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My Neighbor Next Floor: The Built Environment and Social Preferences

Marco Castillo¹; Ragan Petrie²; Rong Rong³

¹ Department of Economics, Texas A&M University; CESifo Research Network; IZA; [email protected] · ² Department of Economics, Texas A&M University; CESifo Research Network; [email protected] · ³ Department of Resource Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst [email protected]

Abstract We assess the effect of the built environment on low-cost helping behavior toward neighbors. The setting is households in Shanghai, China that, due to rapid development, were involuntarily, i.e. as good as randomly, relocated to different building structures. Using a natural field experiment of misdelivered mail, we test the causal effect of spatial proximity and the built environment on helping behavior. Living one floor apart reduces the willingness to help a neighbor by 16 percentage points, similar to adding one more apartment per floor. Small spatial barriers can profoundly shape social interactions, and helping behavior, in urban settings.

DOI

10.1162/rest.a.1684

Pages

1-45

Language

en

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