Altruism with Social Roots: An Emerging Literature

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DESARROLLO Y SO

SEGUNDO SEMESTRE DE 2006, PP. 245-260.

Definition 2 (SP_i) Social proximity is a measure of the distance be-
tween i (dictator) and j (recipient). In our context social proximity
may take on values in the interval [0, 1]: 0 (if j ∈ S_i); 1 (if j ∈ F_i and
the identity of the recipient is known for sure); 1/f_i (if j ∈ F_i and the
identity of the recipient is unknown).

Definition 3 (SI_i) Social integration of player i is a measure of his/her
outstanding cooperation links.

Players with high levels of social integration are involved in long-run
relationships where cooperation is sustainable. This is highly corre-
lated with the number of friends, or degree-out, |F_i|, and individual
centrality measures. The initial paper in this literature is undoubtedly
that of Mobius, Rosenblat and Quoc-Anh (2005) (hereafter MRQ). To
elicit the social network at Harvard dorms MRQ use a coordination
device (with monetary incentives) that lets subjects choose friends
from a list and offers a prize (with some probability) when subjects
coordinate naming each other (see Table 1)⁸_.

⁸ A recent paper by Haan, Koreman and Riemersma (2006) uses “inside” information from
teachers to elicit the social network in a group of children.

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