The evolution of honesty

The evolution of honesty

A model of the cultural co-evolution of honesty and capital is analyzed. It is shown that the sign of the payoff differential between honest and dishonest types depends on the ratio of benefits that an employee gets from shirking to the resulting loss of revenue to the firm. If this ratio decreases...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of economic behavior & organization Vol. 54; no. 1; pp. 1 - 17
Main Authors: Somanathan, E, Rubin, Paul H
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-05-2004
Elsevier
Elsevier Sequoia S.A
Series:Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
Subjects:
Absenteeism
Capital
Cultural evolution
Economic models
Economics
Employees
Enterprises
Growth
Honesty
Human behaviour
Human capital
Labour productivity
Payoffs
Per capita output
Profit
Social capital
Social research
Studies
Workers
Honesty
Cultural evolution
Growth
Z13
Social capital
O10
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A model of the cultural co-evolution of honesty and capital is analyzed. It is shown that the sign of the payoff differential between honest and dishonest types depends on the ratio of benefits that an employee gets from shirking to the resulting loss of revenue to the firm. If this ratio decreases with capital accumulation, then multiple equilibria in output and honesty are possible in the long run. Small changes in government corruptibility may have large long-run effects on per capita output and the extent of honesty. The honesty and human capital of workers will be positively correlated.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0167-2681
1879-1751
DOI:10.1016/j.jebo.2002.10.005