Honesty and excellence: the effect of enforcement on theft deterrence
Date
2012-10-19
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Abstract
This paper aims to gain insight into the economic and sociological mechanisms involved with dishonesty and cooperation in everyday life through a natural field experiment. Designed to test the receptiveness of consumers to the introduction of a deterrent, the experiment makes use of the University of the Philippines Diliman's bluebook market wherein an honesty system is commonly used, and measures the prevalence of theft before and after the installation of a warn~ng sign against theft. We find that the presence of a sign as an enforcer is effective in deterring theft. Furthermore, using geographical location to approximate the degree courses of the consumers per bluebook stall, we find that subjects with higher IQ are more likely to cooperate and pay the correct price ยท of the good after the warning sign IS introduced.
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Keywords
Theft, Dishonesty, Economic mechanism, Sociological mechanism