theory. This dissertation uses experimental methods to provide empirical investigation of different aspects of contest theory … consists of two sub-contests. Consistent with the theory, the grand contest generates the highest effort levels among all … experimentally studies a two-stage elimination contest and compares its performance with a one-stage contest. Contrary to the theory …

This experiment investigates contests between groups. Each group has one strong player, with a higher valuation for the … players expend significantly higher efforts than predicted by theory. In best-shot contests, where group performance depends …

We elicit human conditional punishment types by conducting experiments. We find that their punishment decisions to an … individual are on average significantly positively proportional to other members’ punishment decisions to that individual. …

study the impact of non-deterrent formal sanctions on voluntary contributions to a public good in a laboratory experiment …

Empirical work on Akerlof’s theory of gift exchange in labor markets has concentrated on the fair wage …-effort hypothesis. In fact, however, the theory also contains a social component that stipulates that homogenous agents that are …. In our laboratory experiment, we establish the existence of a significant efficiency premium of uniform wages. However …

of the implicated parties who propose the punishment. In a prisoner's dilemma experiment, we find an independent third …This paper investigates how punishment promotes cooperation when the punishment enforcer is a third party independent … party vetoes not only punishment to the cooperators but punishment to the defectors as well. Compared with the case when the …

Considerable experimental evidence shows that although costly peer-punishment enhances cooperation in repeated public …-good games, heavy punishment in early rounds leads to average period payoffs below the non-cooperative equilibrium benchmark. In … fall prey to a poverty trap or, to avoid this, abstain from punishment altogether. We show that neither is the case …