This paper examines cultural differences in attitudes towards corruption by analysing individual-decision making in a corrupt experimental environment. Attitudes towards corruption play a critical role in the persistence of corruption. Our experiments differentiate between the incentives to...

We adopt an inter-generational approach to the public goods game where one generation of subjects leave advice for the succeeding generation via free form messages. Such advice can be private knowledge (advice left by one player in generation t is given only to her immediate successor in...

This paper uses data from rural India to analyse how cultivating household and plot level characteristics affect contract choice on a particular plot of land. We estimate a sequential choice model where the landowner first decides whether to cultivate the land on his own (possibly with hired...

We use a two-person extensive form bargaining game to examine individuals' trusting and reciprocal behavior and how those relate to their scores on a trust survey. In keeping with prior research, we find that the "self-interested" outcome is rejected by a majority of individuals. People who...

In this experiment groups of 8 subjects are recruited into the lab and play Van Huyck et al.'s (1990) Minimum Game for 10 periods. After his participation is over each subject is replaced by another agent, his laboratory descendant, who then plays the game for another 10 periods with a fresh...

We explore how subjects with heterogeneous beliefs respond to a surprise restart in a linear public goods game played for 20 rounds using either a “partners” or a “strangers” protocol. There are two restarts: one prior to Round 11 and another prior to Round 16. We elicit subject beliefs...

Research over the last fifty years has suggested that political attitudes and values around the globe are shaped by two ideological dimensions, often referred to as economic and social conservatism. However, it remains unclear why this ideological structure exists. Here we highlight the striking...

We look at gender differences in agency relationships between an employer and a worker. The employer can resort to two different ways of motivating the worker to exert effort. One of these depends on establishing a relational contract, which is based on mutual trust and reciprocity between the...

The Economics of Small Things is a quirky and, at times, quite personal book containing ruminations by the author Sudipta Sarangi about a host of quotidian issues. Many of these are questions or puzzles that we have often contemplated. Here Sarangi attempts to answer these using lucid prose, an...

We study learning in a simulated tournament using an inter-generational framework. Here a group of subjects are recruited into the lab and play the stage game for 10 rounds. After his participation is over, each player is replaced by another player, his laboratory descendant, who then plays the...