Rent-seeking and competitive preferences

Caleb Cox

Journal of Economic Psychology, 2017, vol. 63, issue C, 102-116

Abstract: In this experiment, I examine the extent to which competitive social preferences can explain over-bidding in rent-seeking contests. The Human treatment is a standard two-player contest. In the Robot treatment, a single player bids against a computerized player, eliminating potential social preference motives. The results show no difference in bids between treatments at the aggregate level. Further analysis shows evidence of heterogeneous treatment effects between impulsive and reflective subjects. Moreover, impulsive subjects are more likely than reflective subjects to deviate qualitatively from the shape of the theoretical best response function.

Keywords: Rent-seeking; Contests; Laboratory experiments; Game theory; Social preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 D03 D72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:63:y:2017:i:c:p:102-116

DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2017.02.002

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