Cooperation, Competition, and Risk Attitudes:An Intergenerational Field and Laboratory Experiment

The population of most developed societies is ‘graying’. As life expectancy increases and thelarge baby-boom generation approaches retirement age, this has critical consequences formaintaining a high standard of living and the sustainability of pension systems. In the light ofthese labor-force and social concerns, we consider experimentally the comparative behaviorof juniors (under 30) and seniors (over 50) in both experiments conducted onsite with theemployees of two large firms and in a conventional laboratory environment with students andretirees. Our results are compelling....