Conditional cooperation in a sequential move game

Cooperation is a pervasive social phenomenon, but more often than not economic theories have little to say about its causes and consequences. In this paper, we explore the hypothesis that cooperative behaviour might be motivated by pure self-interest when the “social” payoff in a game is increasing. We report the results of a series of experiments on the Centipede game. The experiments are organised in two subsequent steps. Subjects first participate in a 2-period trust game, randomly matched with unknown partners. We apply the strategy method in order to elicit their social preferences. On the basis of their pre-game behaviour, individuals are divided into three main social groups: selfish individuals, pure altruists and reciprocators. At the second step of the experiment, subjects play a repeated 6-move Centipede game with an increasing final payoff. Each subject plays twice, in a low and in a high-stake Centipede game, and he/she is informed about his/her co-player social preferences. We provide statistical evidence to identify the origin of cooperation within homogeneous and heterogeneous social groups. We construct a Poisson regression model to assess the determinants of the duration of conditional cooperation in the Centipede.     

The globalisation of technology and its implications for developing countries: Windows of opportunity or further burden?

On the basis of a categorisation of ways in which the generated knowledge is transmitted, this paper explores the impact of the different forms of the globalisation of technology on developing countries. Through travelling, media, scientific and technical workshops, Internet and many other communication channels, globalisation allows the transmission of knowledge at a much greater pace than in the past. However, this does not automatically imply that developing countries succeed to benefit from technological advances. On the contrary, this will strongly rely on the nature of the technology and of the policies implemented in both advanced and developing countries.     

Long-run Effective Demand in the US Economy: An Empirical Test of the Sraffian Supermultiplier Model

The Sraffian supermultiplier is a model of demand-led growth that stresses the importance of the autonomous components of aggregate demand (exports, public spending and autonomous consumption). This article tests empirically some major implications of the model employing macroeconomic data for the United States. In particular, we study the long-run relation between autonomous demand and output through cointegration analysis. The results suggest that autonomous demand and output are cointegrated and that autonomous demand exerts a long-run effect on output. There is also some evidence of simultaneous causality, especially in the short-run. Movements in autonomous demand and in the investment share are also found to be positively related, with Granger-causality going from Z to I/Y.     

Objects and Subjects in Technological Interdependence. Towards a Framework to Monitor Innovation

Technology, even more than other aspects of economic life, is characterized by a strong interdependence across both sectors and organizations. However, we still know little about the determinants and impact of technological interdependence. The standard input-output analysis is unable to explain interdependence in technological life since a large proportion of innovations are either untraded or are disembodied from products. Innovations which are not appropriated by the innovators are not signalled by prices. Moreover, input-output tables do not systematically consider exchanges within economic organizations, such as firms. This paper proposes a more complex accounting framework for innovation which would monitor the technological field of the innovation and the product where it is used, as well as the producer-user interrelationship.     

Suit the action to the word,the word to the action: Eliciting motives for trust and reciprocity by attitudinal and behavioural measures

Two important primitives of social capital are the disposition to trust and to reciprocate manifested in social life. In this paper, attitudinal and behavioural evidence is used to investigate the nature of the motivations underlying behaviour in Trust and Dictator games. In doing so, we have three aims. First, to find out whether, and to what extent, answers to a questionnaire about attitudes towards trust and civicness predict subjects’ behaviour. Second, to disentangle strategic from other-regarding motivations by comparing behaviour in Trust and Dictator Games. Third, to investigate to what extent a correspondence could be found between subjects’ attitudinal ‘type’ and their behaviour in the two interactive experimental settings. The paper builds on previous work in the area and in particular finds that using surveys to distinguish between the behavioural responses of different attitudinal types–“Trusting” or “Prudent” on the one hand and “Trustworthy” or “Untrustworthy” on the other, allows us to dig deeper into the underlying motivations of the experimental subjects. The self-declared trusting tend to manifest trust by investing more in the risky interaction than the prudent, and the self-declared trustworthy are inclined to return more than the untrustworthy. Moreover, the self-reported trustworthy and untrustworthy tend to manifest positive or negative reciprocity, respectively. The evidence suggests that the former are moved by the intention to reward and the latter by the desire to punish a stingy Sender by returning an even smaller amount than received. This seems to confirm the “multiple self” view (Elster, 1986), whereby in the personality of each individual many components–possibly distant in terms of the motivating sentiments–are gathered together.     

From network ties to network structures: Exponential Random Graph Models of interorganizational relations

Theoretical accounts of network ties between organizations emphasize the interdependence of individual intentions, opportunities, and actions embedded in local configurations of network ties. These accounts are at odds with empirical models based on assumptions of independence between network ties. As a result, the relation between models for network ties and the observed network structure of interorganizational fields is problematic. Using original fieldwork and data that we have collected on collaborative network ties within a regional community of hospital organizations we estimate newly developed specifications of Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM) that help to narrow the gap between theories and empirical models of interorganizational networks. After controlling for the main factors known to affect partner selection decisions, full models in which local dependencies between network ties are appropriately specified outperform restricted models in which such dependencies are left unspecified and only controlled for statistically. We use computational methods to show that networks based on empirical estimates produced by models accounting for local network dependencies reproduce with accuracy salient features of the global network structure that was actually observed. We show that models based on assumptions of independence between network ties do not. The results of the study suggest that mechanisms behind the formation of network ties between organizations are local, but their specification and identification depends on an accurate characterization of network structure. We discuss the implications of this view for current research on interorganizational networks, communities, and fields.