Seminar in microeconomics - Rachel Kranton
Time
Thursday, 16. May 2024
14:00 - 15:00
Location
Thurgauer Wirtschaftsinstitut (TWI), Kreuzlingen (CH)
Organizer
U. Fischbacher, A. Chadi, H. Dykstra
Speaker:
Rachel Kranton
Seminar in Microeconomics Day 4 - Second Identity
Competition, Cooperation, and Social Perceptions
What are the sources of social divisions? Many empirical and experimental studies show that social divisions negatively impact economic outcomes. This experiment reverses the causal arrow and asks if economic settings affect how individuals perceive one another. Subjects receive information about counterparts’ traits (preferences and demographics) and then work for bonus pay by completing a real-effort task. Relative to subjects who receive a piece rate for the work, subjects who compete for pay against their counterparts report having fewer traits in common with their counterparts. Subjects who cooperate report having more in common. This effect emerges despite that subjects have monetary incentives to report correctly the number of common traits.