eprintid: 3869
rev_number: 8
eprint_status: archive
userid: 69
dir: disk0/00/00/38/69
datestamp: 2018-01-24 10:14:06
lastmod: 2018-01-24 10:14:06
status_changed: 2018-01-24 10:14:06
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Bilancini, Ennio
creators_name: Boncinelli, Leonardo
creators_name: Wu, Jiabin
creators_id: ennio.bilancini@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
title: The interplay of cultural intolerance and action-assortativity for the emergence of cooperation and homophily
ispublished: pub
subjects: HB
subjects: JZ
divisions: EIC
full_text_status: public
note: Prisoner dilemma; Assortativity; Cultural aversion; Cooperation; type-monomorphic
abstract: This paper investigates the emergence of cooperation in a heterogeneous population that is divided into two cultural groups. Agents are randomly matched in pairs to engage in a prisoner dilemma. The matching process is assortative in actions, that is, cooperators are more likely to be matched with cooperators, defectors are more likely to be matched with defectors. Agents exhibit a form of cultural intolerance: when two agents of different cultures are matched, they suffer a cost due to their cultural differences. We find that when cultural intolerance is sufficiently strong, homophily emerges together with perfect correlation between culture and behavior: all agents from one cultural group cooperate, while all agents from the other cultural group defect, and interactions among agents within the same cultural group are more frequent. The relation between cultural intolerance and societal welfare is non-monotonic. In particular, stronger cultural intolerance can increase cooperation when action-assortativity is weak, while it can increase defection when action-assortativity is strong. Moreover, everyone cooperating does not necessarily maximize total welfare unless cultural intolerance can be made sufficiently weak.
date: 2018
date_type: published
publication: European Economic Review
volume: 102
publisher: Elsevier
pagerange: 1-18
id_number: doi: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2017.12.001
refereed: TRUE
issn: 0014-2921
official_url: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2017.12.001
citation:   Bilancini, Ennio and Boncinelli, Leonardo and Wu, Jiabin  The interplay of cultural intolerance and action-assortativity for the emergence of cooperation and homophily.  European Economic Review, 102.  pp. 1-18.  ISSN 0014-2921      (2018)  
document_url: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/3869/1/BILANCINI.pdf