The Impact of Cash Mobs in the Vote with the Wallet Game: Experimental Results

Leonardo Becchetti, Maurizio Fiaschetti and Francesco Salustri

No 401, CEIS Research Paper from Tor Vergata University, CEIS

Abstract: We simulate in a randomised lab experiment the effect of Cash Mobs on consumers’ behaviour in an original variant of the multiplayer Prisoner’s dilemma called Vote-with-the-Wallet Game (VWG). The effect is modelled in a sequential game with/without an environmental frame in which a subset of players (cash-mobbers) is given the opportunity to reveal publicly (in aggregate without disclosing individual identities) their cooperation decision. We find that the treatment has a positive gross effect, that is, the share of cooperators is significantly higher in treated sessions and this is mainly due to the higher share of cooperators among cash-mobbers. Our results suggest that cash mobs-like mechanisms can help to solve social dilemmas with entirely private solutions (not based on punishment but on positive action) without costs for government budgets.

Keywords: vote with the wallet; prisoner’s dilemma; randomised experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C73 C91 M14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2017-04-18, Revised 2017-04-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-gth and nep-soc
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