Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Kube
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Guest Editor

University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Interests: laboratory experiments; personnel and labor economics; public economics; law

Prof. Dr. Sebastian J. Goerg
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
Interests: economics; experimental economics; behavioral economics; applied microeconomics

Prof. Dr. Luke Boosey

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
Interests: economics; behavioral and experimental economics; game theory; contests; public goods

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

The recent decades have seen a tremendous progress in our understanding of cooperative behavior. In particular, the controlled environment offered by laboratory experiments has allowed the causal identification of potential determinants of cooperation. Among these, social norms have been identified as a key factor. Groups establish and maintain norms of behavior by using various forms of sanctions, such as mutual peer punishment, ostracism, gossip, or shaming. However, there is a large degree of heterogeneity in the content of group norms, the adherence to them, and the way that sanctions are used to sustain them. Since these facets are not yet fully understood, the Special Issue on "Laboratory Experiments: Cooperation, Sanctions and Norms” aims at advancing our knowledge in the mentioned areas. We thus invite submissions that touch upon one or more of these areas. The main focus is on work with lab experiments. Yet, given the current restrictions imposed by Covid-19, we also welcome online experiments and field experiments, as well as theoretical contributions, survey articles, and meta-analyses that do not require new experiments.

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Kube
Prof. Sebastian J. Goerg
Prof. Luke Boosey
Guest Editors

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Keywords

cooperative behavior
environment
laboratory experiments
social norms
online experiments
field experiments

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Political Mobilization in the Laboratory: The Role of Norms and Communication

Pedro Robalo

Games 2021, 12(1), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/g12010024 - 03 Mar 2021

Viewed by 2102

Abstract

Many field experiments have shown that political mobilization increases voter turnout, with personalized strategies considerably outperforming widely administered ones. Despite the abundant evidence, there is no systematic explanation of what drives citizens’ response to mobilization. In this paper, I propose and experimentally test in the laboratory a theoretical framework that investigates the psychological mechanisms underlying mobilization in both partisan and non-partisan settings. I conjecture that material mobilization efforts should increase participation because of reciprocity concerns. The transmission of normative appeals through interpersonal communication should have a similar effect by making a group norm salient. The results from two experiments show that the combination of a mobilization effort with a normative appeal leads to a significant and substantial increase in participation in both settings. Using content analysis, I show that this interaction effect is due to the way normative appeals are perceived when the sender is in charge of mobilization. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Laboratory Experiments: Cooperation, Sanctions and Norms)

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Open AccessArticle

Trust and Trustworthiness in Corrupted Economic Environments

Leonardo Becchetti

Luca Corazzini

and

Vittorio Pelligra

Games 2021, 12(1), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/g12010016 - 04 Feb 2021

Viewed by 2166

Abstract

We use an original variant of the standard trust game to study the effects of corruption on trust and trustworthiness. In this game, both the trustor and the trustee know that part of the surplus they can generate may be captured by a third “corrupted” player under different expected costs of audit and prosecution. We find a slightly higher trustor’s giving in the presence of corruption, matched by a significant excess of reciprocity from the trustee. Both the trustor and the trustee expect, on average, corruption to act as a tax, inelastic to changes in the probability of corruption prosecution. Expectations are correct for the inelasticity assumption and for the actual value of the “corruption tax”. Our experimental findings lead to the rejection of four standard hypotheses based on purely self-regarding preferences. We discuss how the apparently paradoxical excess reciprocity effect is consistent with the cultural role of heroes in history, where examples of commendable giving have been used to stimulate emulation of ordinary people. Our results suggest that the excess reciprocity component of the trustee makes the trustor’s excess giving a rational and effective strategy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Laboratory Experiments: Cooperation, Sanctions and Norms)

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Open AccessArticle

Wage Differences Matter: An Experiment of Social Comparison and Effort Provision when Wages Increase or Decrease

Jose Rojas-Fallas

and

J. Forrest Williams

Games 2020, 11(4), 59; https://doi.org/10.3390/g11040059 - 05 Dec 2020

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1903

Abstract

Wage rates, efficiency wages, and gift exchange in a labor market are all crucial aspects in regard to designing contracts to ensure high effort from workers. We extend this literature by discussing the relationship between known differences in wages (social comparison) and workers’ effort provision. We conduct an experiment in which subjects perform effort tasks for piece-rates. All subjects are paid the same wage rate in the first half of the experiment, but in the second half are paid different wage rates; the primary variable we study is the information about others’ wage rates given to a subset of subjects. We find that subjects’ efforts respond strongly to information about others’ wages. Such findings have implications for contract structuring for workers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Laboratory Experiments: Cooperation, Sanctions and Norms)

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