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When and why? A critical survey on coordination failure in the laboratory

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  • Giovanna Devetag
  • Andreas Ortmann

Abstract

Coordination games with Pareto-ranked equilibria have attracted major theoretical attention over the past two decades. Two early path-breaking sets of experimental studies were widely interpreted as suggesting that coordination failure is a common phenomenon in the laboratory. We identify the major determinants that seem to affect the incidence, and/or emergence, of coordination failure in the lab and review critically the existing experimental studies on coordination games with Pareto-ranked equilibria since that early evidence emerged. We conclude that there are many ways to engineer coordination successes.
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  • Giovanna Devetag & Andreas Ortmann, 2007. "When and why? A critical survey on coordination failure in the laboratory," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 10(3), pages 331-344, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:expeco:v:10:y:2007:i:3:p:331-344
    DOI: 10.1007/s10683-007-9178-9
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Coordination games; Pareto-ranked equilibria; Payoff-asymmetric equilibria; Stag-hunt games; Optimization incentives; Robustness; Coordination; Coordination failure; C72; C92;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior

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