Money burning, envy and development: An experimental case study in Ethiopia
Lead Research Organisation:
University of East Anglia
Department Name: Economics
Abstract
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Organisations
Publications
Bereket Kebede (author)
(1900)
Social preferences and agricultural innovation in Africa : an experimental case study from Ethiopia
Bereket Kebede (Speaker)
(2011)
Envy and agricultural innovation : an experimental case study from Ethiopia
Daniel John Zizzo (author)
(1900)
Money burning and agricultural innovation in Africa : an experimental case study from Ethiopia
Daniel John Zizzo (Author)
(2011)
Social envy at work
Fafchamps M
(2015)
Keep up with the winners: Experimental evidence on risk taking, asset integration, and peer effects
in European Economic Review
Kebede B
(2011)
Envy and Agricultural Innovation: An Experimental Case Study from Ethiopia
in SSRN Electronic Journal
Kebede B
(2010)
Envy and Agricultural Innovation in Africa: An Experimental Case Study from Ethiopia
in SSRN Electronic Journal
| Description | The underlying motivations for envy or related social preferences and their impact on agricultural innovations are examined by combining data from money burning experimental game and household survey from Ethiopia. In the first stage of the money burning experimental game, income inequality is induced by providing different endowments and playing a lottery. In the second, people are allowed to decrease ('burn') other players' money at their own expense. Conditionally on individual behaviour, experimentally measured envious preferences from others have a negative effect on real life agricultural innovation. A follow up paper is now being written up. |
| Exploitation Route | This research is of potential interest to policy makers in developing countries in considering strategies to promote rural development. There are four take home messages for policy makers from this research. First, envy and similar social preferences matter for adoption behaviour, even when controlling for a number of other variables. Second, while changing preferences may be difficult, there may be institutional changes that can be made to help channel such preferences in a productive rather than a destructive direction, as argued by Grolleau et al. (2009). Third, there may be advantages in focusing on promoting innovations that are less socially conspicuous (e.g., seed adoption rather than rain water harvesting), as these are more likely less visible and/or with low profile, and so less likely to elicit the real world equivalent of money burning, in the form of envy, sabotaging and social ostracism. Fourth, the impact of strong negative social preferences as envy may be minimised if innovations are adopted at early stage by significantly large number of people in the community. The usual model of small number of adopters followed by the majority later may not be effective; a 'big push' of innovation may be required to break a sort of low equilibrium trap created by negative social preferences. That being said, obviously further research is needed. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Creative Economy,Other |
| Description | Media interest raising interest on the effect of envy and 'evil eye' on economic development - including coverage on the BBC World Service (with its a global audience of 43 million listeners a week, 10 million of whom listen via NPR partner stations in the USA). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
| Sector | Other |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | An economist glimpses the dark side of human nature |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Economists usually assume that people are purely driven by self-interest. But what happens if we no longer assume this, and see what people actually do in controlled experimental settings? What happens, for example, if policies are implemented that reinforce feelings of group membership, be they religious identity or a work team in a company? |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.uea.ac.uk/mac/comm/media/events/2009/mar/economist |
| Description | BBC World Service |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Broadcast on envy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Envy : a deadly sin : an experimental study |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | The underlying motivations for envy or related social preferences and their impact on agricultural innovations are examined by combining data from money burning experimental game and household survey from Ethiopia. Conditional on individual behaviour, experimentally measured envious preferences from others have a negative effect on real life agricultural innovation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Envy and Agricultural Innovation: An Experimental Case Study from Ethiopia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of working paper (Kebede and Zizzo, 2011) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Envy and Agricultural Innovation: An Experimental Case Study from Ethiopia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of Kebede and Zizzo's (2011) working paper |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Envy and Agricultural Innovation: An Experimental Case Study from Ethiopia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of Kebede and Zizzo's (2011) working paper |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Envy and agricultural innovation : an experimental case study from Ethiopia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | This paper examines the impact of envy or related social preferences on agricultural innovations by combining experimental and household survey data. Empirical results indicate that the level of agricultural adoption in these four communities is correlated with the level of envy captured through the experimental games. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| URL | http://beta.nottingham.ac.uk/cedex/events/archive-2010/daniel-zizzo.aspx |
| Description | Envy and agricultural innovation : an experimental case study from Ethiopia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | This paper examines on the one hand the impact of envy or related social preferences on agricultural innovations by combining experimental and household survey data. The experimental work is conducted in four rural villages of Ethiopia. Empirical results indicate that the level of agricultural adoption in these four communities is correlated with the level of envy captured through the experimental games. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| URL | http://www.kent.ac.uk/economics/research/seminars.html |
| Description | Keep Up With the Winners: Experimental Evidence on Risk Taking, Asset Integration, and Peer Effects |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | The presentation reports the result of a field experiment on asset integration and risk taking. We find evidence that winnings in earlier rounds affect risk taking in subsequent rounds, but no evidence that wealth outside the experiment affects risk taking. We find limited evidence of imitation of the risk taking behavior of others that is distinct from learning. We test two different versions of a 'keeping-up-with-the-Joneses' hypothesis and find no evidence for either of them. However, controlling for past winnings, participants who receive a low endowment in a round engage in more risk taking. This is consistent with their reference point being affected by social comparisons. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Keep Up With the Winners: Experimental Evidence on Risk Taking, Asset Integration, and Peer Effects |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | We report the result of a field experiment on asset integration and risk taking. We find evidence that winnings in earlier rounds affect risk taking in subsequent rounds, but no evidence that wealth outside the experiment affects risk taking. We find limited evidence of imitation of the risk taking behavior of others that is distinct from learning. We test two different versions of a 'keeping-up-with-the-Joneses' hypothesis and find no evidence for either of them. However, controlling for past winnings, participants who receive a low endowment in a round engage in more risk taking. This is consistent with their reference point being affected by social comparisons. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Keep Up With the Winners: Experimental Evidence on Risk Taking, Asset Integration, and Peer Effects |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | We report the result of a field experiment on asset integration and risk taking. We find evidence that winnings in earlier rounds affect risk taking in subsequent rounds, but no evidence that wealth outside the experiment affects risk taking. We find limited evidence of imitation of the risk taking behavior of others that is distinct from learning. We test two different versions of a 'keeping-up-with-the-Joneses' hypothesis and find no evidence for either of them. However, controlling for past winnings, participants who receive a low endowment in a round engage in more risk taking. This is consistent with their reference point being affected by social comparisons. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Models and motives : experiments on innovation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | The preliminary findings our field experiment were presented. They suggest a relationship between money burning and the number of innovations undertaken in each Ethiopian village considered in our study. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009 |
| Description | Small workshop on agricultural innovations in Ethiopia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presented at an Addis Ababa, Ethiopia workshop, run before the field work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | The money burning project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | This was part of a broader lecture on research in international development at UEA. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |