The thesis answers several questions concerning how people behave in an economic context if behavioral norms and rules are not obvious. In particular, it is investigated how subjects behave if other people in the role of third parties are involved or if the subjects themselves have the role of...

'Until not much more than 20 years ago, economists frequently lamented the fact that they were limited in their empirical analyses to statistical assessments of market behavior, because controlled economic experiments were (thought to be) infeasible, unethical, or both. Much has changed in the...

Social preferences for the punishment of free riders are critical for generating cooperative behavior in human society. Focusing on the receiving fees of Japan's public broadcaster, this study analyses how punishment of free riders, that is, the strengthening of legal responses against them,...