Exchanging Land for Solidarity: Solidarity Transfers among Voluntarily Resettled and Non-resettled Land-Reform Beneficiaries

Mutual aid among villagers in developing countries is often the only means of insuring against economic shocks. We use “lab-in-the-field experiments” in Cambodian villages to study solidarity in established and newly resettled communities. Our experimental participants were part of an agricultural land-distribution project for which they signed up voluntarily. Half of our sample voluntarily resettled one and a half years before this study. Playing a version of the “solidarity game,” we identify the effect of voluntary resettlement on willingness to help anonymous fellow villagers. We find...

Mutual aid among villagers in developing countries is often the only means of insuring against economic shocks. We use “lab-in-the-field experiments” in Cambodian villages to study solidarity in established and newly resettled communities. Our experimental participants were part of an agricultural land-distribution project for which they signed up voluntarily. Half of our sample voluntarily resettled one and a half years before this study. Playing a version of the “solidarity game,” we identify the effect of voluntary resettlement on willingness to help anonymous fellow villagers. We find that resettled farmers transfer substantially less money to their fellow villagers than farmers who have not resettled. Our experimental results indicate greater vulnerability on the part of resettled households in the initial years after resettlement.