Economic Incentives and Social Norms Can Lead Actors to Prosocial Behavior: An Evidence-Based Framework and Findings

Abstract

This article attempts a search for economic, sociological and even psychological answers about the foundations of individual’s prosocial behavior with a focus on economic incentives and social norms. First, we present an evidence-based approach of individual’s prosocial behavior using the justification and the economies of worth of Boltanski and Thevenot (2006). After that, we analyze a prosocial behavior applied to the process of maturity repayment of individual loans. We propose two different methods to check the theoretical propositions: logit and probit method in one hand and fractional method of Papke and Wooldridge (1996) in other hand. The logit and probit method are estimated in the aim of better understanding of the influencing factors of the maturity repayment behavior of borrowers. Estimation of fractional method helps to learn about the probability of delinquency in loan repayment. The results attest the theoretical propositions.