This paper studies altruistic behavior in a model of local interaction. Individuals live on a circle and choose whether to altruistically provide a local public good. Choices are based on imitation of successful neighbors and experimentation. The public good is assumed to be less local than imitation. In the absence of experimentation altruism can prevail and coexist with egoism as long as the public good is non-global. With experimentation altruism persists in the long run only if the population is large relative to the reach of the public good.

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Altruism and Local Interaction
Jonas Hedlund1
1Departamento de Métodos Cuantitativos, CUCEA, Universidad de Guadalajara, jonas@merlin.fae.ua.es
Citation Information: The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics. Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages –, ISSN (Online) 1935-1704, DOI: 10.1515/1935-1704.1851, June 2012
Publication History:
- Published Online:
- 2012-06-09
Keywords: altruism; imitation; local interaction


















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