Rational altruism? On preference estimation and dictator game experiments

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Grech, Philip D.; Nax, Heinrich H.
• 署名单位: Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich; University of Zurich
• 刊物名称: GAMES AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0899-8256
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2019.10.004
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 309-338
• 关键词: Altruism; Charitable giving; Dictator games; CES utility functions; Distributional preferences; social preferences; Experimental economics; FOUNDATIONS

摘要

Experimental implementations of dictator games are found to differ in terms of their underlying strategic incentives. We explore this discovery in two separate directions. Theoretically, assuming identical other-regarding preferences, we show that the two most widely used protocols can generate strongly contrasting rational-choice predictions, from which different interpretations of dictator giving arise. Experimentally, a tailor-made experiment reveals significant differences between the two protocols but rejects full rationality as a satisfactory explanatory theory. Our findings indicate that several previously drawn conclusions regarding other-regarding preferences among humans distinguished by social class, gender, generation, nationality, etc. may be more ambiguous than hitherto believed. (C) 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc.