Altruism in governance: Insights from randomized training for Pakistan's junior ministers

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Mehmood, Sultan; Naseer, Shaheen; Chen, Daniel L.
• 署名单位: New Economic School; University of Oxford; Universite de Toulouse; Universite Toulouse 1 Capitole; Toulouse School of Economics
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2024.103317
• 发表日期: 2024
• 关键词: economics; Soft -skills; Prosociality; altruism; Policymakers

摘要

Randomizing different schools of thought in training altruism finds that training junior deputy ministers in the utility of empathy renders at least a 0.4 standard deviation increase in altruism. Treated ministers increased their perspective-taking: blood donations doubled, but only when blood banks requested their exact blood type. Perspective-taking in strategic dilemmas improved. Field measures such as orphanage visits and volunteering in impoverished schools also increased, as did their test scores in teamwork assessments in policy scenarios. Overall, our results underscore that the utility of empathy can be a parsimonious foundation for the formation of prosociality, even impacting the behavior of adults in the field.