Games 2011, 2(1), 1-15; doi:10.3390/g2010001
Article

Cycles of Conditional Cooperation in a Real-Time Voluntary Contribution Mechanism

M. Vittoria Levati 1  and Ro’i Zultan 2,* email
1 Max Planck Institute of Economics, Kahlaische Strasse 10, D-07745 Jena, Germany 2 Department of Cognitive, Perceptual and Brain Sciences, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 30 September 2010; in revised form: 14 December 2010 / Accepted: 4 January 2011 / Published: 14 January 2011
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Abstract: This paper provides a new way to identify conditional cooperation in a real-time version of the standard voluntary contribution mechanism. We define contribution cycles as the number of contributors a player waits for before committing to a further contribution, and use a permutation test on contribution cycles to assign a measure of conditional cooperation to each group play. The validity of the measures is tested in an experiment. We find that roughly 20% of the plays exhibit dynamics of conditional cooperation. Moreover, notwithstanding a decline in contributions, conditional cooperation is found to be stable over time.
Keywords: public goods game; real-time protocol; information feedback; conditional cooperation

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MDPI and ACS Style

Levati, M.V.; Zultan, R. Cycles of Conditional Cooperation in a Real-Time Voluntary Contribution Mechanism. Games 2011, 2, 1-15.

AMA Style

Levati MV, Zultan R. Cycles of Conditional Cooperation in a Real-Time Voluntary Contribution Mechanism. Games. 2011; 2(1):1-15.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Levati, M. Vittoria; Zultan, Ro’i. 2011. "Cycles of Conditional Cooperation in a Real-Time Voluntary Contribution Mechanism." Games 2, no. 1: 1-15.

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