Perceived Social Status and Economic Decision Making in Merida, Mexico

• In Event: Interactions Across Social Sectors in Merida, Yucatan

Abstract

Over the last decade, researchers from Mexico’s INEGI and global institutions report growth in the Mexican middle class and that millions of people have benefited from improved economic outcomes. Nevertheless, social stratification continues to be an ever-present force in economic, political, and social opportunities and outcomes in Mexico. In this study, we examine the relationship between perceived socio-economic status and social class, and prosocial behavior. We run an economic experiment using over three hundred undergraduate students at two universities in Merida, Mexico: La Universidad de Marista, a private, Catholic university, and la Universidad Autónama de Yucatán, a public university. Subjects play the Ultimatum Game, an established economic experiment that reveals beliefs about social norms regarding equity and reciprocity, and complete a demographic survey that includes the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status. In the control group students play the Ultimatum Game with students from their own university while the treatment group has students play with peers from the other university. Smaller subsets of students participate in focus groups to explore beliefs about social norms in Mérida. The theoretical literature suggests three possible factors in determining prosocial behavior among individuals with potentially different social class: fairness, status, and similarity. The empirical literature has produced mixed results on the relationship between social class and prosocial behavior. We will test all three perspectives.

Authors

• Marie Petkus, Centre College

• Genny D Ballard, Centre College