This paper shows that a principal's distrust in the voluntary performanceof an agent has a negative impact on the agent's motivation to perform well.

We investigate whether two crucial determinants of economic decision making willingness to take risks and willingness to trust other people are transmitted from parents to children. Our evidence is based on survey questions that ask about these attitudes directly, and are good measures in the...

Social preference research has fundamentally changed the way economists think about many important economic and social phenomena. However, the empirical foundation of social preferences is largely based on laboratory experiments with self-selected students as participants. This is potentially...

This paper provides field experimental evidence on the prevalence and determinants of discrimination and in-group favoritism in trust decisions. We observe choices of about 1,000 inhabitants of the city of Zurich who take part in a sequential trust game, in which first movers can condition their...