It is common for auctions to feature reserve prices that are kept secret. In auctions with independent private values, there is no clear theoretical explanation for why the reserve price should be disclosed publicly or kept secret. Therefore, we conducted laboratory experiments to investigate...

Group conflicts often break out in which individuals have to choose who to support. Having more supporters tends to increase one's chances of success in conflict, so everyone would prefer to have more supporters. But support is scarce, and sometimes conflicts can arise between two people who...

This laboratory experiment explores the extent to which impersonal exchange emerges from personal exchange with opportunities for long-distance trade. We design a three-commodity production and exchange economy in which agents in three geographically separated villages must develop multilateral...

Auction winners sometimes suffer a "bidder's curse", paying more for an item at auction than the fixed price charged for an identical item by other sellers. This seemingly irrational behavior is puzzling because the information necessary to avoid overpaying would appear to be readily available...