In broad daylight: Fuller information and higher-order punishment opportunities can promote cooperation

Kenju Kamei and Louis Putterman

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2015, vol. 120, issue C, 145-159

Abstract: The expectation that non-cooperators will be punished can help to sustain cooperation, but there are competing claims about whether opportunities to engage in higher-order punishment (punishing punishment or failure to punish) help or undermine cooperation in social dilemmas. Varying treatments of a voluntary contribution experiment, we find that availability of higher-order punishment opportunities increases cooperation and efficiency when subjects have full information on the pattern of punishing and its history, when any subject can punish any other, and when the numbers of punishment and of contribution stages are not too unequal.

Keywords: Social dilemma; Voluntary contribution; Public goods; Punishment; Counter-punishment; Higher-order punishment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C9 D0 H41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:120:y:2015:i:c:p:145-159

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2015.09.020

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