We study the stability of voluntary cooperation in response to varying group growth rates. Using a laboratory public-good game, we construct a situation where increasing group size yields potential efficiency gains, but only with sustained cooperation. We then study the effect of exogenously...

We present results from a novel experiment on the effect of a policy designed to encourage cooperation in a prisoner's dilemma game. We find that the effect of this policy on the level of cooperation is greater when it was chosen democratically by the subjects than when it was exogenously...

Alchian and Demsetz’s (1972) influential explanation of the classical business firm argues that there is need for a concentrated residual claim in the hands of a central agent, to motivate the monitoring of workers. We model monitoring as a way to transform team production from a collective...

While there is an extensive literature on the theory of in finitely repeated games, empirical evidence on how “the shadow of the future” affects behavior is scarce and inconclusive. We simulate in finitely repeated prisoner’s dilemma games in the lab by having a random continuation rule....

Some philosophers and social scientists have stressed the importance for good government of an altruistic citizenry that values the well being of one another. Others have emphasized the need for incentives that induce even the self interested to contribute to the public good. Implicitly most...

A number of authors acknowledge the academic and corporate significance of being able to measure relationships and their quality (Naudé and Buttle 1999; Buttle 1996, 1997; Anton 1994; Copulsky & Wolfe 1990; Grönroos 1991). The authors are currently pursuing such work, and herein present findings from two...

The economic success of Japan in the post-war period and various new forms of market co-ordination in European regions, and specificities of inter-firm relationships in high technology industries have increased academic and business interest in the ways that firms manage relationships between...