My recent work examines social influences on perceptions, construal, preferences, and performance. Individuals are not autonomous; they see things through a social lens. I’ve studied interventions that change dysfunctional social lenses. I’ve shown that participatory theater in India reduced domestic violence. I’ve shown that law can be used to change prototypes of categories and thereby reduce bias. I’ve also studied how the culture of honor impedes the ability to coordinate: in the culture of honor, a loss imposed by a coordination failure is interpreted as an insult, which triggers retaliation and so undermines trust.
Selected Publications
The Third Function of Law Is to Transform Cultural Categories
K. Hoff, J. Walsh
In K. Basu, R. Hockett (eds), Law, Economics, and Conflict,
Cornell University Press, 2021, pp. 55-85 (in press).
Lab-in-the-field Experiments: Insights into Discrimination and Ways to Reduce It
A. Demeritt, K. Hoff
The Handbook on Economics of Discrimination and Affirmative Action, A. Deshpande (ed.), Springer.
Cultural Impediments to Learning to Cooperate: An Experimental Study of High- and Low-Caste Men in Rural India
B. Brooks, K. Hoff, P. Pandey
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018) 115 (45): 11385-11392.
Striving for Balance in Economics: Towards a Theory of the Social Determination of Behavior
K. Hoff, J.E. Stiglitz
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (2016) 126B, 25-57.
Making Up People: The Effect of Identity on Performance in a Modernizing Society
K. Hoff, P. Pandey
Journal of Development Economics (2014) 106: 108-131
Caste and Punishment: The Legacy of Caste Culture in Norm Enforcement
K. Hoff, M. Kshetramade, E. Fehr
Economic Journal (2011) 121: F449-475
Equilibrium Fictions: A Cognitive Approach to Societal Rigidity
K Hoff, JE Stiglitz
American Economic Review (2010) 100 (2). 141-146.
Online appendix
Exiting a Lawless State
K. Hoff, J.E. Stiglitz
Economic Journal (2008) 118: 1474-1497.
Discrimination, Social Identity, and Durable Inequalities
K. Hoff, P. Pandey
American Economic Review (2006) 96(2), 206-211.
The Kin System as a Poverty Trap?
K. Hoff, A. Sen
Poverty Traps (eds. Bowles, Durlauf, Hoff) (Princeton U Press, 2006) 96-115.
Homeownership, Community Interactions, and Segregation
K. Hoff, A. Sen
American Economic Review (2005) 95(4), 11167-1185.
After the Big Bang? Obstacles to the Emergence of the Rule of Law in Post-Communist Societies
K. Hoff, J.E. Stiglitz
American Economic Review (2004) 94(3) 753-763.
Paths of Institutional Development: A View from Economic History
K. Hoff
World Bank Research Observer (2003) 18(2) 205-226.
Modern Economic Theory and Development
K. Hoff, J.E. Stiglitz
Frontiers of Development Economics, eds. G. Meier and J.E. Stiglitz, Oxford U Press (2001), 389-459
Beyond Rosenstein-Rodan: The Modern Theory of Coordination Problems in Development
K. Hoff
Proceedings of the Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics 2000 (2001): 145-188.
Edited Books
Poverty Traps (with S. Bowles and S. Durlauf), Princeton University Press, 2006 (paperback edition, 2016).
The Economics of Rural Organization: Theory, Practice, and Policy (with A. Braverman and J.E. Stiglitz), Oxford University Press, 1993.
