The behavioral validity of the strategy method in public good experiments

Urs Fischbacher, Simon Gächter and Simone Quercia

Journal of Economic Psychology, 2012, vol. 33, issue 4, 897-913

Abstract: We compare the strategy method and the direct response method in public good experiments in a within-subject design. This comparison is interesting because the strategy method is frequently used to investigate preference heterogeneity. We find that people identified by the strategy method as conditional cooperators also behave as conditional cooperators under the direct response method. Free-rider types contribute systematically less than all others. Overall, our results support the behavioral validity of the strategy method in public good experiments.

Keywords: Public goods experiments; Strategy method; Direct response method; Experimental methodology; Voluntary cooperation; Conditional cooperators; Free riders (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (112)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167487012000499
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: The behavioral validity of the strategy method in public good experiments (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:33:y:2012:i:4:p:897-913

DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2012.04.002

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Psychology is currently edited by G. Antonides and D. Read

More articles in Journal of Economic Psychology from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().