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Partners or Strangers? Cooperation, Monetary Trade, and the Choice of Scale of Interaction

Author

Listed:
  • Maria Bigoni
  • Gabriele Camera
  • Marco Casari

Abstract

We show that monetary exchange facilitates the transition from small to large-scale economic interactions. In an experiment, subjects chose to play an "intertemporal cooperation game" either in partnerships or in groups of strangers where payoffs could be higher. Theoretically, a norm of mutual support is sufficient to maximize efficiency through large-scale cooperation. Empirically, absent a monetary system, participants were reluctant to interact on a large scale; and when they did, efficiency plummeted compared to partnerships because cooperation collapsed. This failure was reversed only when a stable monetary system endogenously emerged: the institution of money mitigated strategic uncertainty problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Bigoni & Gabriele Camera & Marco Casari, 2019. "Partners or Strangers? Cooperation, Monetary Trade, and the Choice of Scale of Interaction," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 195-227, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejmic:v:11:y:2019:i:2:p:195-227
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/mic.20170280
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    Cited by:

    1. Gabriele Camera & Lukas Hohl & Rolf Weder, 2019. "Breaking Up: Experimental Insights into Economic (Dis)Integration," Working Papers 19-25, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.
    2. Bigoni, Maria & Camera, Gabriele & Casari, Marco, 2020. "Money is more than memory," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 99-115.
    3. Armelius, Hanna & Boel, Paola & Claussen, Carl Andreas & Nessén, Marianne, 2018. "The e-krona and the macroeconomy," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue 3, pages 43-65.
    4. Rémi Suchon & Georg Kirchsteiger & Tom Lenaerts, 2024. "Growing Cooperation," Post-Print hal-04638314, HAL.
    5. Giuseppe Danese & Luigi Mittone, 2020. "On pledging one's trustworthiness through gifts: an experimental inquiry," CEEL Working Papers 2001, Cognitive and Experimental Economics Laboratory, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    6. Maria Bigoni & Gabriele Camera & Edoardo Gallo, 2025. "Money and Social Exclusion in Networks," Working Papers 25-06, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.
    7. Gabriele Camera & Cary Deck & David Porter, 2019. "Do Economic Inequalities Affect Long-Run Cooperation & Prosperity?," Working Papers 19-09, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.
    8. Antonio Cabrales & Ryan Kendall & Angel Sánchez, 2022. "The effectiveness of prosocial policies: Gender differences arising from social norms," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(12), pages 1-23, December.
    9. Luis Araujo & Leo Ferraris & Marco Mantovani & Daniela Puzzello, 2025. "Experimenting with Digital Currency," Working Papers 557, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics.
    10. Gabriele Camera, 2024. "Introducing New Forms of Digital Money: Evidence from the Laboratory," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 56(1), pages 153-184, February.
    11. Eduardo C. Ferraciolli & Francesco Renzini & Tanya V. Araújo & Flaminio Squazzoni, 2025. "The Devil’s Dung? Money as a mechanism of generalized reciprocity in human societies," Working Papers REM 2025/0379, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    12. Gabriele Camera & Lukas Hohl & Rolf Weder, 2023. "Inequality as a barrier to economic integration? An experiment," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 26(2), pages 383-411, April.
    13. repec:jdm:journl:v:17:y:2022:i:5:p:1123-1145 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Gabriele Camera & Dror Goldberg & Avi WeissBar-Ilan, 2020. "Endogenous Market Formation and Monetary Trade: An Experiment," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 1553-1588.
    15. Maria Bigoni & Gabriele Camera & Marco Casari, 2019. "Cooperation among strangers with and without a monetary system," Working Papers 19-01, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.
    16. Camera, Gabriele & Hohl, Lukas, 2021. "Group-identity and long-run cooperation: an experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 903-915.
    17. Camera, Gabriele & Gioffré, Alessandro, 2022. "Cooperation in indefinitely repeated helping games: Existence and characterization," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 1344-1356.
    18. Bigoni, Maria & Casari, Marco & Salvanti, Andrea & Skrzypacz, Andrzej & Spagnolo, Giancarlo, 2022. "It's Payback time: new insights on cooperation in the repeated prisoners' dilemma," CEPR Discussion Papers 16912, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Gabriele Camera & Cary Deck & David Porter, 2020. "Do economic inequalities affect long-run cooperation and prosperity?," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 23(1), pages 53-83, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C71 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Cooperative Games
    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System

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