Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/71178 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 4161
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Gift exchange experiments have demonstrated that norms can affect labor market outcomes and provided an explanation for involuntary unemployment. However, conflicting results from laboratory and field experiments have questioned the relevance of gift exchange and helped spark an ongoing debate about the relative merits of the lab and field. This paper uses laboratory experiments to identify three parameters that affect the likelihood workers engage in gift exchange, helping to reconcile results across lab and field experiments. Gift exchange is more prevalent when workers are rich relative to the firm, worker effort is efficient, or workers have a restricted action space.
Subjects: 
experimental economics
laboratory experiments
gift exchange
reciprocity
JEL: 
C90
D21
J30
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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