Cooperation in an Overlapping Generations Experiment

Recent theoretical work shows that folk theorems can be developed for infinite overlapping generations games. Cooperation in such games can be sustained as a Nash equilibrium. Besides the efficient cooperative equilibrium there is also the inefficient non-cooperative equilibrium. This paper investigates experimentally whether cooperation actually occurs in a simple overlapping generations game. Subjects both play the game and formulate full strategies. In our base-line treatment subjects fail to exploit the intertemporal structure of the game. When we provide subjects with a recommendation to play a (subgame perfect) grim trigger strategy, a substantial part of the population develops trigger-like strategies. However, a remaining group of unconditional defectors prevents the cooperative outcome to evolve. <BR><BR>