Workers’ Propensity to Make a Monetary Sacrifice in Favour of Colleagues or People from the General Population: A Comparison based on an Artefactual Field Experiment

Abstract

By drawing on a dataset collected through an artefactual field experiment, this paper analyses the propensity of social cooperative workers to make a monetary sacrifice in favour of colleagues or people drawn randomly from the general population. We find that workers tend to sacrifice lower amounts when it benefits colleagues rather than people from the general population. By analysing first- and second-order beliefs, we show that the former partly account for the difference in workers’ choices; however, our analysis reveals that other motives count. A possible explanation, which is rooted in the distinction between moralistic and knowledge-based trust is provided.