Friday, February 23, 2018

Bosman, Hennig‐Schmidt, and van Winden (2016) on Power-to-Take Games

Ronald Bosman, Heike Hennig‐Schmidt, and Frans van Winden, “Emotion at Stake: The Role of Stake Size and Emotions in a Power-To-Take Game Experiment in China with a Comparison to Europe.” CESifo Working Paper Series No. 5858, April 19, 2016.

• In the two-player power-to-take game, Player A indicates what percentage of Player B’s monetary endowment Player A will claim. 

• Player B learns of A’s claim, and then can choose to destroy some or all of her own endowment. Whatever is left after the destruction, Player A receives the chosen percentage of it, while Player B retains the remainder. 

• Power-to-take is sort of a generalized version of the ultimatum game, and in particular, it allows Player B to have intermediate responses, in between accepting Player A’s suggestion or destroying the entire “endowment.”

• Three conditions: China Low (stakes), n=36; China High, n=36; and, EU, n=40. The results for the two China treatments are similar. 

• Take rates in China average more than 50%; while most people do not destroy any of their endowment, the average amount of destruction is considerable, more than 20%. Higher take rates lead to more destruction. 

• Higher take rates strengthen negative emotions in Players B, and it is possibly worse with higher stakes.

• Destruction decisions seem to be mostly driven by emotions.

• The results, including emotional responses, seem to be similar in China and Europe.

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