Does Money Really Matter? Lab-In-The-Field Evidence from Syrian Refugees in Jordan

Abstract

The use of monetary incentives in behavioral experiments has been debated between economists and psychologists for a long time. This paper extends the question of the differences in behavior to a very specific population, namely Syrian refugees in Jordan. Syrian refugees lost a lot because of the civil war which might make them particularly sensitive to monetary incentives. Alternatively, after having experienced many potentially traumatizing events, monetary incentives might be of secondary importance. We examine the levels of altruism and the levels of trust among two samples, one incentivized through hypothetical points and the other incentivized through monetary payoffs. Members of the two groups do not differ in altruism levels and show the same degrees of trust suggesting that monetary incentives are of only secondary importance in behavioral experiments with refugees.