Cooperating to Resist Coercion: An Experimental Study

Lucy Ackert, Ann B. Gillette and Mark Rider

No 2011-02, Experimental Economics Center Working Paper Series from Experimental Economics Center, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University

Abstract: This study sheds light on the difficulties people face in cooperating to resist coercion. We adapt a threshold public goods game to investigate whether people are able to cooperate to resist coercion despite individual incentives to free-ride. Behavior in this resistance game is similar to that observed in multi-period public goods games. Specifically, we observe "out-of-equilibrium" outcomes and a decrease in successful resistance in later periods of a session compared to earlier ones. Nevertheless, cooperation remains relatively high even in the later periods. Finally, we find that increasing the resistance threshold has a substantial negative effect on the probability of successful resistance.

JEL-codes: C91 C92 D63 H21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37
Date: 2011-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:exc:wpaper:2011-02

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