Experimental economic summary paper - Essay Example

9 March Does Studying Economics Inhibit Cooperation? Summary: This articles aims at studying the impact of study of economics on the cooperative behavior of individuals. Through various tests and games, the researchers have compared the behaviors of economists and non-economists on the scale of self interest. By making reference to several empirical studies, the self-interested behavior of economists has been explored. The researchers have mainly found that economists’ experience with the self-interest model inculcates self-interested behavior in them.

Marwell and Ames (1981) involved economics and non-economics students in their research to study the understanding of either of them on the “fair” investment. 25 per cent of the non-economists called “all of the endowment” as fair investment whereas 75 per cent of them considered it to be “half or more” of the donation. The behavior of economics students was significantly different. To public account, they offered no more than 20 per cent of the donation. All non-economists said that they valued “fairness” in deciding about the investment whereas most of the economics students did not know what “fairness” is.

Likewise, Carter and Irons (1991) who compared the behavior of economists and non-economists using an ultimatum bargaining game, found economists to be more complying with the characteristics of the self-interest model in the roles of both the allocator and the receiver than their non-economics counterparts. The charitable giving survey and results of the prisoner’s dilemma also supported the opinion that the likelihood of free riding is more profound in economists than non-economists. Thus, in general, it can be concluded that economists display more self-interested behavior than non-economists, though in certain matters, like voting in presidential elections, and doing volunteer activities, they are just as cooperative as non-economists.

I found it particularly interesting that a vast majority of the students with economics as a major subject in education are unaware of the concept of “fairness”. I believe that economics is fundamentally about fairness in financial dealing, and therefore, expect fairness to be learnt by the students of economists in the very first chapter of their course. The concepts of economics find their roots in fairness, and if this definition is not built, I deem the whole understanding of economics of those students questionable.

The discussion question: Is studying the cooperative behavior of economics students worth it? In other words, is it rational to investigate the capacity of economics training to inculcate cooperation in the students? I think, yes, it is! In the contemporary age, ethics and morality is being traced in the teaching of subjects that are not fundamentally about ethics. Such subjects include, but are not limited to finance, economics, administration, business management and contract law. Social cooperation has gained more important in the increasingly interdependent world of today.

This study has offered unique education with respect to the behavior of economists. According to the economists, defection is dictated by self-interest. Keeping in view the social well-being, economists may emphasize upon the incorporation of motivation in education to enhance the social behavior of future economists.