Reciprocity

Is Strong Reciprocity a Maladaptation?

On the Evolutionary Foundations of Human Altruism

In recent years a large number of experimental studies have documented the existence of strong reciprocity among humans. Strong reciprocity means...

Psychological Foundations of Incentives

During the last two decades economists have made much progress in understanding incentives, contracts and organisations. Yet, they constrained their...

Theories of Fairness and Reciprocity – Evidence and Economic Applications

Most economic models are based on the self-interest hypothesis that assumes that all people are exclusively motivated by their material...

Why Social Preferences Matter – The Impact of Non-Selfish Motives on Competition, Cooperation and Incentives

A substantial number of people exhibit social preferences, which means they are not solely motivated by material self-interest but also care...

Do High Stakes and Competition Undermine Fairness?

Evidence from Russia

This paper reports the results of a series of competitive labour market experiments in which subjects have the possibility to reciprocate favours. In...

Fairness, Errors and the Power of Competition

One of the most basic questions in economics concerns the effects of competition on market prices. We show that the neglect of both fairness concerns...

A Theory of Fairness, Competition and Cooperation

There is strong evidence that people exploit their bargaining power in competitive markets but not in bilateral bargaining situations. There is also...