Research Seminar

November 21 at 4.40 pm, room 3118 ICEF held the Research Seminar
Speaker: Benedikt Herrmann (University of Nottingham)

On Wednesday, November 21 at 4.40 pm, International College of Economics and Financen held the Research Seminar.
Speaker: Benedikt Herrmann (University of Nottingham)
Theme:«Civic Capital in Two Cultures: The Nature of Cooperation in Romania and USA» with Tore Ellingsen, Martin A. Nowak, David G. Rand, and Corina E. Tarnita
Venue:Shabolovka st. 26, building 3, room 3118

Abstract:We experimentally compare the nature of cooperation among Romanian students to that of U.S. students in various repeated games. We find stark differences in the students' ability to productively link behavior in a public goods game with bilateral interactions of either reward or punishment. On the other hand, we find no difference in cooperation rates in a control public goods game, where coordination on desirable outcomes is hard to achieve, or a bilateral Prisoners' dilemma, where coordination is relatively easily attained. Rather than being fundamentally more cooperative, U.S. groups perform significantly better in the linked games because cooperative behavior is preferentially rewarded in the U.S., and cooperators are rarely punished. Romanian subjects, on the other hand, are unwilling to risk their productive personal relationships to achieve more public cooperation, and also engage in spiteful punishment. Our findings corroborate and complement existing sociological explanations for cross-cultural productivity differences.

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