Cooperation and Discrimination within and Across Language Borders: Evidence from Children in a Bilingual City

28 Pages Posted: 18 May 2015 Last revised: 5 May 2023

See all articles by Silvia Angerer

Silvia Angerer

UMIT TIROL - Private University for Health Sciences and Health Technology

Daniela Glätzle-Rützler

University of Innsbruck - Department of Public Finance

Philipp Lergetporer

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) - Ifo Institute

Matthias Sutter

Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods

Abstract

We present experimental evidence from a bilingual city in Northern Italy on whether the language spoken by a partner in a prisoner's dilemma game affects behavior and leads to discrimination. Running a framed field experiment with 828 six- to eleven-year old primary school children in the city of Meran, we find that cooperation generally increases with age, but that the gap between cooperation among in-group members and cooperation towards children speaking another language is considerable and increasing with age. This gap is due to both, in-group favoritism and language group discrimination.

Keywords: language, discrimination, cooperation, children, experiment

JEL Classification: C91, C93, D03

Suggested Citation

Angerer, Silvia and Glätzle-Rützler, Daniela and Lergetporer, Philipp and Sutter, Matthias, Cooperation and Discrimination within and Across Language Borders: Evidence from Children in a Bilingual City. IZA Discussion Paper No. 9039, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2606892 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2606892

Silvia Angerer (Contact Author)

UMIT TIROL - Private University for Health Sciences and Health Technology ( email )

Eduard-Wallnöfer-Zentrum 1
Hall, Tirol 6060
Austria

Daniela Glätzle-Rützler

University of Innsbruck - Department of Public Finance ( email )

Innrain 52
Innsbruck, 6020
Austria

Philipp Lergetporer

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) - Ifo Institute ( email )

Dresden Branch
Einsteinstraße 3
Dresden, 01069
Germany

Matthias Sutter

Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods ( email )

Kurt-Schumacher-Str. 10
D-53113 Bonn, 53113
Germany

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