Personal Identity in the Dictator Game

Aguiar, Fernando; Brañas-Garza, Pablo; Espinosa, Maria Paz; Miller, Luis M.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1019209

Download This Paper

Open PDF in Browser

Add Paper to My Library

Personal Identity in the Dictator Game

Jena Economic Research Paper No. 2007-007

27 Pages Posted: 4 Oct 2007

See all articles by Fernando Aguiar

Fernando Aguiar

Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados (IESA-CSIC); affiliation not provided to SSRN

Luis M. Miller

Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences - Max Planck Institute for Economics

Date Written: April 2007

Abstract

This paper aims to analize the role of personal identity in decision making. To this end, it starts by reviewing critically the growing literature on economics and identity. Considering the ambiguities that the concept of social identity poses, our proposal focuses on the concept of personal identity. A formal model to study how personal identity enters in individuals' utility function when facing a Dictator Game decision is then presented. Finally, this identity-based utility function is studied experimentally.

The experiment allows us to study the main parameters of the model, suggesting that we should move with caution when attributing identities to individuals.

Keywords: personal identity, dictator game, game theory, experiments

JEL Classification: A13, C72, C91

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Aguiar, Fernando and Aguiar, Fernando and Brañas-Garza, Pablo and Espinosa Alejos, Maria Paz and Miller, Luis M., Personal Identity in the Dictator Game (April 2007). Jena Economic Research Paper No. 2007-007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1019209 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1019209