Dari-Mattiacci, GiuseppeFabbri, Marco2023-07-122023-07-122023Dari-Mattiacci G, Fabbri M. How institutions shape morality. J Law Econ Organ. 2023;39(1):160-98. DOI: 10.1093/jleo/ewab0168756-6222http://hdl.handle.net/10230/57547We present the results of a randomized control trial on the effect of the introduction of formalized property rights on individuals’ moral judgments and, in particular, on utilitarian morality. We show that institutions shape morality: being exposed to private property institutions makes individuals more utilitarian when confronted with moral dilemmas. Our results shed light on a possible institutional determinant of the variation of moral judgments across the globe and its geographical patterns, and have implications for the consequences of major institutional reforms—both intended, such as land-titling programs, and unintended, such as those following from recent historical events—on moral attitudes. We discuss two possible channels stemming from the inherent features of property rights: the loosening of social ties and the commodification of rights (JEL codes: K11; O13; Z10; Z13).application/pdfeng© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Yale University. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Associacions, institucions, etc. -- Aspectes ètics i moralsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jleo/ewab016info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess