We introduce a generalized theoretical approach to study imitation andsubject it to rigorous experimental testing. In our theoretical analysiswe …nd that the different predictions of previous imitation models aredue to different informational assumptions, not to different behavioralrules. It is...

Sick pay is a common provision in most labor contracts. This paperemploys an experimental gift-exchange environment to explore two relatedquestions using both managers and undergraduates as subjects.First, do workers reciprocate generous sick pay with higher effort? Second,do firms benefit from...

Negotiations frequently end in conflict after one party rejects a final offer.In a large-scale internet experiment, we investigate whether a 24-hour coolingoffperiod leads to fewer rejections in ultimatum bargaining. We conduct astandard cash treatment and a lottery treatment, where subjects...

Bubbles in asset markets have been documented in numerous experimentalstudies. However, all experiments in which bubbles occurpay dividends after each trading day. In this paper we study whetherbubbles can occur in markets without dividends. We investigate therole of two features that are...

In John Nash’s proofs for the existence of (Nash) equilibria basedon Brouwer’s theorem, an iteration mapping is used. A continuous—time analogue of the same mapping has been studied even earlier byBrown and von Neumann. This differential equation has recently beensuggested as a plausible...

This article tests the modell of Brander and lewis under ertrand and Cournot competition.

We use a simple, three-item test for cognitive abilities to investigate whether established behavioral biases that play a prominent role in behavioral economics and finance are related to cognitive abilities...

A well—known result from the theory of finitely repeated games statesthat if the stage game has a unique equilibrium, then there is a uniquesubgame perfect equilibrium in the finitely repeated game in which theequilibrium of the stage game is being played in every period. Here Ishow that this...

It is well known that the rock-paper-scissors game has no pure saddle point. Weshow that this holds more generally: A symmetric two-player zero-sum game hasa pure saddle point if and only if it is not a generalized rock-paper-scissors game.Moreover, we show that every finite symmetric...

We show that for many classes of symmetric two-player games, the simple decision rule \imitate-the-best" can hardly be beaten by any other decision rule. Weprovide necessary and sufficient conditions for imitation to be unbeatable and showthat it can only be beaten by much in games that are of...