TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bó,Pedro Dal
AU  - Foster,Andrew
AU  - Putterman,Louis
TI  - Institutions and Behavior: Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Democracy
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13999
PY  - 2008
Y2  - May 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13999
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13999.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Pedro Dal Bó
Department of Economics
Brown University
64 Waterman Street
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401/863-2953
E-Mail: pdalbo@brown.edu

Andrew Foster
Department of Economics and Community Health
Brown University
64 Waterman Street
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401/863-2537
E-Mail: afoster@brown.edu

Louis Putterman
Department of Economics
Brown University
64 Waterman Street
Providence, RI 02912
E-Mail: Louis_Putterman@brown.edu
AB  - A novel experiment is used to show that the effect of a policy on the level of cooperation is greater when it is chosen democratically by the subjects than when it is exogenously imposed. In contrast to the previous literature, our experimental design allows us to control for selection effects (e.g. those who choose the policy may be affected differently by it). Our finding implies that democratic institutions may affect behavior directly in addition to having effects through the choice of policies. Our findings have implications for the generalizability of the results of randomized policy interventions.
ER  -