Saturday, January 23, 2010

Experimental Economics and donations


I try to follow what goes on in experimental economics although I am not an economist. So I had some ideas which are related to voluntary alms vs. taxes which become transfers from one income group to another (a sort of involuntary alms).


If there were million dollars it was promised to be paid it out as follows: You can only participate once. You can choose (1) to take $10 for yourself or (2) take $5 for yourself and $10 will be donated to relief in Haiti. To modify it a little bit, imagine that this was done in a situation where you would be observed by people in your community, or that your name would be associated with your choice on the Internet.


Another. Let's say that there's a video feed established between the U.S. Would you contribute more if there was a earthquake victim with a bottle of water and food rations thanking you by name? What part does personal visible gratitude have in alms-giving?

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