JOIN VIRTUALLY! Altruism, Insurance, and Costly Solidarity Commitments
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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.
Christopher B. Barrett
Kellogg Advisory Board member Christopher B. Barrett is the Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management and International Professor of Agriculture at Cornell University’s Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. He is also a professor of economics and a fellow of the David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future at Cornell...
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