%0 Report
        %A Gächter, Simon
%A Starmer, Chris
%A Tufano, Fabio
        %T Revealing the Economic Consequences of Group Cohesion
        %D 2017
        %8 2017 Jun
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 10824
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp10824
        %X We introduce the concept of "group cohesion" to capture the economic consequences of ubiquitous social relationships in group production. We measure group cohesion, adapting the "oneness scale" from psychology. A comprehensive program of new experiments reveals the considerable economic impact of cohesion: higher cohesion groups are significantly more likely to achieve Pareto-superior outcomes in classic weak-link coordination games. 
We show that effects of cohesion are economically large, robust, and portable. We identify social preferences as a primary mechanism explaining the effects of cohesion. Our results provide proof of concept for group cohesion as a productive new tool of economic research.
        %K weak-link game
%K coordination
%K oneness
%K group cohesion
%K social relationships
%K experiments
%K real groups