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Coordination with communication under oath

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Nicolas Jacquemet*
Affiliation:
Paris School of Economics, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, MSE, 106 Bd de l’hopital, 75013 Paris, France
Stéphane Luchini*
Affiliation:
Centre de la Vieille Charité, GREQAM-CNRS, 13236 Marseille Cedex 02, France
Jason F. Shogren*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Finance, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071-3985, USA
Adam Zylbersztejn*
Affiliation:
GATE L-SE UMR 5824, Univ Lyon, Université Lumière Lyon 2, 69131 Ecully, France

Abstract

We focus on the design of an institutional device aimed to foster coordination through communication. We explore whether the social psychology theory of commitment, implemented via a truth-telling oath, can reduce coordination failure. Using a classic coordination game, we ask all players to sign voluntarily a truth-telling oath before playing the game with cheap talk communication. Three results emerge with commitment under oath: (1) coordination increased by nearly 50%; (2) senders’ messages were significantly more truthful and actions more efficient, and (3) receivers’ trust of messages increased.

Type
Original Paper
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Economic Science Association

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Footnotes

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-016-9508-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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