Personal Identity in the Dictator Game

Fernando Aguiar, Pablo Brañas-Garza (), Maria Paz Espinosa () and Luis M. Miller ()

No 2007-007, Jena Economic Research Papers in Economics from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Max-Planck-Institute of Economics, Thueringer Universitaets- und Landesbibliothek

Abstract: This paper aims to analize the role of personal identity in decision making. To this end, it starts by reviewing critically the growing literature on economics and identity. Considering the ambiguities that the concept of social identity poses, our proposal focuses on the concept of personal identity. A formal model to study how personal identity enters in individuals’ utility function when facing a Dictator Game decision is then presented. Finally, this "identity-based" utility function is studied experimentally. The experiment allows us to study the main parameters of the model, suggesting that we should move with caution when attributing identities to individuals.

Keywords: personal identity; dictator game; game theory; experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 C72 C91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-gth, nep-soc and nep-upt
Date: 2007-04-20
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2007-007

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