The Spite Dilemma Experiment in Korea

This paper investigates a choice behavior of Korean subjects for the provision of public goods using the voluntary contribution mechanism in Saijo and Nakamura (1995). Together with the data from Saijo and Nakamura (1995) and Saijo et al. (2007), we conclude that whereas Japanese subjects are more likely to behave spitefully, Korean and Chinese subjects are more likely to act cooperatively. We also analyze the behavior of Korean subjects after being categorized by department. Subjects from the economics department follow a pattern of a contribution not much different from the theoretical expectation, and subjects from the college of social sciences show a similar pattern. The subjects who act spitefully are from the department of agricultural economics.