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Punishment with Uncertain Outcomes in the Prisoner’s Dilemma

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Author Info
Peter Duersch
Maroš Servátka () (University of Canterbury)

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Abstract

This paper experimentally investigates whether risk-averse individuals punish less if the outcome of punishment is uncertain than when it is certain. Our design includes three treatments: Baseline in which the one-shot prisoner’s dilemma game is played; Certain Punishment in which the prisoner’s dilemma game is followed by a punishment stage allowing subjects to decrease the other player’s payoff by 2 Euros; and Uncertain Punishment in which subjects could decrease the other player’s payoff with a 50% probability by 1 Euro and with a 50% probability by 3 Euros. We find that in all cases the risk-averse subjects are equally likely to cooperate in the prisoner’s dilemma and equally likely to punish in the second stage in either of the two punishment treatments.

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File URL: http://www.econ.canterbury.ac.nz/RePEc/cbt/econwp/0912.pdf
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Canterbury, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers in Economics with number 09/12.

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Length: 26 pages
Date of creation: 25 Jul 2009
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:cbt:econwp:09/12

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Related research
Keywords: Experimental economics; prisoner’s dilemma; punishment; risk aversion; uncertainty;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
C70 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - General
C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior

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