Machiavelli advises against delegating the distribution of favors. We test this claim in anexperiment, in which an investor can directly transfer money to a trustee or delegate thisdecision to another investor. Varying the value of the transfers of the investor and thedelegate, we find that the...

Extensive field evidence shows individuals’ decisions in settings involving choiceunder uncertainty (e.g. savings and investment choices) depend on the decisions of their peers.One hypothesized cause of peer group effects is social interaction effects: an individual’s utilityfrom an action...

Previous research indicates that risky and uncertain marginal returnsfrom the public good significantly lower contributions. This paper presentsexperimental results illustrating that the effects of risk and uncertainty dependon the employed parameterization. Specifically, if the value of the...

Die menschliche Art ist eine Spezies, die durch Einsatz von Institutionen undNormensystemen kollektive Güter (oder Übel) bereitzustellen vermag.1 Kollektive Güterbilden typischerweise Antworten auf Kollektivgut-Probleme. Eine besonders wichtige Klassesolcher Kollektivgut-Probleme entsteht im...

During the last three decades the ascent of behavioral economics clearly helped tobring down artificial disciplinary boundaries between psychology and economics.Noting that behavioral economics seems still under the spell of the rational choicetradition – and, indirectly, of behaviorism – we...

Relying on the specific example of ultimatum bargaining experiments this paperexplores the possible role of empirical knowledge of behavioural “norm(ative)facts” within the search for (W)RE – (Wide) Reflective Equilibria on normativeissues. Assuming that “pro-social” behaviour...