We analyse new experimental and survey data from rural Cameroon, where the level of trust is much higher than is typical of Africa. We find the level of trust exhibited by individuals to be highly correlated with membership of Rotating Saving and Credit Associations. There is also a significant...

Using a survey and an experiment, we identify the personal characteristics associated with the difference between an individual's giving to charity and her vote in a referendum on charitable giving. Under certain circumstances, high levels of self-reported trust and happiness, and participation...

This paper econometrically examines the impact of aid on the well-being of population sub-groups within 48 developing countries. This is a radical departure from previous empirical research of aid effectiveness at the country level, which has looked mainly at the relationship between aid and...

In the extensive empirical literature on aid effectiveness, aid is always measured as a share of GDP. However, measuring aid in real dollars per capita is also consistent with standard growth theory. We show that the choice of denominator makes an enormous difference to the sign and significance...

Broadly speaking, economic experiments and surveys have found trust to be much lower in Africa than in industrialized countries. We analyze new experimental and survey results from rural Cameroon, where the average level of trust appears to be much higher than is typical of Africa. A substantial...

In this paper we use experimental data collected in rural Cameroon to quantify the effect of social distance on trust and altruism. Our measure of social distance is one that is relevant to everyday economic interactions: subjects in a Trust Game play with fellow villagers or with someone from a...

We analyze the correlation between survey-based measures of trust and behavior in the Trust Game in two villages in Cameroon. Some participants play the Trust Game with people from their own village, and others with people from a neighboring village. The survey that the participants complete...

We conduct a simple experiment in which student participants are invited to give some of the money that they have earned to an international development charity. In different treatments, participants are given different information about the country in which the donation will be spent. The...