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Norm Enforcement in the city: A natural field experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Loukas Balafoutas
  • Nikos Nikiforakis
Abstract
The willingness of individuals to enforce social norms can have important welfare implications. All the experimental evidence on norm enforcement so far comes from laboratory experiments and indicates that many participants are indeed willing to enforce norms, even in one-shot interactions. We examine individuals’ willingness to punish norm violations in a natural field experiment. We violate two efficiency-enhancing norms in the main subway station in Athens, Greece. The large number of passengers ensures that strategic motives for punishing are minimized. We find that some individuals punish norm violators,but the rate of enforcement is low relative to that found in laboratory experiments. Surprisingly, violations of the better known of the two norms are less likely to trigger punishment. Questionnaire data indicate that most people are concerned about being counterpunished, and that violators of the better known norm are considered more likely to counterpunish.Men are more likely to punish than women, while the rate of enforcement is unaffected by the violator’s height and gender.

Suggested Citation

  • Loukas Balafoutas & Nikos Nikiforakis, 2011. "Norm Enforcement in the city: A natural field experiment," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 1133, The University of Melbourne.
    • Handle: RePEc:mlb:wpaper:1133
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    norm enforcement; social norms; field experiment; altruistic punishment; cooperation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

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