Author: Hoff, Karla Ruth
Title: Caste and Punishment: The Legacy of Caste Culture in a Norm Enforcement
Summary: Well-functioning groups enforce social norms that restrain opportunism, but the social structure of a society may encourage or inhibit norm enforcement. This study shows how the exogenous assignment to different positions in an extreme social hierarchy - the caste system - affects individuals' willingness to punishment violations of a cooperation norm. Although the study controls 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 punishment may inhibit the low caste's ability to sustain collective action and so may contribute to its economic vulnerability.
Details: Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2009. 45p.
Source: Discussion Paper Series/IZA; No. 4343; Internet Resource
Year: 2009
Country: International
URL:
Shelf Number: 116385
Keywords:
CastePunishmentSocial ClassSocial ExclusionSocioeconomic Status |
