Orphans and Pro‐social Behaviour: Evidence from Uganda

Abstract

Disease and violence escalates the prevalence of orphanhood. We investigate whether individuals who were orphaned as a child suffer long-term consequences on their pro-sociality. We conduct a lab-in-the-field experiment in rural Uganda where, among other contributing factors, the HIV/AIDS pandemic hit hardest. Subjects made decisions to contribute to a public good. Results indicate that adults who were orphaned as a child contribute less. We provide evidence that an important channel through which the mechanism operates is through social norms. Subjects orphaned tend to have lower expectations regarding typical behaviour of others. A strong interaction effect is identified where those with the lowest expectations who were also orphaned contribute the least to the public good. Thus, we document orphanhood's long-term consequences to a community.

A Literature Review of Pandemics and Development: the Long-Term Perspective

“…The extraordinary mortality associated with the Black Death is the most crucial factor in explaining its exceptional long-term consequences for European and global socioeconomic development (Pamuk 2007;Voigtländer and Voth 2013). Research on the consequences of HIV has rightly focused on its sexual transmission (Young 2005;Oster 2012;Fawaz et al 2019;Gori et al 2020) and the intergenerational consequences of increased mortality among working-age adults (Wobst and Arndt 2004;McDonald and Roberts 2006;McCannon and Rodriguez 2019). Therefore, the results offered by a general economic analysis of pandemics should be considered a wide collection of potential mechanisms, their empirical applicability and relative importance to be carefully weighed on a case-by-case basis.…”

“…They use a long-term social trust survey and discover that: (i) the immigrants born after the Spanish flu and their heirs have lower social trust than those born before; and (ii) the effect is higher for those from countries with less uncensored information on pandemic effects. Using a behavioral experiment in Uganda, McCannon and Rodriguez (2019) find that grown-up orphans tend to have lower social capital. The probability of prosocial behavior is lower because orphans are more pessimistic about the community's social contributions.…”

The long-term economic effects of pandemics: toward an evolutionary approach

“…Moreover, pandemics interrupt knowledge transfer across generations, leading to significant reductions in total factor productivity growth over time (Bar and Leukhina, 2010). Pandemics also reduce health capital (McDonald and Roberts, 2006) and social capital (McCannon and Rodriguez, 2019;Aassve et al, 2021). Although the previous mechanisms emerge in every pandemic with varying intensity, some scholars highlight additional effects specific to a subset of pandemics.…”

“…Other scholars show the relevance of the spatial and timing heterogeneity of the pandemic effect, with the fundamental discriminant usually being national income Rjoub, 2019, 2020;Bloom et al, 2021). In low-income countries, some previously described mechanisms, such as poverty traps (Gaffeo, 2003;Gustafsson-Wright et al, 2011;Fawaz et al, 2019;McCannon and Rodriguez, 2019) and human capital effects (Cuddington, 1993a;Cuddington and Hancock, 1994;Novella, 2018) could be particularly harmful. Vice versa, in high-income countries, long-term pandemic effects are not as dramatic as before, and the overall effect of these conflicting mechanisms is usually close to zero.…”

Enhancing the resilience of the orphans using the Ubuntu philosophy: A case of Marange community in Zimbabwe

“…They have not been given the opportunity to benefit from community empowerment programmes. The failure to participate and access community empowerment programmes has perpetuated the experienced distress (McCannon & Rodriguez, 2021). Irrespective of the limitation, the Ubuntu philosophy serves as a reminder to the community members to care, love and protect the disadvantaged members of the community.…”