Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/25633 
Year of Publication: 
2007
Series/Report no.: 
Jena Economic Research Papers No. 2007,067
Publisher: 
Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
We use a two-person public goods experiment to distinguish between effciency and fairness as possible motivations for cooperative behavior. Asymmetric marginal per capita returns allow only the high-productivity player to increase group payoffs when contributing positive amounts. Asymmetric contributions, however, yield unequal individual payoffs. To assess a priori cooperative preferences, we measure individual `value-orientations' by means of the decomposed game technique. Overall, our results indicate that fairness (or inequality aversion) is more in°uential than efficiency in driving behavior.
Subjects: 
Public goods experiments
Conditional cooperation
Fairness
Effciency
Value orientations
JEL: 
A13
C92
D63
H41
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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