Social Preferences: Some Thoughts from the Field

This review steps back from the burgeoning economics literature on measuring social preferences and considers more carefully the empirical evidence from the lab and the field. I place the claims from the ardent supporters of the literature into three bins: one for claims that are supported by the data upon closer scrutiny, one for claims that are not supported by the data upon closer scrutiny, and one for claims that may or may not be true. The third set of claims highlights important theoretical and empirical investigations that need to be done to further our understanding of the nature and import of social preferences. 563 A nn u. R ev . E co n. 2 00 9. 1: 56 357 9. D ow nl oa de d fr om w w w .a nn ua lr ev ie w s. or g by U ni ve rs ity o f C hi ca go L ib ra ri es o n 06 /1 2/ 12 . F or p er so na l u se o nl y. [W]hen self-interest and ethical values with wide verbal allegiance are in conflict, much of the time, most of the time in fact, self-interest theory. . .will win. Stigler (1981)