An International Comparison of Altruism and Bequest Motives: The Case of China, India, Japan and The United States
2010/08/17
研討會日期 : 2010-08-17
時間 : 14:30
主講人 : Professor Charles Yuji Horioka
地點 : B110
演講者簡介 : Charles Yuji Horioka got his Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University in 1985. He is currently serving as Professor of Economics at the Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University. His research interest is in macroeconomics (consumption, saving) and Japanese economy.
演講摘要 : In this paper, I analyze comparable data on the degree of altruism, the strength and nature of bequest motives, and bequest division for four countries (China, India, Japan, and the United States) from a multi-country household survey conducted by Osaka University in order to shed light on the degree to which individuals are altruistic toward their parents, children, and charitable organizations (complete strangers) and the extent to which individuals’ degree of altruism varies from country to country. I find that there are substantial variations among countries in the degree of altruism of their citizens, with Indians and Americans being the most altruistic (the least selfish), the Japanese being the least altruistic (the most selfish), and the Chinese being somewhere in between. As for the reasons for these findings, it appears that inter-country differences in income levels are not an important reason for inter-country differences in the degree of altruism, that inter-country differences in culture may be an important reason therefor, and that inter-country differences in the degree of religiosity are likely to be an important reason therefor.
