The Relevance of Equal Splits On a Behavioral Discontinuity in Ultimatum Games

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1、TherelevanceofequalsplitsOnabehavioraldiscontinuityinultimatumgamesWernerG?th,SteenHuckandWielandM?llerHumboldtUniversityJanuary23,1998AbstractThendingsontheultimatumgameareconsideredasbelongingtothemostrobustexperimentalresults.Inthispaperwepresentaslightlyalteredve

2、rsionoftheminiultimatumgameofBoltonandZwick(1995).Whereasinthelatterexactlyequalsplitswerefeasibleinourgamesthesewerereplacedbynearlyequalsplitsfavoring(slightly)theproposerinoneversionandtheresponderinasecondversion.Suchaminorchangeshouldnotmatterifbehaviorwasrobust.Wefo

3、und,however,abehavioraldiscontinuityinthesensethatfairoersoccurlessoftenwhenequalsplitsarereplacedbynearlyequalsplits.Thishasimplicationsfortheoriesincorporatingfairnessintoeconomics.InstituteforEconomicTheoryII,SpandauerStrasse1,10178Berlin,Germany,Fax+493020935706,ema

4、ilhuck@wiwi.huberlin.deorwmueller@wiwi.huberlin.de.1.IntroductionThendingsontheultimatumgame(seeRoth(1995)forasurvey)areconsideredasbelongingtothemostrobustexperimentalresults.BoltonandZwick(1995),forexample,haveshownthatessentialbehavioralregularitieslikeresponders'wi

5、llingnesstorejectunfairoersandproposers'propensitytooerequalsplitspertaininultimatumgamesinwhichonlytwooers,afaironeandaunfairone,arefeasible.Hereweinvestigatesuch`miniultimatumgames'inwhichthe`fairoer'canbeslightlyunfair.Ifbehaviorwasrobust,suchsmallpayochangesshoul

6、dnotmatter.But,infact,theydo.Replacingtheequalsplitbya`nearlyequalsplit'dramaticallychangesbehavior.Inparticular,thefairoutcomeischosenlessfrequently.Tobemorespecic,weinvestigatedthreeminiultimatumgames,oneinthefashionofBoltonandZwickandtwoothersinwhichwereplacedtheequal

7、splitbyoersonceslightlyfavoringtheproposerandonceslightlyfavoringtheresponder.Moreover,weimplementeda2by2factorialdesignconcerningthemethodsofelicitingbehavior.Thenaturalwayofimplementingagamewithsequentialmovesis,ofcourse,toletsubjectsplayitsequentially.Then,however,s

8、omeinformationsetsmaybeseldomlyreachedwhatmakesitdiculttogetasucientdatabase.Toeconomizeonsubj