Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/62830 
Year of Publication: 
2003
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 502
Publisher: 
Queen Mary University of London, Department of Economics, London
Abstract: 
We demonstrate that one should not expect convergence of the proposals to the subgame perfect Nash equilibrium offer in standard ultimatum games. First, imposing strict experimental control of the behavior of the receiving players and focusing on the behavior of the proposers, we show experimentally that proposers do not learn to make the expected-payoff-maximizing offer. Second, considering a range of learning theories (from optimal to boundedly rational), we explain that this is an inherent feature of the learning task faced by the proposers, and we provide some insights into the actual learning behavior of the experimental subjects. This explanation for the lack of convergence to the subgame perfect Nash equilibrium in ultimatum games complements most alternative explanations.
Subjects: 
Ultimatum game, Non-equilibrium behavior, Laboratory experiment, Multi-armed bandit, Optimal learning, Gittins index, Bounded rationality
JEL: 
C72
C91
D81
D83
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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