Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/170808 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 10824
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We introduce the concept of "group cohesion" to capture the economic consequences of ubiquitous social relationships in group production. We measure group cohesion, adapting the "oneness scale" from psychology. A comprehensive program of new experiments reveals the considerable economic impact of cohesion: higher cohesion groups are significantly more likely to achieve Pareto-superior outcomes in classic weak-link coordination games. We show that effects of cohesion are economically large, robust, and portable. We identify social preferences as a primary mechanism explaining the effects of cohesion. Our results provide proof of concept for group cohesion as a productive new tool of economic research.
Subjects: 
weak-link game
coordination
oneness
group cohesion
social relationships
experiments
real groups
JEL: 
C92
D03
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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