Are the Rich More Selfish than the Poor, or Do They Just Have More Money? A Natural Field Experiment

James Andreoni; Nikos Nikiforakis; Jan Stoop

doi:10.3386/w23229

Are the Rich More Selfish than the Poor, or Do They Just Have More Money? A Natural Field Experiment

James Andreoni, Nikos Nikiforakis & Jan Stoop

Working Paper 23229

DOI 10.3386/w23229

Issue Date March 2017

The growing concentration of resources among the rich has re-ignited a discussion about whether the rich are more selfish than others. While many recent studies show the rich behaving less pro-socially, endogeneity and selection problems prevent safe inferences about differences in social preferences. We present new evidence from a natural field experiment in which we “misdeliver” envelopes to rich and poor households in a Dutch city, varying their contents to identify motives for returning them. Our raw data indicate the rich behave more pro-socially. Controlling for pressures associated with poverty and the marginal utility of money, however, we find no difference in social preferences. The primary distinction between rich and poor is simply that the rich have more money.

We would like to thank Olivier Bochet, Zachary Breig, Aurélie Dariel, Robert Dur, PJ Henry, Steven Levitt, John List, Drazen Prelec, Travis Proulx, Vitalie Spiny, Darjusch Tafreschi, Joost Verlaan, Pepijn Pest, participants in seminars at Berlin Social Science Center, Erasmus University, Kiel University, New York University Abu Dhabi, Tilburg University, the University of Athens, the University of Chicago, the University of Nottingham, and Wageningen University, and conference participants of FUR, TIBER, and SPI for useful comments. We are also grateful to ERIM and NWO (Veni grant 016.155.026), the National Science Foundation (grants SES-1427355 and SES-1658952 to Andreoni), the Science of Philanthropy Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation (to Andreoni) for financial support. The authors acknowledge access to linked data resources by the Central Bureau of Statistics Netherlands. Researchers hoping to use the data found in this article can apply for access to CBS. The authors of this paper are willing to offer guidance about the application. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
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Are the Rich More Selfish than the Poor, or Do They Just Have More Money? A Natural Field Experiment

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