The Axiom of Monotonicity (AM) is a necessary condition for a number of expected utility representations, including those obtained by de Finetti (1930), von Neumann and Morgenstern (1944), Savage (1954), and Anscombe and Auman (1963). The paper reports on experiments that directly test AM by...

In most games, for equilibrium to result, players need to forecast the equilibrium strategies of others. We elicit forecasts of outcomes in a series of hawk-dove (aka chicken) games played by other players. We ask whether these forecasts are consistent with any correlated equilibrium of a class...

Under uncertainty, subjects in laboratory experiments often violate Savages Sure Thing Principle (Postulate 2). These violations are implied by inconsistencies between a pair of choices. We perform an indirect test with a single choice. The test is based on our result that in a simple...

Should one use words or money to foster trust of the other party if no means of enforcing trustworthiness are available? This paper reports an experiment studying the effectiveness of two types of mechanisms for promoting trust: a costly gift and a costless message as well as their mutual...

While most of the previous literature interprets trust as an action, we adopt a view that trust is represented by a belief that the other party will return a fair share. The agent's action is then a commitment device that signals this belief. In this paper we propose and test a conjecture that...

Experimental evidence suggests the size of the foregone outside option of the first mover does not affect the behavior of the second mover in the lost wallet game. In this paper we experimentally compare the behavior of subjects when they face an outside option with unequal payoffs, i.e., the...

We conduct an experimental test of the long-standing conjecture that autonomy increases motivation and task performance. Subjects face a menu consisting of two projects: risky and safe. The probability that the risky project succeeds depends on the subject's effort. In one treatment, subjects...

We theoretically and experimentally examine the implications of trusting behavior arising under sequential and simultaneous designs. In this institutional design problem, player A makes an investment choice, and player B decides whether to share the investment gains with player A. In the...

This paper reports an experiment evaluating the effect of gift giving on building trust in a relationship. We have nested our explorations in the standard version of the investment game. Our gift treatment includes a dictator stage in which the trustee decides whether to give a gift to the...