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Contributing for myself, but free-riding for my group

Contributing for myself, but free-riding for my group . Christiane Schwieren Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain Yoshio Iida, Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan. Motivation. Decisions in many real-world economic settings are taken by representatives of groups

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Contributing for myself, but free-riding for my group

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  1. Contributing for myself, but free-riding for my group Christiane Schwieren Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain Yoshio Iida, Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan

  2. Motivation • Decisions in many real-world economic settings are taken by representatives of groups • Little consideration in the experimental economic literature • Intuition & psychological literature suggest effect on behaviour

  3. Basic design • Public good game • Representatives of small (3-person) groups • 2*10 periods • Previous to play: Group discussion

  4. Potential moderating variables • Identification with own group • Social identity theory • Cultural aspects • Individualism vs. collectivism • Accountability

  5. Design of our first experiment • 2 * 2 design • Country: Spain vs. Japan • Treatment: Standard PG vs. PG of representatives • Discussion in groups of 3 subjects (5 min., any topic) • PG-game with 3 participants • 5 tokens to distribute • Token in personal account - 1 token for oneself (own group) • Token in group account - 0,75 token for everybody • Control-group design: 2 (anonymous) representatives of each group play at the same time • 2 * 10 periods, change in representatives

  6. Results of first phase by country • Spain: • No significant difference between representatives 1 and 2 • Contribution to PG in standard PG significantly higher than in game with representatives over all periods & in period 1 • Japan: • After exclusion of one outlier, no significant difference between representatives 1 and 2 • Over all periods, contribution to PG in standard PG significantly higher than in game with representatives • No significant difference in period 1

  7. Descriptive statistics over all periods: Man-Whitney U-test between treatments over all periods:

  8. Differences between treatments for first period

  9. Comparison between countries • No significant differences in contributions between countries • Neither in baseline nor in representative treatment • Potential reason: • Hofstede: Spain is high in collectivism • No good comparison group if interested in influence of western individualistic values • Maybe later data collection in Germany

  10. Discussion • Basic hypothesis about effect of being a group representative weakly confirmed • Country-differences not confirmed • Weak effects • group identification not very strong • No consequences, accountability low • Further data collection necessary

  11. Further research • Collection of more data necessary • Prior discussion with knowledge of game • Explicitly to discuss strategy of game • Second discussion period • Unknown before playing • Known before playing • Selection of representatives by group

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