of rural Ghana. Based on a randomized study of experimental household data, Barrett and his co-authors reject core predictions of dominant conceptual models that explain transfers based exclusively on self-interested behavior. They find that unobservable income shocks may facilitate altruistic giving targeted towards less well-off individuals within one's network, and that too large a network can induce social taxation pressures that overwhelm even an altruistic agent, inducing her to cease giving. This matters because our understanding of the mechanisms behind inter-household transfers informs appropriate design of policy, for example, of cash transfer programs.

The paper will be circulated in advance to facilitate in-depth discussion and feedback following Barrett’s talk.

Please register for the seminar here.