Measuring the impact of identity on economic decisions is difficult. Benjamin, Choi and Strickland (2010), however, use a novel approach to get a wealth of data on the effect of ethnic, racial and gender identities on time and risk preferences. If test subjects are “primed” with an identity, their behavior temporarily changes to reflect the norms of that identity. Using this technique, the authors find wide differences across racial identities. Gender, however, does not seem to matter much.
Benjamin, Daniel, James Choi, and Joshua Strickland (2010), “Social Identity and Preferences,” American Economic Review, 100 (4), pp. 1913–1928. http://www.arts.cornell.edu/econ/dbenjamin/socialID.pdf
