An Experimental Study on the Relevance and Scope of Culture as a Focal Point

Olga Bogach () and Andreas Leibbrandt
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Olga Bogach: Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa

No 201104, Working Papers from University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper uses an experimental approach to study whether nationality serves as a focal point. We let subjects from Japan, Korea, and China play stag-hunt coordination games in which we vary information about their partner. The results show that subjects are more likely to try to coordinate on the payoff-dominant equilibrium if the only piece of information they have about their partner is that they have the same nationality. However, if subjects receive additional information about their partner, subjects are not more likely to try to coordinate on the payoff dominant equilibrium. We also do not find that subjects are less likely to try to coordinate on the payoff-dominant equilibrium when their partner has a different nationality as compared to when the partner’s nationality is unknown. In addition, we observe that giving subjects information about their partner in general increases the risk of miscoordination. Thus, our findings suggest that nationality can serve as a coordination device but also that the scope of this device is limited.

Keywords: Coordination; Focal points; Cultural economics; Inter-cultural lab experiments; In-group behavior. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 C92 Z1 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2011-04-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-cul, nep-evo, nep-exp and nep-gth
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/research/workingpapers/WP_11-4.pdf First version, 2011 (application/pdf)

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