Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/105089 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 5049
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We investigate the link between leadership, beliefs and pro-social behavior. This link is interesting because field evidence suggests that people's behavior in domains like charitable giving, tax evasion, corporate culture and corruption is influenced by leaders (CEOs, politicians) and beliefs about others' behavior. Our framework is an experimental public goods game with a leader. We find that leaders strongly shape their followers' initial beliefs and contributions. In later rounds, followers put more weight on other followers' past behavior than on the leader's current action. This creates a path dependency the leader can hardly correct. We discuss the implications for understanding belief effects in naturally occurring situations.
Subjects: 
leadership
beliefs
experiments
public goods
path dependency
public policy
management
JEL: 
C72
C90
H41
Z13
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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