{"doi":"10.3390/g9040075","title":"Do Economists Punish Less?","abstract":"<jats:p>A number of studies discuss whether and how economists differ from other disciplines in the amount that they contribute to public goods. We view this debate as incomplete because it neglects the willingness to sanction non-cooperative behavior, which is crucial for maintaining social order and for sustaining the provision of public goods. We study the decision whether to engage in costly punishment of a free rider in a survey-based experiment with 1423 students from seven study areas in the social sciences, as well as medicine at Aarhus University, Denmark. Using a dictator game and a social dilemma game, that captures essential features of the public goods game, we replicate previous findings that economics students give significantly less than students from other disciplines. However, when subjects decide whether or not to punish a free rider, we find that economics students are just as likely to punish as students from other disciplines.</jats:p>","journal":"Games","year":2018,"id":673940,"datarank":0.29188652235829704,"base_score":1.9459101490553132,"endowment":1.9459101490553132,"self_citation_contribution":0.29188652235829704,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.29188652235829704,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":6,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1760833,"name":"Kasper Selmar Pedersen","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1760834,"name":"Alexander K. 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Using a dictator game and a social dilemma game, that captures essential features of the public goods game, we replicate previous findings that economics students give significantly less than students from other disciplines. However, when subjects decide whether or not to punish a free rider, we find that economics students are just as likely to punish as students from other disciplines.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":1.9459101490553132,"endowment":1.9459101490553132,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"19162232","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2894273913","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"IMC Seed Funding, Interacting Minds Centre at Aarhus University","grant_id":"2017-143","title":null}],"total_grants":1,"fwci":0.3438,"citation_percentile":0.69749333,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2021,"count":1},{"year":2022,"count":2},{"year":2024,"count":2},{"year":2025,"count":1}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/9/4/75/pdf?version=1538277188","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/9/4/75/pdf?version=1538277188","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/9/4/75/pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.3390/g9040075","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/9/4/75/","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/a15737fb28ff4f3f8b7dc85b0f3d7092","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10419/219196","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/g9040075","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/d2be4336-6de4-429d-8981-9300c49adcb8","host_type":""},{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/9/4/75","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies","Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment","Culture, Economy, and Development Studies"],"mesh_terms":[],"keywords":["Public good","Public goods game","Social dilemma","Experimental economics","Dictator game","Free rider problem","Punishment (psychology)","Dilemma","Strong reciprocity","Dictator","Economics","Free riding","Social preferences","Order (exchange)","Game theory","Prisoner's dilemma","Social psychology","Microeconomics","Positive economics","Public economics","Repeated game","Psychology","Political science","Incentive","Law"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Peace, Justice and strong institutions"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-16T14:59:18.433466Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}