Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/20617 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 1347
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We define social reciprocity as the act of demonstrating one's disapproval, at some personal cost, for the violation of widely-held norms (e.g., don't free ride). Social reciprocity differs from standard notions of reciprocity because social reciprocators intervene whenever a norm is violated and do not condition intervention on potential future payoffs, revenge, or altruism. Instead, we posit that social reciprocity is a triggered normative response. Our experiment confirms the existence of social reciprocity and demonstrates that more socially efficient outcomes arise when reciprocity can be expressed socially. To provide theoretical foundations for social reciprocity, we show that generalized punishment norms survive in one of the two stable equilibria of an evolutionary game with selection drift.
Subjects: 
reciprocity
norm
experiment
public good
learning
evolution
JEL: 
Z13
C92
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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