اهمیت نسبی خودخواهی و انگیزه های سرمایه اجتماعی

This study measures the relative importance of selfishness and social capital motives using resource allocation data collected in hypothetical surveys and non-hypothetical experiments. Social capital motives allow an agent's well-being to be influenced by his sympathetic relationships with others. The assumption that selfishness can explain nearly all resource allocations is rejected.

The purpose of this study is to compare the relative importance of selfishness and social capital motives. The selfishness motive assumes that an agent's allocation of a scarce resource is independent of his relationships with others. In contrast, social capital motives assume that an agent's allocation of a scarce resource may be influenced by his sympathetic relationships with others. The relative importance of motives on resource allocations is important because the standard neoclassical utility (SNU) model assumes agents’ motives are selfish. If it can be demonstrated that relationships have an important influence on resource allocations, then the SNU model can be improved by extending it to account for social capital motives. To begin, this paper briefly restates the support for the selfishness motive. Then we review the support for social capital motives that depend on agents’ sympathetic relationships with others. A framework that allowed us to measure the relative importance of motives is developed by introducing social capital coefficients into the SNU model. The resulting model is then estimated using data collected in both hypothetical surveys and non-hypothetical experiments. To measure the relative importance of selfishness and social capital motives, an early effort asked respondents about their allocation of a scarce resource when their choices could alter the well-being of others in a hypothetical prisoner of war setting (Robison, 1996). This paper adds to that earlier effort by asking hypothetical questions about resource allocations in more general settings and by conducting non-hypothetical experiments in which respondents allocate actual dollars. After reporting the results of these experiments and additional surveys, this paper concludes with a discussion of the need to more fully integrate social capital considerations into resources allocation related research.

This study reports on efforts designed to measure the relative importance of selfishness and social capital motives. To measure the relative importance of motives, the SNU model was extended by introducing relationships into the model using social capital coefficients. The resulting model generated several hypotheses describing how social capital influenced agents’ resource allocations. Data obtained from hypothetical surveys and non-hypothetical experiments provide support for the hypothesis that relationships alter resource allocation decision. The assumption that the selfishness motive can explain nearly all (95%) of an agent's resource allocation was rejected in all of the tests. The implications of the results of this study are significant. The assumption of selfishness that underlies many applications of the SNU model may be unsupported. Moreover, studies of externalities and investment in public goods that have assumed agents are mostly selfish ignore the possibility that social capital motives may on their own provide incentives to cooperate and care for the commons without outside threats (Ostrom and Ahn, 2003). Recognizing the importance of social capital in allocating resources may help in explaining economic behavior and lead to more enlightened policy decisions.