Research seminar by Karla Hoff (World Bank): Caste and Punishment: The Legacy of Caste Culture in Norm Enforcement

Thursday, June 2 at 4.30 pm International College of Economics and Finance and Faculty of Economics held joint Research seminar.
Venue: Pokrovski Bulvar, 11, Room Zh-822
Speaker: Karla Hoff (World Bank)
Theme: «Caste and Punishment: The Legacy of Caste Culture in Norm Enforcement» (joint with Mayuresh Kshetramade and Ernst Fehr) ( pdf version)

Abstract: Well-functioning groups enforce social norms that restrain opportunism, but the social structure of a society may encourage or inhibit norm enforcement. Here we study how the exogenous assignment to different positions in an extreme social hierarchy – the caste system – affects individuals’ willingness to punish violations of a cooperation norm. Although we control for individual wealth, education, and political participation, low caste individuals exhibit a much lower willingness to punish norm violations that hurt members of their own caste, suggesting a cultural difference across caste status in the concern for members of one’s own community. The lower willingness to punish may inhibit the low caste’s ability to sustain collective action and so may contribute to its economic vulnerability.

Everyone interested is welcome to attend!

---

Forthcoming seminars

Past seminars