Are cooperators efficiency- or fair-minded? Evidence from a public goods experiment

摘要

We use a two-person public goods experiment to distinguish between e?ciency and fairness as possible motivations for cooperative behavior. Asymmetric marginal per capita returns allow only the high-productivity player to increase group payo?s when contributing positive amounts. Asymmetric contributions, however, yield unequal individual payo?s. To assess a priori cooperative preferences, we measure individual ‘value-orientations’ by means of the decomposed game technique. Overall, our results indicate that fairness (or inequality aversion) is more in?uential than e?ciency in driving behavior.