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Ultimatum Bargaining by Children and Adults

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Author Info
J. Keith Murnighan
M.S. Saxon
Abstract

Recent research on ultimatum bargaining, the fact that children often confront and use ultimatums, and theories of developmental psychology all combine to suggest that studying children's ultimatum behavior will be particularly enlightening, both theoretically and with respect to the development of bargaining behavior. The results from two experiments indicate that younger children made larger o?ers and accepted smaller o?ers than older participants. Boys took greater strategic advantage of asymmetric information than girls; this dichotomy began with nine-year-olds (third graders) and continued for twelve- and ®fteen-year-olds (sixth and ninth graders) as well as for college students. Like adults, children accepted smaller o?ers when they did not know how much was being divided. Older children required increasingly higher o?ers, except for college students who were willing to accept considerably less than others. Also, some of the nine-year-olds displayed an extremely strong sense of fairness. The discussion focuses on the development of bargaining strategies and concerns for fairness.

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Paper provided by The Field Experiments Website in its series Artefactual Field Experiments with number 0071.

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Length: 31 pages
Date of creation: 1998
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:feb:artefa:0071

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Related research
Keywords: Adults; children; fairness; ultimatum bargaining;

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Hoffman Elizabeth & McCabe Kevin & Shachat Keith & Smith Vernon, 1994. "Preferences, Property Rights, and Anonymity in Bargaining Games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 346-380, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Guth, Werner & Tietz, Reinhard, 1990. "Ultimatum bargaining behavior : A survey and comparison of experimental results," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 417-449, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Croson, Rachel T. A., 1996. "Information in ultimatum games: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 197-212, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Harrison, Glenn W & McCabe, Kevin A, 1996. "Expectations and Fairness in a Simple Bargaining Experiment," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 303-27.
  5. Frank, Robert H & Gilovich, Thomas & Regan, Dennis T, 1993. "Does Studying Economics Inhibit Cooperation?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 159-71, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Kahn, Lawrence M & Munighan, J Keith, 1993. "A General Experiment on Bargaining in Demand Games with Outside Options," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1260-80, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Ochs, Jack & Roth, Alvin E, 1989. "An Experimental Study of Sequential Bargaining," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 355-84, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Roth, Alvin E. & Vesna Prasnikar & Masahiro Okuno-Fujiwara & Shmuel Zamir, 1991. "Bargaining and Market Behavior in Jerusalem, Ljubljana, Pittsburgh, and Tokyo: An Experimental Study," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(5), pages 1068-95, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Guth, Werner & Schmittberger, Rolf & Schwarze, Bernd, 1982. "An experimental analysis of ultimatum bargaining," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 367-388, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Bolton Gary E. & Zwick Rami, 1995. "Anonymity versus Punishment in Ultimatum Bargaining," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 95-121, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Matthias Sutter, 2003. "On the nature of fair behavior and its development with age –," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2003-25, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group. [Downloadable!]
  2. Olivier Armantier, 2006. "Estimates of Own Lethal Risks and Anchoring Effects," CIRANO Working Papers 2006s-14, CIRANO. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Dahlman, Sandra & Ljungqvist, Pontus & Johannesson, Magnus, 2007. "Reciprocity in young children," Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 674, Stockholm School of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  4. Werner Güth & Carsten Schmidt & Matthias Sutter, 2005. "Bargaining Outside the Lab – A Newspaper Experiment of a Three-Person Ultimatum Game," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2002-11, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Matthias Sutter & Martin G. Kocher, 2004. "Age and the development of trust and reciprocity," Papers on Strategic Interaction 2004-01, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Strategic Interaction Group. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Carpenter, Jeffrey & Burks, Stephen & Verhoogen, Eric, 2004. "Comparing Students to Workers: The Effects of Social Framing on Behavior in Distribution Games," IZA Discussion Papers 1341, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  7. Lucy F. Ackert & Ann B. Gillette & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Mark Rider, 2009. "Risk Tolerance, Self-Interest, and Social Preferences," Experimental Economics Center Working Paper Series 2009-04, Experimental Economics Center, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University. [Downloadable!]
  8. Swee-Hoon Chuah & Robert Hoffmann & Martin Jones & Geoffrey Williams, 2005. "An Economic Anatomy of Culture: Attitudes and Behaviour in Inter- and Intra-National Ultimatum Game Experiments," Discussion Papers 2005-11, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham. [Downloadable!]
  9. William T. Harbaugh & Kate Krause & Steven G. Liday, 2002. "Bargaining by Children," University of Oregon Economics Department Working Papers 2002-04, University of Oregon Economics Department, revised 20 Jul 2002. [Downloadable!]
  10. Olivier Armantier, 2006. "Do Wealth Differences Affect Fairness Considerations?," CIRANO Working Papers 2006s-13, CIRANO. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  11. Robert Hoffmann & Jin-Yee Tee, 2003. "Adolescent-Adult Interactions and Culture in the Ultimatum Game," Occasional Papers 4, Nottingham University Business School. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  12. Olivier Armantier, 2001. "Does Wealth Affect Fairness Considerations?," Department of Economics Working Papers 01-05, Stony Brook University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  13. Nicolas Eber & Marc Willinger, 2004. "Are Athletes Different ? An Experimental Study Based on the Ultimatum Game," Working Papers of LaRGE (Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie) 2004-01, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie, Université de Strasbourg (France). [Downloadable!]
  14. William T. Harbaugh & Kate Krause & Lise Vesterlund, 2003. "Learning to Bargain," University of Oregon Economics Department Working Papers 2004-9, University of Oregon Economics Department, revised 01 Nov 2003. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  15. William T. Harbaugh & Kate Krause, 2001. "Economic Experiments That You Can Perform At Home On Your Children," University of Oregon Economics Department Working Papers 1999-1, University of Oregon Economics Department, revised 19 Mar 1999. [Downloadable!]
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