Fairness and Reciprocity Armin Falk University of Zurich, CESifo, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Fairness and Reciprocity Armin Falk University of Zurich, CESifo, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Fairness and Reciprocity Armin Falk University of Zurich, CESifo, CEPR, IZA Berkeley, August 2002 Armin Falk, University of Zurich 1 Overview Why deal with fairness? Fairness and reciprocity in the lab Bilateral games


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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 1

Fairness and Reciprocity

Armin Falk University of Zurich, CESifo, CEPR, IZA Berkeley, August 2002

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 2

Overview

  • Why deal with fairness?
  • Fairness and reciprocity in the lab

– Bilateral games – Social dilemma games – Markets

  • A field experiment
  • Theories of fairness and reciprocity
  • Evaluation of the theories
  • How to proceed from here?
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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 3

Why should economists take reciprocity into account?

  • Reciprocity is real: Without a proper

understanding of the nature of fair behavior and reciprocity our understanding of social reality is limited.

  • Fairness is important for economic policy issues,

e.g,

– Labor compensation, wage rigidities – Optimal contract design, effectiveness of incentives – Social policy questions, legitimacy of the welfare state

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 4

Why has fairness and reciprocity largely been neglected?

  • For a long time economists were preoccupied with

perfectly competitive markets. In these markets fairness concerns are less important than in strategic interactions where agents can affect each others’

  • payoff. Yet, many situations are not perfectly

competitive.

  • Game theoretic methods paved the way because they

allow a precise analysis of strategic interactions and to model fairness concerns explicitly.

  • Experimental methods paved the way for the empirical

recognition of fairness motives.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 5

Reciprocity…

  • the reward of kind actions,
  • the punishment of unkind actions,
  • even if rewarding or punishing is costly.
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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 6

Setting the stage: Moonlighting Game

(Abbink et al. 2000, Falk et al. 2000, Berg et al. 1997)

  • 1. Stage:

– Players receive an endowment of 12 points – Player A chooses action a ∈ {-6, -5, …, 5, 6} – a ≥ 0 : A gives B a points – a < 0 : A takes |a| points from B – In case a ≥ 0 the experimenter triplicates a such that B receives 3a. – If a < 0 player A takes |a| points from B and B loses |a| points

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 7

Moonlighting Game (ii)

  • 2. Stage

– B realizes a und chooses b ∈ {-6, -5, …, 17, 18} – b ≥ 0 is a reward for A – b < 0 is a punishment – A reward transfers b points to A – A punishment costs B |b| points and reduces A‘s income at 3|b|

  • Prediction (selfish and rational): b = 0 for all a,

and a = -6

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 8

Moonlighting Game (iii)

  • Random allocation of roles
  • Strategy method
  • Anonymous one-shot interaction
  • Experimental software z-Tree (Fischbacher 1999)
  • 112 subjects (66 in the I-treatment and 46 in the NI-

treatment), no economics students

  • 1 point = 1 Swiss Franc (.65 US$).
  • Subjects received on average CHF 22.20 in the I-treatment

and CHF 24.10 in the NI-treatment (including a show-up fee of CHF 10).

  • Experiment lasted approx. 45 minutes.
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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 9

Moonlighting Game (iv)

  • 10
  • 8
  • 6
  • 4
  • 2

2 4 6 8

  • 6
  • 5
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1

1 2 3 4 5 6

Move of player A Impact on payoffs of players A

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 10

Reciprocity in Social Dilemma Games

  • How does fairness affect behavior in social dilemma games?
  • Public Goods game where subjects can condition their

contributions on the contributions of others (Fischbacher et

  • al. 2001, Falk and Fischbacher 2002)
  • 2 decisions, one unconditional one conditional, lottery
  • Groups of four subjects. Each subject is endowed with y = 20
  • tokens. Subjects have to decide how many tokens to keep

privately and how many tokens to invest in a group project.

  • For each token invested in the project, each subject in the

group receives 0.4 tokens, i.e., the group earns 1.6 tokens. ⇒ Group as a whole benefits from a contribution. ⇒ Yet, each contributor looses 0.6 tokens. ⇒ Purely self-interested subjects will contribute nothing.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 11

Experimental Results

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Average contribution level of other group members Own contribution

Conditional coop.: 50 % Free rid.: 30 % "hump-shaped": 14 % total average (N=44)

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 12

Interaction of selfish and reciprocal players

  • If selfish and reciprocal players interact, one

would expect that eventually cooperation breaks down.

  • Reciprocal players contribute conditional on what
  • thers do. Put differently: The only way to punish

free riders is to withdraw contributions.

  • Average contribution is between 40% and 60%

during the initial periods.

  • In the final periods about 75 percent of the

subjects completely free-ride (meta study, F/S 1999).

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 13

Interaction (ii)

  • In a sparse environment, conditional cooperative players cannot

achieve high contribution levels.

  • What happens if they are given the chance to punish free-

riders? (Fehr and Gächter 2000, Carpenter 2000, Falk et al. 2001)

  • Stage 1: as above.
  • Stage 2: Players decide simultaneously whether to assign

punishment points to the other players after they observed (anonymously) how much the others contributed.

  • Each punishment point reduces the Stage 1-Payoff of the

punished subject by ten percent. Punishment is also costly for the punisher (roughly 1:3 relation)

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 14

Interaction (iii)

  • Punishment is very frequent.
  • The less a player contributes the more he is punished.
  • While cooperation declines without a punishment
  • pportunity, cooperation is stable or increases with a

punishment opportunity. Reciprocal players effectively discipline free-riders.

  • 82.5% of the subjects contribute the whole

endowment in the final period of the Partner treatment when there is a punishment option while the majority fully defects in the final period when there is no punishment option.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 15

Experimental Results

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Periods Average contributions without punishment with punishment

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 16

Punishment pattern in one-shot and repeated public goods gam (Source: Falk, Fehr, Fischbacher 2001)

0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 [-20,14) [-14,-8) [-8,-2) [-2,2] (2,8] (8,14]

punished player’s contribution - punisher’s contribution punishment Stranger period 1-5 Partner period 1-5

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 17

Reciprocity in markets

  • Reciprocity is important in bilateral, multilateral and in

market environments.

  • The impact of reciprocity on the market outcome crucially

depends on whether the market is complete or incomplete.

  • Gift-exchange game (Fehr and Falk 1999)
  • Stage 1: Firms and workers conclude contracts. Wages are

settled in a double auction market, with wage ∈ [20, 120]. There is an excess supply of workers (7:11). (UB = 20).

  • Stage 2: Workers who concluded a contract choose an

increasingly costly effort, with effort ∈ [0.1, 1]

  • Payoffs:

– Firms: (120 – wage)effort – Workers: wage – cost of effort

  • Standard prediction: wage = 20, effort = 0.1
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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 18

Competitive Prediction

20 40 60 80 100 120 140 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

firms/workers wage

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 19

Reciprocity in Markets: Wages

20 30 40 50 60 70 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 period wage

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 20

Underbidding: Incomplete Market

20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 pe riod

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 21

Underbidding: Complete Market

20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 pe riod

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 22

Reciprocity in Markets: Wage-effort Relation

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 20 to 25 26 to 35 36 to 45 46 to 55 56 to 65 66 to 75 > 76

wage effort

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 23

Reciprocity in Markets

  • In the incomplete contract market, wages are on average

substantially higher than predicted.

  • Underbidding of workers is not accepted by firms.
  • Firms pay voluntarily high wages, because there is a

positive correlation between wages and efforts on average.

  • When effort is exogenously fixed, wages converge towards

the predicted equilibrium and firms take advantage of underbidding.

  • Reciprocity much stronger in repeated interaction

(Gächter/Falk 2002)

  • Reciprocity and endogenous long run relations in

incomplete markets (Brown, Falk, Fehr 2002)

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 24

Questionnaire studies

  • “ In economics, it is normally assumed that people, being

self-interested, must be either coerced or bribed into performing tasks. However, the main causes of downward wage rigidity have to do with employers’ belief that other motivators are useful as well, which are best thought of as having to do with generosity.”(Bewley 1999, p. 431)

  • Agell and Lundborg (1995) report that underbidding is not

“all that uncommon”: 43 percent of firms had at least once encountered underbidding blue-collar and 53 percent underbidding white-collar workers.

  • Firms refuse to employ underbidders: blue collar 95

percent and white collar 82 percent.

  • ”While unemployed workers knock on the factory gates to

a surprising extent, ... , firms keep them locked” (Agell und Lundborg, p. 299).

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 25

A field experiment

  • An international charitable organization in Zurich

that helps children in need around the world.

  • Shortly before Christmas organization sends out

letters with an appeal for charitable donations.

  • The organization sends out letters to roughly 10.000

addresses.

  • The money of the 2001 mailing was collected for

homeless children in Vietnam (Dhaka, Bangladesh)

  • Question: Does the willingness to donate depend on

a gift included in the letter (“reciprocity”)?

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 26

Field study

  • Three treatments:

– No gift – Small gift (postcard painted by Vietnamese children) – Large gift (set of eight postcards painted by Vietnamese children)

  • All addresses were randomly and evenly allocated

to one of the three treatments.

  • In the cover letter it was stated: “The postcards are

a gift by the children of Dhaka in Bangladesh. You can keep it or give it to someone else.”

  • Except for the gifts and these two sentences,

everything was exactly the same across treatments.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 27

Results

Donation across treatments no gift small gift large gift no gift 00 number of letters 3262 3237 3347 9846 number of donations 397 465 691 1124 average number of donations 0.12 0.14 0.21 0.11 total of donations (< 500 CHF) in CHF 24,673 27,106 40,877 67,473

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 28

Treatment differences in the frequency of donations Dependent variable: Frequency of donation

Model 1 Model 2 Small gift dummy 0.022*** (0.008) 0.021*** (0.008) Large gift dummy 0.085*** (0.009) 0.081*** (0.009) Small gift x last year 0.047 (0.036) Large gift x last year 0.047 (0.036) Last year 0.243*** (0.024) Constant 0.122*** (0.006) 0.092*** (0.005) n 9846 9846

  • Prob. > F

0.0000 0.0000 R-squared 0.0098 0.0671 Note: The estimation procedure is an OLS-regression with robust standard errors (in parentheses). *** indicates significance on the 1-percent level.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 29

Treatment differences in the absolute amount of donations Dependent variable: Donations ≤ 500 Small gift dummy 13.391** (5.635) Large gift dummy 46.200*** (5.419) Constant

  • 174.158***

(5.811) n 9807

  • Prob. > chi2

0.0000 Pseudo R-squared 0.0034 Log likelihood 11993.525

Note: The estimation procedure is Tobit. Standard errors are in

  • parentheses. *** indicates significance on the 1-percent level, ** on the

5-percent level, respectively.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 30 Fraction

Histograms by treat

Spende01

treat==0 .323171 treat==1 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180200 treat==2 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180200 .323171

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 31

Some thoughts on gifts and charitable giving

  • Total donations: 92,655 CHF
  • Hypothetical total donations if all receive

– No gift: 74,472 CHF – Large gift: 120,248 CHF

  • Cost of gifts: ∼2,000 CHF
  • Actual net gain: 92,655 – 74,472 – 2,000 = 16,183 CHF
  • Hyp. net gain: 120,248 - 74,472 – 6,000 = 39,776 CHF
  • Did everybody like the gift...? Letters sent back (“neg. rec.”):

– No gift: 76 – Small gift: 98 – Large gift: 148

  • Does it work next year in the same way?
  • Does any gift do the job? (Here, gift is given from the receivers to

the donators; symbolically creates a gift-exchange relation.)

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 32

Theories of Fairness and Reciprocity

  • The experimental and field evidence is largely at odds with

the standard economic assumption of narrow self-interest. As a response to the evidence, several theoretical models have been developed.

  • All models assume that in addition to material self-interest,
  • ther regarding motives are crucial.
  • Altruism (e.g., Becker 1974, Andreoni & Miller 1998):

Other players’ material payoff is positively valued. Cannot explain punishing behavior.

  • Relative Income and Envy (Banerjee 1990, Bolton 1991):

Other players’ material payoffs are negatively valued. Cannot explain gift-giving and other nice behaviors.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 33

Theories (ii)

  • Intention-based reciprocity (Rabin 1993)
  • Players reward kind and punish unkind intentions.

Beliefs about other players actions, and beliefs about other players’ beliefs about the own action, enter directly into the utility function; restricted to two person normal form games.

  • Dufwenberg and Kirchsteiger (1999) extend and

modify Rabin’s notion of reciprocity to render it applicable to N-person extensive form games.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 34

Theories (iii)

  • Inequity Aversion (Fehr and Schmidt 1999, Bolton and

Ockenfels 2000)

  • Fehr-Schmidt: Other players’ payoff is negatively valued if

the others’ are better off, and positively valued if the

  • thers’ are worse off. This results from the aim of

achieving equality.

  • βI ≤ αi (asymmetric inequity aversion)
  • βI ≤ 1 (no money burning to achieve equality)
  • Players are heterogeneous. A substantial fraction has FS-

preferences, the rest is assumed to be selfish.

  • BO: Utility is concave in material payoff and concave in

i’s share of total income (max. at 1/N)

) ( 1 ) ( 1

, , j j i j i i i i j j j i i i

n n π π β π π α π

π π π π

∑ − − − ∑ − − − =

> >

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 35

Theories (iv)

  • Falk and Fischbacher 1999: Combine inequity aversion and

intention-based reciprocity (see also Charness and Rabin 2000). Ui = xi + ρi Σϕji(n)σij(n)

  • ρi is an individual reciprocity parameter
  • The kindness term ϕji measures how kind player i is treated by

player j at node n – in the view of player i.

  • The reciprocation term σij(n) measures the impact of player i’s

reciprocal action, i.e., how i’s action alters j’s payoff (basically player j’s payoff).

  • If the kindness term ϕji is positive, player i increases his utility

by increasing j’s payoff – if the kindness term is negative, player i increases his utility by decreasing j’s payoff.

  • The product ϕji(n)σij(n) is summed up over all nodes at which

player i has to make a choice.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 36

Theories (v)

  • How kind is - from i’s perspective - player j?
  • A strategy of j is perceived to be kind by i if it causes a payoff

for i which is higher than the payoff of j. This is different from Rabin and Dufwenberg and Kirchsteiger who define “kindness” in relation to the feasible payoffs of player i and not in relation to the payoff of player j.

  • Is the favorable distribution for i caused intentionally or not? If

so, ϕji(n) is larger. However, even if player j is a dummy player who has no choice to make, the kindness term ϕji(n) is positive. It then reflects pure inequity aversion.

  • Player j’s action is caused intentionally if there are ‘reasonable’

alternatives j could have chosen.

  • Thus, kindness is determined by (i) the outcome caused by an

action and (ii) the action’s underlying intentions.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 37

Evaluation of different theories

  • Are sanctions driven by inequity aversion or the

desire to retaliate (reciprocity) ?

  • How important are intentions?
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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 38

Sanctions: Reciprocity vs. Inequity aversion

  • Three person one-shot public goods game with punishment
  • pportunity:
  • 1st Stage: public goods game

– Contribute 20 points (cooperate) or nothing (defect) – Payoff

  • 20 - own contribution +
  • 0.6 * sum of all contributions
  • 2nd stage: Reduce the other player's payoff at a cost
  • 1 point reduction costs 1 points, i.e., inequity cannot be reduced

by punishing

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 39

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 40

Predictions If everybody is a selfish money maximizer:

No sanctions because they are costly. No cooperation because defection is a dominant strategy.

Fairness: Someone who defects acts in an unfair

  • manner. Those who cooperate will therefore

sanction defectors.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 41

Are sanctions driven by inequity aversion?

Inequity aversion:

People dislike payoff inequity and reduce it, even at a cost (Fehr/Schmidt 1999, Bolton and Ockenfels 2000). Inequity aversion models predict no punishment because inequity cannot be reduced

Reciprocity:

People reward fair and sanction unfair behavior, even if this is costly (Rabin 1993, Falk and Fischbacher 1999, Dufwenberg and Kirchsteiger 2000). Reciprocity models predict sanctions because regardless of the cost of punishment and the possibility to reduce payoff inequity, defection is an unfair treatment, which deserves punishment.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 42

Inequity aversion vs. reciprocity

N =120

  • 51 percent cooperate
  • 47 percent of these

cooperators punish two defectors.

  • Punishment behavior of

about 24 percent is incompatible with any inequity aversion model

  • Sanctions and cooperation

vary with cost of sanction.

  • However, in high cost

treatment, subjects spend more money on sanctions.

A verage Num ber of Punishm ent Points given by Cooperators and Defectors (1:1 punishm ent) 0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 to defectors to cooperators

by cooperators by defectors

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 43

The role of intentions

  • The signaling of fair or unfair intentions rests on two

premises:

– The strategy space allows for fair and unfair actions. – The action is under the full control of the person who performs it.

  • If intentions are behaviorally relevant, sanctions

should be the stronger, the more unfair the intentions are.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 44

The role of intentions: Four Mini Ultimatum Games

8 5 2 5 a a r r x y P R R

8 2 2 8 a a r r x y P R R

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 45

Intentions (ii)

8 8 2 2 a a r r x y P R R 8 10 2 a a r r x y P R R

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 46

Predictions of the rejection rates of the 8:2 offer

Inequity aversion models of BO and FS predict the same rejection rate for all games.

These theories model fairness in a consequentialistic way and the consequence of the 8:2 offer is always the same.

Reciprocity models of R, DK model the fairness of an action as dependent on intentions; FF model: intentions and outcome

Different rejection rates are predicted.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 47

Experimental results (N=45)

Rejection rate of the (8/2)-offer across games

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 5/5 2/8 8/2 10/0 Games Rejection rate

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 48

Intentions, once more

  • Moonlighting game as before.
  • But: Player A‘s decision is randomly determined

and players B know that.

  • Random mechanisms is based on a „human choice

distribution“. Controls for the equality of choice probabilities across computer generated and and human generated first-mover action.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 49

Rewards and punishments with and without intentions

  • 10
  • 8
  • 6
  • 4
  • 2

2 4 6 8

  • 6
  • 5
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1

1 2 3 4 5 6 Move of player A Impact on payoffs of players A

  • The same

consequences trigger very different behavior.

  • Questions

consequentialistic notions of fairness.

  • Casts doubt on the

consequentialistic practice in economics to define the utility of an action solely in terms of the consequences.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 50

Which model?

  • Most models predict many experiments rather well.
  • The predictive power of the inequity aversion is

limited (intentions, punishments if equity cannot be reached). However, they are quite simple.

  • Pure intention-based theories have in general

multiple equilibria even in the simplest games. They underestimate the importance of outcomes.

  • Models that combine inequity and intentions capture

the evidence best.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 51

How to proceed from here?

  • Better models, which are simple and get the right

predictions?

  • More experiments are required to better understand

the interaction between reciprocity and institutional environments (horizontal and vertical, production and distribution, markets).

  • The development of alternative economic policy
  • advice. Today’s policy advice is almost exclusively

built on the assumption that all people are selfish. Given the presence of fair and selfish types this advice is likely to be misleading.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 52

Some examples

  • Tax compliance: Conditional cooperation with other tax

payers, the state, the tax authorities

  • In the presence of conditional cooperation, there are multiple

equilibria: belief-management (suppressing public disorder, advertisements).

  • Reciprocity as a source of informal sanctions: key to the

enforcement of implicit agreements and social norms. Part of a societys social capital. Should be supported and used by policy (danger of undermining).

  • Labor compensation and wage rigidities.
  • Optimal contract design, effectiveness of incentives.
  • Social policy questions, legitimacy of the welfare state.
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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 53

Additional Material

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 54

Ultimatum Game (Güth et al., 1982)

1

Proposer

reject

x

Responder

1-x x accept

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 55

Ultimatum Game (ii)

  • Prediction

– Responder accepts x ≥ 0 – Proposer offers x = 0, which is accepted

  • Facts

– Virtually no offer above x = 0.5 – Vast majority of offers between 0.4 and 0.5 – Responders frequently reject offers x < 0.2 – Facts hold across culture and stake size

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 56

Ultimatum Game and Reciprocity

  • Most responders do not act according to the homo
  • economicus assumption. They prefer to reject

positive amounts of money rather than to accept an unfair treatment.

  • Reciprocity: The reward of kind and the

punishment of unkind actions, even if rewarding

  • r punishing behavior is costly.
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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 57

Or is it altruism?

  • Why do proposers offer „fair“ offers?
  • Altruism or fear of rejection?
  • Dictator game: Responder must accept every
  • ffer (e.g., Forsythe et al. 1994)
  • Results: Proposers make significantly lower
  • ffers.
  • There is not much unconditional altruism.
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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 58

Is punishment driven by inequity aversion?

UG with constant relative share

  • Rejection reduces payoffs

to 10 percent

  • Rejection cannot change

the relative share

  • Hence, BO predict no

punishment

  • The other theories predict

rejections

8 . 8 5 . 5 2 . 2 5 . 5 a a r r x y P R R

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 59

Is punishment driven by inequity aversion?

UG with constant difference

  • Rejection reduces payoffs by

2 points

  • Rejection cannot change

payoff differences

  • Hence, FS and BO predict no

punishment

  • DK and FF predict rejections

– 8:2 is unkind and triggers

  • punishment. Punishing means a

reduction of the other player's payoff. 8 6 5 3 2 5 3 a a r r x y P R R

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 60

Experimental results (N=48)

  • Punishment does not only occur to reduce inequity. Even if

inequity cannot be reduced, people punish to reciprocate unkindness (20 percent). 19% yes yes no no UG with constant difference 38% yes yes yes no UG with constant relative share FF DK FS BO Result

Rejection rate

Predict rejections

  • f 8:2 offer
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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 61

Reciprocity and social capital

Informal sanctions: Sanctions that are non enforceable by third parties (e.g., law/courts) and are therefore not part of a formal and enforceable contract or agreement. They are key to the enforcement of implicit agreements and social norms. The importance of informal sanctions derives from the fact that the bulk of peoples daily interactions is not governed by explicit, enforceable contracts but by informal agreements and social norms.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 62

Distribution of effort in one-shot and endogenously repeat gift exchange games (Source: Brown, Falk and Fehr)

0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

effort

endogenous repeated interaction

  • ne-shot interaction
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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 63

Who is the relevant reference agent?

  • Three person one-shot public goods game with punishment
  • pportunity as above:
  • 1st Stage: public goods game

– Contribute 20 points (cooperate) or nothing (defect) – Payoff

  • 20 - own contribution +
  • 0.6 * sum of all contributions
  • 2nd stage: Reduce the other player's payoff at a cost

– Punishing cooperators: 1 point reduction costs .3 points. – Punishing defectors: 1 point reduction costs .4 points. – It is cheaper to punish cooperators.

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Armin Falk, University of Zurich 64

Predictions

  • BO models the fairness relation between an

individual and the group average (fair share).

  • In a situation where a cooperator faces a cooperator

and a defector they predict that if cooperators sanctions he sanctions the other cooperator. It is the cheapest way to reduce inequity.

  • The other theories model the fairness relation as a

comparison between own payoff and the payoff of each other player.

  • They predict that if cooperators punish, they punish
  • defectors. Either because they have a higher payoff

(FS) or because they are unkind (DK and FF).

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SLIDE 65

Armin Falk, University of Zurich 65

Experimental Results

Allocated deduction points of cooperators

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

to defectors to cooperators