Abstract

Institutions, both formal and informal, are critical determinants of economic growth and development. Social norms are a fundamental underpinning of institutions. In this study, we present preliminary results of the impact of the underlying social norms regarding cheating behavior cross culturally. We use experimental methods to examine injunctive social norms (subjects’ shared beliefs on the social acceptability of behavior) and descriptive social norms (subjects’ beliefs on others’ behavior) across four countries: Guatemala, Turkey, Sweden and the UK. These countries vary considerably according to widely used macro-level indicators such as the Corruption Perception Index, Rule of Law Index, etc. We also classify individuals according to the interpretation of their injunctive norms into different types of ethic systems. Initial analysis suggest that these countries differ in the degree of heterogeneity in injunctive social norms.