Why did he do that? Using counterfactuals to study the effect of intentions in extensive form games

Yola Engler (), Rudolf Kerschbamer and Lionel Page
Additional contact information
Yola Engler: Queensland University of Technology

Experimental Economics, 2018, vol. 21, issue 1, No 1, 26 pages

Abstract: Abstract We investigate the role of intentions in two-player two-stage games. For this purpose we systematically vary the set of opportunity sets the first mover can choose from and study how the second mover reacts not only to opportunities of gains but also of losses created by the choice of the first mover. We find that the possibility of gains for the second mover (generosity) and the risk of losses for the first mover (vulnerability) are important drivers for second mover behavior. On the other hand, efficiency concerns and an aversion against violating trust seem to be far less important motivations. We also find that second movers compare the actual choice of the first mover and the alternative choices that would have been available to him to allocations that involve equal material payoffs.

Keywords: Social preferences; Other-regarding preferences; Intentions; Reciprocity; Trust game; Experimental economics; Behavioral economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 C92 D63 D64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10683-017-9522-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
Working Paper: Why did he do that? Using counterfactuals to study the effect of intentions in extensive form games (2016)
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:kap:expeco:v:21:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s10683-017-9522-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ry/journal/10683/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10683-017-9522-7

Access Statistics for this article

Experimental Economics is currently edited by David J. Cooper, Lata Gangadharan and Charles N. Noussair

More articles in Experimental Economics from Springer, Economic Science Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().