Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/26909 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
Preprints of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods No. 2006,25
Publisher: 
Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn
Abstract: 
We experimentally study the effect of asymmetry on cooperation in a 40 period prisoner's dilemma game in fixed partner design. We distinguish between a high and low payoff symmetric prisoner's dilemma and an asymmetric game combined out of both symmetric ones. Asymmetry significantly decreases cooperation, as low-type players are more likely to defect after mutual cooperation while high-type players initiate cooperation more often than the former. Asymmetry also has a significant negative effect on the stability of cooperation rendering long sequences of mutual cooperation extremely rare.
Subjects: 
Symmetry
Asymmetry
Prisoner's Dilemma
Experiments
JEL: 
C81
D70
C91
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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