How robust is laboratory gift exchange?

Gary Charness; Guillaume R. Frechette; John H. Kagel

doi:10.1023/B:EXEC.0000026979.14590.3c

How robust is laboratory gift exchange?

Gary Charness, Guillaume R. Frechette, John H. Kagel

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The gift-exchange game is a form of sequential prisoner's dilemma, developed by Fehr et al. (1993), and popularized in a series of papers by Ernst Fehr and co-authors. While the European studies typically feature a high degree of gift exchange, the few U.S. studies provide some conflicting results. We find that the degree of gift exchange is surprisingly sensitive to an apparently innocuous change-whether or not a comprehensive payoff table is provided in the instructions. We also find significant and substantial time trends in responder behavior.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	189-205
Number of pages	17
Journal	Experimental Economics
Volume	7
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1023/B:EXEC.0000026979.14590.3c
State	Published - Jun 2004

Keywords

Framing
Gift exchange
Robustness

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous)

Access to Document

10.1023/B:EXEC.0000026979.14590.3c

Cite this

@article{741cd3b4c7414c578c41aabb49cfe527,

title = "How robust is laboratory gift exchange?",

abstract = "The gift-exchange game is a form of sequential prisoner's dilemma, developed by Fehr et al. (1993), and popularized in a series of papers by Ernst Fehr and co-authors. While the European studies typically feature a high degree of gift exchange, the few U.S. studies provide some conflicting results. We find that the degree of gift exchange is surprisingly sensitive to an apparently innocuous change-whether or not a comprehensive payoff table is provided in the instructions. We also find significant and substantial time trends in responder behavior.",

keywords = "Framing, Gift exchange, Robustness",

author = "Gary Charness and Frechette, {Guillaume R.} and Kagel, {John H.}",

note = "Funding Information: This research has been partially supported by grants from the Economics Division and DRMS divisions of NSF and by the Ohio State University. We thank Ernst Fehr, Simon G{\"a}chter, Lynn Hannan, Klaus Schmidt, seminar participants at the University of Munich, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments.",

year = "2004",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1023/B:EXEC.0000026979.14590.3c",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "7",

pages = "189--205",

journal = "Experimental Economics",

issn = "1386-4157",