Department of Economics2024-11-1020200167-268110.1016/j.jebo.2019.03.0152-s2.0-85064316802http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2019.03.015https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14288/16114We study cheating behavior in a large sample of elementary school children in the context of a creative performance task, in the presence and absence of performance incentives. Our data come from a sample of 720 elementary school children with an average age of 8, and contain rich information on a large set of correlates, such as risk and time preferences, IQ, gender and family characteristics. We document that children with higher IQ and higher socioeconomic status have a higher likelihood of cheating. We find that the presence of incentives for better performance does not increase cheating behavior. We also document an interesting interaction between altruism and incentives: altruistic students cheat significantly less in the presence of incentives. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.EconomicsJournal Article1879-1751582798600037Q32790