Dear colleagues,

The Department of Economics cordially invites you to the WU Economic Research Seminar (Department Seminar) on Wednesday, June 6, with

Fabian Kosse

(University of Bonn)

on

"The Formation of Prosociality: Causal Evidence on the Role of Social Environment"

Abstract: This study presents descriptive and causal evidence on the role of social environment for the formation of prosociality. In a first step, we show that socioeconomic status (SES) as well as the intensity of mother-child interaction and mothers’ prosocial attitudes are systematically related to elementary school children’s prosociality. In a second step, we present evidence on a randomly- assigned variation of the social environment, providing children with a mentor for the duration of one year. Our data include a two-year follow-up and reveal a significant and persistent increase in prosociality in the treatment relative to the control group. Moreover, enriching the social environment bears the potential to close the observed gap in prosociality between low and high SES children. A mediation analysis of the observed treatment effect suggests that prosociality develops in response to stimuli in the form of prosocial role models and intense social interactions.

Time and place: Wednesday, June 6, 4.30 – 6.00 p.m., Campus WU, Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna, building D4, 2^nd floor, Department meeting room 2.008.

With best regards,

Harald Oberhofer

---

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Harald Oberhofer

Institute for International Economics

WU Vienna University of Economics and Business

Phone: +43/1/31336-4984

Fax: +43/1/31336-4984

Email: harald.oberhofer@wu.ac.at

Webpage: https://www.wu.ac.at/ie/mitarbeiter/harald-oberhofer/

Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO)

Phone: +43/1/7982601-468

Fax: +43/1/7989386

Email: harald.oberhofer@wifo.ac.at

Webpage: http://www.wifo.ac.at/harald_oberhofer