Dirk Ehnts — Sympathy for the deficit – or better empathy?

It seems that prosocial behavior is acquired, not hardwired into the genes. If that is so, the recent failure of empathy in the European Monetary Union has much deeper roots than financial problems. Perhaps antisocial behavior was rewarded too much in the past, with taxes falling for the wealthier part of Europeans, tax flight being more and more common and financial crimes were decriminalized.

econoblog101
Sympathy for the deficit – or better empathy?
Dirk Ehnts | Berlin School for Economics and Law

Two relevant recent findings. First, taking university courses in economics makes on less pro-social, and secondly, elevated social status and wealth also make one less pro-social. Maybe there are some lessons here.

Steve Roth — Creating the Commons: A Tragedy in No Acts

I've been posting on the commons lately. Here are some of Steve Roth's thoughts on "the tragedy of the commons." It's a travesty. The cattlemen knew what they were up against with they resisted the sheep herders' push for enclosure.

Asymptosis
Creating the Commons: A Tragedy in No Acts
Steve Roth

Chris Dillow — The Power Of Prosocial Motivation

Chris Dillow reports on scientific research on reciprocity as a motivator. This study suggests that reciprocity is a more powerful motivator than narrow self-interest.

What this research does do, though, is further undermine the notion that high-powered selfish incentives are the best way of motivating people. This belief probably rests more upon a desire to justify inequality than it does upon a basis of empirical evidence.

Read it at Stumbling and Mumbling — An extremist, not a fanatic
The Power Of Prosocial Motivation

Chris Dillow | "Economist, Marxist, cook, bluegrass guitarist"
His "day job" is writing for Investors Chronicle (UK)

(h/t Mark Thoma)

Not surprisingly this kind of behavior is found far down the evolutionary chain because the ability and propensity to coordinate favors adaptability rate, as Roger Erickson would say.