Maximum Effort in the Minimum-Effort Game
Posted: 17 May 2010
Date Written: May 3, 2010
Abstract
We report results from standard minimum-effort experiments conducted in Copenhagen (Denmark). Our subjects frequently coordinate on the Pareto-efficient equilibrium even in groups of six. This is in stark contrast to the previous literature, as we show in a detailed analysis of experiments which had the same design but were held in different countries. The subject-pool effect is substantiated by the finding that, the higher the share of Danish subjects in a group, the higher the minimum-effort levels. These findings suggest that the prevalent coordination failures previously observed are affected by significant subject-pool effects.
Keywords: Minimum-effort game, Coordination game, Experiment, Social capital
JEL Classification: C72, C91, C92
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation