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An Application of the English Clock Market Mechanism to Public Goods Games

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

M. Vittoria Levati*
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Research into Economic Systems, Strategic Interaction Group, Kahlaische Strasse 10, D-07745 Jena, Germany
Tibor Neugebauer*
Affiliation:
Finanzmarkttheorie, Universität Hannover, Königsworther Platz 1, D-30167 Hannover, Germany

Abstract

This paper reports an experimental study of the public goods game in which contributions are not submitted all at once but incrementally as coordinated in real time by a clock. Individuals press a button as soon as the clock equals their willingness to contribute. By providing information about the point at which subjects stop further contributions we find evidence for conditionally cooperative behaviour: A subject's decision to stop contributing induces an immediate reaction of the other group members.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 Economic Science Association

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