When the rich do (not) trust the (newly) rich: Experimental evidence on the effects of positive random shocks in the trust game.

We study behavior in a trust game where first‐movers initially have a higher endowment than second‐movers but the occurrence of a positive random shock can eliminate this inequality by increasing the endowment of the second‐mover before the decision of the first‐mover. We find that second‐movers ret...

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Published in:Southern Economic Journal Vol. 92; no. 2; pp. 434 - 470
Main Authors: Bejarano, Hernan, Gillet, Joris, Rodriguez‐Lara, Ismael
Format: Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Oct2025
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Oct2025
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        10.1002/soej.12758
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        atl: When the rich do (not) trust the (newly) rich: Experimental evidence on the effects of positive random shocks in the trust game.
      aug:
        au:
          Bejarano, Hernan
          Gillet, Joris
          Rodriguez‐Lara, Ismael
        affil:
          Center of Economics Research and Teaching, Economics Division (CIDE), Mexico City, Mexico
          Economic Science Institute (ESI), Chapman University, Orange California,, USA
          Resource Economics Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Massachusetts,, USA
          Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Middlesex University, London, UK
          Departamento de Teoría e Historia Económica, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain
      su:
        Trust
        Information asymmetry
        Reciprocity (Psychology)
        Behavioral economics
      sug:
        subj:
          Trust
          Information asymmetry
          Reciprocity (Psychology)
          Behavioral economics
      keyword:
        endowment heterogeneity
        luck
        random shocks
        trust game
        endowment heterogeneity
        luck
        random shocks
        trust game
      ab: We study behavior in a trust game where first‐movers initially have a higher endowment than second‐movers but the occurrence of a positive random shock can eliminate this inequality by increasing the endowment of the second‐mover before the decision of the first‐mover. We find that second‐movers return less (i.e., they are less trustworthy) when they have a lower endowment than first‐movers, compared with the case in which first and second‐movers have the same endowment. In addition, second‐movers who experience the positive shock return more than second‐movers who have the same endowment as the first‐mover from the outset. First‐movers do not seem to anticipate this behavior from second‐movers. They send less to second‐movers who benefited from a shock. Our findings suggest that in addition to the distribution of the endowments the source of this distribution plays an important role in determining the levels of trust and trustworthiness.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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