Behavioural types in public goods games: A re-analysis by hierarchical clutering

Francesco Fallucchi, R. Andrew Luccasen and Theodore Turocy
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R. Andrew Luccasen: Mississippi University for Women

No 17-01R, Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science (CBESS) from School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.

Abstract: We re-analyse participant behaviour in standard economics experiments studying voluntary contributions to a public good. Previous approaches were based in part on a priori models of decision-making, such as maximising personal earnings, or reciprocating the behaviour of others. Many participants however do not conform to one of these models exactly, requiring ad hoc adjustments to the theoretical baselines to identify them as belonging to a given behavioural type. We construct a typology of behaviour based on a similarity measure between strategies using hierarchical clustering analysis. We identify four clearly distinct behavioural types which together account for over 90% of participants in six experimental studies. The resulting type classification distinguishes behaviour across groups more consistently than previous approaches.

Keywords: behavioural types; cluster analysis; cooperation; public goods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C65 C71 H41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-08-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-cdm, nep-exp, nep-gth and nep-hpe
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