Making the world a better place : experimental evidence from the generosity game

Werner Güth; M. Vittoria Levati; Matteo Ploner

We study ultimatum and dictator experiments where the first mover chooses the amount of money to be distributed between the players within a given interval, knowing that her own share is fixed. Thus, the first mover is faced with scarcity, but not with the typical trade-off between her own and the other’s payoff. Removing the trade-off inspires significant generosity, which is not affected by the second mover’s veto power. On the whole our results confirm heterogeneity in behavior, but point to efficiency concerns as the predominant motive. -- Ultimatum ; Dictator ; Social Preferences

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Year of publication:	2009
Authors:	Güth, Werner ; Levati, M. Vittoria ; Ploner, Matteo
Publisher:	Jena : Univ. [u.a.]
Subject:	Verhandlungstheorie \| Bargaining theory \| Soziale Wohlfahrtsfunktion \| Social welfare function \| Altruismus \| Altruism \| Theorie \| Theory