Transfers and Altruistic Punishments in Third Party Punishment Game Experiments
Abstract. The aim of this paper is to compare with an experiment the human tendency in different situations, in presence of a budget constraint and without the expectation of a long-run pecuniary gain, to punish unfair behavior and the desire to help victims of that unfairness. Our research tool is a variant of the third party punishment game. In particular, we want to test whether: players have heterogeneous preferences; the levels of the sanction and of the transfer are proportional to the unfair offer of the Dictator; the fact that players continuously change their role influences the Observer’s reaction to unfair behavior; players’ decision to punish the Dictator and/or to help the Receiver depends on how costly their intervention is.
(S. Ottone)
