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Fairness through the Lens of Cooperative Game Theory: An Experimental Approach

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  • Geoffroy de Clippel
  • Kareen Rozen

Abstract

We experimentally investigate how impartial observers allocate money to agents whose complementarity and substitutability determine the surplus each group can achieve. Analyzing the data through the lens of axioms and solutions from cooperative-game theory, a oneparameter model (mixing equal split and Shapley value) arises as a parsimonious description of the data. Three treatments establish the robustness of this qualitative conclusion, while also illustrating how context may impact the parameter estimate.

Suggested Citation

  • Geoffroy de Clippel & Kareen Rozen, 2020. "Fairness through the Lens of Cooperative Game Theory: An Experimental Approach," Working Papers 2020-09, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bro:econwp:2020-09
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    Cited by:

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    2. Chessa, Michela & Hanaki, Nobuyuki & Lardon, Aymeric & Yamada, Takashi, 2023. "An experiment on the Nash program: A comparison of two strategic mechanisms implementing the Shapley value," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 88-104.
    3. Gharad Bryan & Jonathan de Quidt & Tom Wilkening & Nitin Yadav, 2017. "Land Trade and Development: A Market Design Approach," CESifo Working Paper Series 6557, CESifo.
    4. Ghislain H. Demeze-Jouatsa & Roland Pongou & Jean-Baptiste Tondji, 2021. "A Free and Fair Economy: A Game of Justice and Inclusion," Papers 2107.12870, arXiv.org.
    5. Victor Aguiar & Roland Pongou & Jean-Baptiste Tondji, 2016. "Measuring and Decomposing the Distance to the Shapley Wage Function with Limited Data," Working Papers 1613e, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    6. Ricardo Martínez & Juan D. Moreno‐Ternero, 2024. "Redistribution with needs," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 26(1), February.
    7. Aguiar, Victor H. & Pongou, Roland & Tondji, Jean-Baptiste, 2018. "A non-parametric approach to testing the axioms of the Shapley value with limited data," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 41-63.
    8. Michela Chessa & Nobuyuki Hanaki & Aymeric Lardon & Takashi Yamada, 2021. "An Experiment on the Nash Program: Comparing two Mechanisms Implementing the Shapley Value," GREDEG Working Papers 2021-07, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    9. Demeze-Jouatsa, Ghislain-Herman & Pongou, Roland & Tondji, Jean-Baptiste, 2021. "A Free and Fair Economy: A Game of Justice and Inclusion," Center for Mathematical Economics Working Papers 653, Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University.

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