Title: A Field Experiment on Charitable Contribution by Chinese Prison Inmates

Speaker:  Professor Pinghan Liang, Sun Yat-sen University

Time: November 30th, 2016 13:30–15:00 

Venue: Conference Room 106B, Zhonghui Building (College of Economics, JNU)

Abstract:

This paper addresses how the social identity affects the pro-social behavior among inmates. We conduct a field experiment in a typical Chinese jail and introduce a real-effort charitable contribution scheme into the inmates’ ordinary workplace. The amount of charity is tied to the inmates’ output. The main treatment variable is the social identity of the beneficiary. During the five-day experiment, inmates exhibit substantial pro-social behavior: the average output raises 3.2--11%. There is also evidence of in-group favoritism in that the output increases more when the beneficiary is tied to the prisoner identity. However, when the beneficiary is tied to the prisoner identity, the inmates with long incarceration spells have significantly lower output than those with short incarceration spell, indicating that the incarceration weaken the inmates’ in-group favoritism. We suggest that social interactions characterized by the competitive culture, e.g., that among inmates, might mitigate the group identity, and have negative consequences on organizational performance.