Vanishing leadership and declining reciprocity in a sequential contribution experiment.
Figuieres, Charles ; Masclet, David ; Willinger, Marc 等
I. INTRODUCTION
Contributing sequentially is a widespread practice for a large
variety of public goods, ranging from dish washing in households to the
ratification of international treaties by states. Academic research,
free Wikipedia, and telethons are other popular examples. Contributions
are not necessarily in monetary terms, but they share two important
features: the amount of public good provided depends on some aggregation
of individual contributions, and later contributors in a sequence can
condition their contribution on previously observed contributions.
Surprisingly, the economic literature on sequential contributions
is rather scarce, while an overwhelming bulk of knowledge has been
accumulated on simultaneous contributions environments. Other things
being equal, should one expect a higher level of public good provision
when contributions are sequential? Getting back to the telethon example,
does the publicly released information about contributions affect
donations during the campaign?
The recent experimental literature about leading-by-example, based
on the linear public good games, provides mixed evidence about the
effect of sequentiality on the level of group contributions. The
relevant papers are based on a procedure where the contribution of a
first mover (leader) is publicly announced, and later movers contribute
simultaneously. While this form of sequential moves tends to increase
group contributions compared to simultaneous moves contribution games,
the effect is not always significant. Taking the simultaneous
contribution game as a benchmark, Guth et al. (2007) found a strong
positive effect of this type of leadership, while Moxnes and van der
Heijden (2003) found only a negligible (but significant) effect. Others
found no significant difference in group contributions between
sequential and simultaneous moves games (Potters, Sefton, and Vesterlund
2007; Rivas and Sutter 2009). (1,2) It is therefore fair to say that the
available experimental evidence is mixed, and that more data are needed
to understand and disentangle the various effects that contributing
sequentially might induce. Some of these effects are already clearly
established: there is robust evidence that first movers tend to make
larger contributions than later movers, and that later movers'
contributions are strongly correlated to the first mover's
contributions, suggesting that sequentiality stimulates reciprocal behavior (Arbak and Villeval 2007; Gachter et al. 2009b; Guth et al.
2007; Levati, Sutter, and van der Heijden 2007; Pogrebna et al. 2009;
Potters, Sefton, and Vesterlund 2007; Rivas and Sutter 2008). Similar
observations were made in the sequential prisoners' dilemma game by
Clark and Sefton (2001) who report that second movers tend to
"cooperate" if the first mover chose to cooperate, and in
field experiments (Martin and Randal 2005; Shang and Croson 2005).
Why do first movers contribute more than second movers and why--on
average--are group contributions larger when individual contributions
are ordered sequentially? Take the point of view of the first mover: he
can have an incentive to make a large contribution either because he is
aware that second movers observe his contribution decision
(leading-by-example), or simply because he is assigned to the first
mover's role (pure ordering effect). The experimental literature on
common pool resource games documented significant order effects even if
later decision makers cannot observe previous moves (see Budescu,
Suleiman, and Rapoport 1995; Rapoport 1997; Rapoport, Budescu, and
Suleiman 1993; Suleiman, Rapoport, and Budescu 1996). Whether or not
such pure order effects also arise in voluntary contribution games
remains an open question (however, see Guth, Huck, and Rapoport 1998).
Consider now the point of view of second movers: they may
contribute less than first movers, either because of imperfect reciprocity, or because of an "end-of-sequence" effect.
Endof-game effects have been observed in repeated simultaneous
contribution games (see e.g., Keser and Van Winden 2000; Gonzalez,
Gueth, and Levati 2005). However, such effects may also occur within
rounds in sequential moves games. Therefore, it is important to try to
control for such effects. According to the imperfect reciprocity
hypothesis second movers tend to condition their contribution on the
first mover's contribution, but with a slight
"selfish-bias" (Fischbacher and Gachter 2010; Neugebauer et
al. 2009).
The available experimental literature on sequential contributions
is restricted to two-stage games: one player decides first, and one (or
more) player(s) decide (simultaneously) after having observed the
decision of the first mover. But experimental data, collected with
two-stage games, does not allow to disentangle selfish biased
reciprocity from end-of-sequence effects. In Stage 2, after having
observed the leader's contribution, the remaining group members
choose their contribution simultaneously. (3) It remains an open
question what happens with longer sequences, that is, for large
populations of sequentially ordered contributors. Does the
leading-by-example effect carry over to later contributors in the
sequence who know that their contribution will be observed by later
potential contributors? How does the leading-by-example motive interact
with the reciprocity motive?
In the present paper, we seek to contribute to the understanding of
contribution decisions in a sequential context, by trying to provide
answers to the above questions. We summarize these questions as follows:
(1) How do sequentiality and information about previous contributions in
a sequence affect the contributions of subjects who have to decide later
in the sequence?; (2) To what extent does the "length" of the
sequence (i.e., the size of the population of ordered players) affect
contributions in various positions?; (3) What reasons, if any, lead to
larger group contributions under sequential moves compared to
simultaneous moves?
We address the first question by comparing our reference treatment
that consists of a simultaneous public good game (no sequential move and
no information) with two sequential treatments: a sequential treatment
with information and a sequential treatment without information. In the
sequential treatment without information, subjects know the ordering of
their contribution decision, but are unaware about previous
contributions at the time they have to decide on their own contribution.
In the sequential treatment with information, each subject observes all
the individual contributions of subjects who were called to decide
before him in the sequence. Each treatment has the same number of
rounds. In treatments where contributions are made sequentially, in each
round subjects are randomly assigned to a rank.
We address the second question by comparing the average
contribution of groups of four players to the average contribution of
groups of eight players. In each case, the group members are randomly
ranked in a sequence, and contributions of lower ranks are observed by
higher-ranked subjects. In a sequential contribution environment, the
decision of the leader may depend crucially on the size of the
population on which he may have an influence. The larger the population
the stronger the leader's potential influence. But the
leader's influence may become weaker for more distant followers.
The third question, what are the determinants of individual
contributions in a sequential context, is the most difficult. The
experimental literature suggests at least three reasons for larger
contributions under sequentiality: reciprocity, leading-by-example, and
pure ordering. We describe each of them briefly as follows. The
reciprocity motive rests on the idea that some decisions are motivated by moral sentiments. A gift or a favor as a response to a gift or a
favor enters into this category (Kolm 2006). In a public good context, a
contributor reacts to the observed contributions of lower-ranked players
to maintain a balance or to avoid moral indebtedness, even if he
believes that he has no influence on subsequent contributors, and on the
level of public good he will enjoy. Second, according to the
"leading-by-example" hypothesis, early contributors may feel
responsible for setting a good example for later contributors. By making
a large contribution, they expect later contributors to react
positively, for instance in accordance with the reciprocity motive, lt
is likely that the strength of such feeling declines with the rank,
because there are fewer players who are likely to be influenced.
Finally, as already discussed even a subject who is unable to observe
previous contributions and who is aware that his contribution is not
observable by subsequent movers, might still be influenced by the mere
knowledge of his ranking in the sequence.
Our experimental design allows us to isolate pure order effects and
to identify the effect of players' rank on their level of
contribution. We also propose a way to disentangle the leadership effect
from the end-of-sequence effect and the reciprocity effect.
Our main experimental findings are the following: (1) in the
sequential contribution treatment with information the average
contribution is larger than in the sequential contribution treatment
without information and to some extent larger than in the simultaneous
contribution treatment, but individual contributions decline with the
order of play; (2) sequentiality without information about contributions
(pure ordering) has no effect on contributions; (3) the length of the
sequence (group size) has no significant impact on the average level of
contributions; (4) the decline of the average contribution with the rank
of the player is attributable to the combination of a vanishing
leading-by-example effect and the erosion of reciprocity.
The paper is organized as follows. Section II describes the
experimental design. In Section III, we present the theoretical
predictions and our behavioral conjectures about the expected treatment
effects. Section IV presents our results and Section V concludes.
II. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
The experiment consisted of 16 sessions of 15 periods each.
Experimental sessions were conducted both at the University of Rennes
and at the University of Montpellier in France. (4) As many as 252
subjects were recruited from undergraduate classes in business and
economics at both sites. None of the subjects had previously
participated in a public good experiment and none of them participated
in more than one session. The experiment was computerized using the
Ztree program (Fischbacher 2007). On average, a session lasted about 1
hour and 20 minutes (5) including the time required for reading the
instructions and answering questions, and the time needed to pay
subjects at the end of the session. Subjects earned 14.01 [euro] on
average including a show-up fee. (6) We set up an experimental design
that allows us to investigate the effect of information accumulation on
individual contributions in a sequential contribution environment. The
reference treatment is a simultaneous voluntary contribution game. At
the beginning of each period, each member of a group of n subjects was
endowed with 10 tokens that he had to allocate between a private account
and a group account. Following previous notations, player i's
payoff is given by:
u 9[x.sub.i], [x.sub.-i]) = 10-[x.sub.i] + 0.5 x [n.summation over
(h=1)[x.sub.h].
Subjects were instructed to indicate only their contribution to the
group account, the remainder of their endowment being automatically
invested in their private account. Any token invested in the group
account generated the same payoff for each member of the group.
Besides the "simultaneous contributions" treatment which
was our benchmark, we had two test treatments for which subjects had to
take their decisions sequentially, either with or without information
about prior contributions: in the remainder of the paper we call them
sequential treatment with information and sequential treatment without
information. In the latter treatment previous contributions are not
observable while in the former they are. Sequentiality is obtained by
assigning in the beginning of each round each subject a rank in the
decision sequence. Each subject is informed about his rank for the
current round, and about the individual contributions of all
lower-ranked subjects in the sequential treatment with information.
Therefore, the least informed subject is the subject who is ranked first
in the sequence, whereas the most informed subject is the one who is
ranked last in the sequence.
While the information condition is our main treatment variable, we
also study the impact of group size on the level of contribution in the
sequential contribution environment, by comparing the average
contributions of groups of four subjects (small groups) to average
contributions of groups of eight subjects (large groups).
We relied on the same presentation for all treatments. (7) The
ranking of the subjects in the sequential treatments was randomly
determined by the computer program, both within and across rounds.
Therefore, subjects' rank in the sequence varied from round to
round. At the end of each round, the computer screen displayed each
subject's investment decision, the total group contribution, and
the earnings of the group account as well as the total earnings.
Cumulated earnings since the beginning of the game, as well as the
number of the round were also on display. After each round, subjects
could see their detailed records since the beginning of the experiment.
Contributions were anonymous. Table 1 provides a summary of the
experimental design. A partner matching protocol was in effect for all
sessions (i.e., all the groups remained unchanged during the entire
session).
III. THEORETICAL PREDICTIONS
In this section, we contrast two types of theoretical predictions.
First, we rely on standard behavioral assumptions to derive the Nash
equilibrium for the simultaneous contribution game, and a Stackelberg
equilibrium for the sequential contribution game with information.
Second, we consider alternative predictions based on other behavioral
assumptions.
A. Standard Predictions
In the reference treatment, players choose their contributions
simultaneously (simultaneous treatment thereafter). Under standard
behavioral assumptions, there exists a unique dominant strategy
equilibrium for the one-shot game where each player i = 1, ..., n
contributes [x.sub.i] = 0. Furthermore, there exists a unique subgame
perfect equilibrium for the finitely repeated game where each player i
contributes [x.sub.i] = 0 in every period. In the experiment, the
constituent game was repeated exactly 15 periods. The same prediction
applies to the sequential treatment without information, as players move
sequentially, but without observing previous decisions.
In the sequential game with information, agents play a Stackelberg
game. By backward induction, we can easily see that there is a unique
Subgame Perfect Stackelberg Equilibrium: the last-ranked player
contributes zero whatever the observed contributions of others,
therefore the player before the last also contributes zero, and so on up
to the player who is ranked first in the sequence, and who also
contributes zero as a consequence.
Standard predictions are therefore identical for the three
treatments, irrespective of group size: each player contributes zero in
each round. On the other hand, the group optimum is achieved whenever
each player contributes all his endowment to the public good.
B. Behavioral Conjectures
The above predictions are based on the standard assumption that
individuals are exclusively pursuing their own material self-interest,
irrespective of others. However, empirical evidence suggests that this
assumption does not hold for all individuals. Many individuals condition
their decisions on the observation of others' decisions in finitely
repeated simultaneous public good games (see e.g., Fischbacher and
Gachter 2006; Herrmann and Thoni 2007; Keser and Van Winden 2002). (8)
Similarly, in sequential games later movers' contributions are
generally positively correlated to the first mover's contribution
(see the references introduced earlier in this paper). (9) Therefore, we
take as a more empirically relevant behavioral assumption the idea that
individuals' contributions are partly influenced by the
observations of others' contributions (conditional cooperation or
reciprocity). First movers who expect such behavior, choose their
contribution in order to try to influence positively later contributors
in the sequence (leading-by-example). We state this as conjecture C1.
C1: The combined effects of leadership and reciprocity influence
positively the level of contributions in the sequential treatment with
information compared to the sequential treatment without information.
According to C1, the contrast between the two sequential
treatments--with and without information--provides a measure of the
combined effects of leadership and reciprocity resulting from the
information asymmetry between players.
According to the pure order effect, individuals' contributions
might also be affected by the knowledge of their rank in the
contribution sequence even if they are unable to observe others'
contributions. Pure order effects have been documented in experiments on
requests from a common pool (Budescu et al. 1995; Rapoport, Budescu, and
Suleiman 1993; Rapoport 1997; Suleiman, Rapoport, and Budescu 1996) in
ultimatum bargaining games and "weak link" coordination games
(Weber et al. 2004). We state conjecture C2 as follows:
C2: Pure order effects positively influence voluntary contributions
in a sequential game without information compared to the simultaneous
treatment.
The comparison of average contributions in the benchmark and in the
sequential treatment without information allows us to isolate a possible
pure ordering effect. Finally, the comparison between the sequential
treatment with information and the benchmark treatment will capture both
the effect of sequentiality and of information asymmetry.
Our third conjecture is directly related to the dynamics of the
sequential game with information. Previous studies have highlighted the
fact that first movers in the sequence tend to contribute more than
later movers. Presumably this finding is because of the combination of
the three effects: imperfect reciprocity, vanishing leading-by-example,
and end-of-sequence.
Imperfect reciprocity supposes that followers condition their
contribution on the first mover's decision, but with a slight
"selfish-bias" (Fischbacher and Gachter 2010; Neugebauer et
al. 2009). End-of-sequence effects rely on the idea that the type of
end-game effects observed in terminal rounds of repeated games (see
e.g., Gonzalez et al. 2005; Keser and Van Winden 2000) also occur within
sequences when contributions are made sequentially. Finally, a decline
in contribution levels within a sequence may also be attributed to a
vanishing leading-by-example effect. Our hypothesis is that the strength
of this effect declines with the rank, because there are fewer players
that are likely to be influenced. For instance, in the last position of
the game, leading-by-example disappears as there are no more players to
be influenced. We summarize this as conjecture C3.
C3: The combined effects of imperfect reciprocity, vanishing
leading-by-example and endof-sequence lead contribution levels to
decline with the positions in the sequential treatment with information.
Our data analysis will allow us to identify which of these three
effects drives the decline in contributions according to the rank of the
player in the sequential treatment with information. Furthermore, to
some extent we are able to isolate ex post these motives by comparing
subjects' contributions in extreme positions (first and last) with
subjects' contributions in intermediary positions. Indeed, the
first player's contribution within a sequence cannot be motivated
by "reciprocity" as no information about others'
contributions is available to him. However, he might be motivated by
leading-by-example. At the other extreme, the last player cannot lead by
example within a sequence, and therefore his contribution can only be
motivated by reciprocity or by the end of the sequence. Only players
that have an intermediary position can be influenced both by
"reciprocity" and "leadership." If an
end-of-sequence effect exists in our data, we should observe a higher
decline in the last position compared to the other positions.
Finally, our final conjecture concerns the effect of increasing the
size of the group, that is, the length of the sequence in the sequential
contribution games. According to the standard prediction for linear
public good game described in Subsection A of Section III, the size of
the group has no effect at all on contributions in all treatments.
However, as Ledyard (1995) noted,. "whether contributions increase
or decrease with group size, other than whether contributions will occur
at all, remains one of the longest running debates among
theorists." (10) For instance one may argue that subjects may be
influenced by efficiency considerations and therefore contributions will
be higher in larger groups as social benefits are larger when group size
increases]l Introducing sequentiality and observability may also
interact with group size and influence contributions. An increase of the
size of the group of contributors can have two opposite effects on the
average level of contributions in the sequential treatment with
information. A positive one strengthens the leadership effect, as for
any rank there are more subsequent players who are likely to be
influenced. However, if the size of the group becomes larger, there
might also be a greater temptation to free ride on lower-ranked subjects
as the accumulated contribution becomes larger. Our idea is that the
temptation to free ride might be stronger in larger groups for two
reasons: (1) each individual has a lesser impact (in relative terms) on
the size of the pie as group size increases; (2) individuals may feel
less concerned by the public good in large groups than in small groups,
in the sense that they might think that others will provide
"enough" public good according to their tastes. This is
summarized in C4 as follows:
C4: An increase in group size has an ambiguous effect on
contributions.
IV. RESULTS
This section is organized as follows. Subsection A reports the
observed patterns of average contributions for our three treatments. We
analyze the treatments in relation to each other and to the benchmark
treatment in Tables 2 and 3. In Subsection B we analyze the determinants
of the contribution behavior separately for each treatment. The dynamics
of contribution in the sequence is investigated in Subsection C. A.
Average Individual Contribution
Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the time path of average individual
contributions by period for small and large groups, respectively. The
period number is shown on the horizontal axis and the average individual
contribution on the vertical axis, where the maximum possible individual
contribution is 10. These figures show the same pattern for all
treatments: there is initially a positive level of contribution to the
group account which declines with repetition (except for the sequential
treatment with information in large groups, in which the average
contribution level does not change appreciably as the game is repeated).
This result is in line with several other experiments that have
documented that the average contribution tends to decline with
repetition (Andreoni 1988; Isaac and Walker 1988; Isaac, Walker, and
Thomas 1984; Weimann 1994).
Result 1 summarizes our findings both about the effects of
sequential contributions with and without information.
Result 1: Average levels of contribution are significantly higher
in the sequential treatment with information than in the sequential
treatment without information. Sequentiality without observability has
no significant impact on the level of average contribution.
Support for Result 1: Table 2 shows the average contribution for
each treatment. The first three columns of Table 2 indicate the average
individual contribution for each small group. The last three columns
contain the same data for each large group. Comparison of treatments
suggests that sequentiality with information positively affects average
contributions. For both small and large groups, average contribution
levels are higher in the sequential treatment with information than in
the sequential treatment without information. A nonparametric Mann-Whitney rank-sum test (12) for small groups shows that the
difference in average contributions between the sequential treatments
with and without information is significant at the p < .10 level, (z
=-1.68; p = .09; two-tailed). A similar test of the difference between
the sequential treatments with and without information for large groups
also indicates a positive and significant effect of information (z =
2.082; p = 0.03; two-tailed).
To isolate the pure effect of sequentiality, we compare the average
level of contribution in the simultaneous treatment and in the
sequential treatment without information. Our results indicate that for
both small and large groups changing the timing of moves without
changing the information condition has no significant effect on
contributions (z = -0.145; p = .88 for small groups and z = 1.601; p =
.11 for large groups, respectively). The comparison of the simultaneous
treatment to the sequential treatment with information indicates that
the combined effect of sequentiality and observability of previous
contributions in the sequence increases the average contribution level
in small groups (z = -1.843; p = 0.06 two-tailed), but not in large
groups (z = -1.44; p =. 14; two-tailed). The insignificant difference
between the baseline treatment and the sequential treatment with
information for large groups suggests that the positive effect of
information is partly offset by a negative effect induced by
sequentiality alone, although this effect is not significant. Average
contributions do not differ significantly with respect to group size,
whatever the treatment. The two-tailed Mann-Whitney test does not detect
any difference in average contributions between groups of four members
and groups of eight members in the simultaneous treatment (z = 0.307; p
= 0.75; two-tailed). Similar results are obtained for the sequential
treatment without information (z = -1.486; p = 0.14; two-tailed) and for
the sequential treatment with information (z = -0.480; p = .63; two
tailed).
Table 3 provides econometric evidence about the influence of
sequentiality and observability on contributions. The dependent variable
is the amount of tokens contributed in the tth round. Table 3 consists
of two panels. The left panel displays the results of five regressions
that focus on treatment effects. Column 1 shows results of a generalized least squared regression. As each subject's contribution decision
was observed repeatedly (15 occurrences), we appeal to panel data
methods, and estimate all of the regressions with random effects. Column
2 replicates column 1 by using a random effects Tobit model to account
for left censoring. (13) Columns 3, 4, and 5 present estimates that aim
to isolate the pure effect of sequentiality (column 3), information
(column 4), and the combined effect of sequentiality and observability
(column 5). The right panel presents the results for specifications
focusing on the sequential treatment with information only (see columns
6, 7, and 8).
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
The independent variables include several dummy variables. The
dummy variable "information" controls for the influence of
information on contributions. It takes value 1 if subjects are informed
about previous contributions in the sequence and 0 otherwise. The binary variable "sequentiality" controls for a pure order effect. We
also included two variables that account for the influence of past
contributions: the lagged average contribution of the other members of
the group ([[bar.x].sup.t-1.sub.-i]) and the average contribution of
lower-ranked subjects in the current period [MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSION NOT
REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. In the simultaneous treatment and the sequential
treatment without information, the only information about past periods
that is available is ([bar.x].sup.t-1.sub.-i])). In contrast, in the
sequential treatment with information, subjects might be influenced both
by ([bar.x].sup.t-1.sub.-i])) and [MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSION NOT
REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. Finally, we introduced a dummy variable for the
last round (period 15) to detect a possible end-game effect and a dummy
that controls for group size.
The estimates summarized in Table 3 confirm most of our previous
findings. The variable "sequentiality" is negative, but
insignificant in column 1, confirming that sequentiality alone without
observability has no significant impact on the level of average
contribution. In contrast, the variable "information" captures
a positive and significant effect, indicating that subjects contribute
significantly more in the sequential treatment with observability. The
dummy variable controlling for group size is not significant, which
confirms our previous finding. The trend variable shows a negative and
significant effect. The Tobit models in columns 2, 3, and 4 all deliver
the same conclusion: individual contributions are sensitive to
observability only. Finally, the positive and highly significant
coefficient associated to the variable "sequentiality and
observability" in column 5 shows that, after controlling for group
size and several other variables, the combined effect of sequentiality
and observability increases contribution level. (14)
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
B. Determinants of Contributions
We now turn to our main question: how does sequentiality and
observability of others' contributions affect a subject's
contribution? Our answer is stated in Results 2 and 3. Result 2
summarizes our findings about the relationship between observability of
other players' contributions and the level of own contribution. In
Result 3 we report our findings about the dynamics of the leadership
effect and the reciprocity effect within a sequence. Remember that our
conjecture is that a subject's contribution is both affected by the
observed contributions of the lower-ranked subjects (reciprocity effect)
and by his attempt to influence the contributions of higher-ranked
subjects (leadership effect).
Result 2: Consistent with the "reciprocity" effect, a
subject's contribution in period t is higher (a) the higher the
average contribution of the other group members in period t-1 for all
treatments, (b) the higher the contributions of the lower-ranked
subjects in the period t sequence (in the sequential treatment with
observability).
Support for Result 2: Table 3 shows that in all treatments the
variable "others' lagged average contribution" has a
positive and significant influence. High contributions on the part of
the other group members are imitated or reciprocated by high individual
contributions. Note that this effect is stronger for the simultaneous
treatment and sequential treatment without information (column 3) than
for the sequential treatment with information (column 6). For the latter
treatment, the variable "contribution of lower-ranked players"
has a positive and highly significant impact on own contribution. This
result suggests that in the sequential treatment with information
subjects rely more strongly on the observed contributions within the
current sequence than on past periods' contributions, to choose
their current contribution level. Our interpretation is that the
information about within-sequence contributions is more relevant to
subjects than the information about past periods contributions. The
variable "contribution of lower-ranked subjects" has also a
significant and positive impact on the last player's contribution
in the sequence (see column 7). This result suggests the existence of a
pure reciprocity effect, as the last player in the sequence has no
influence on the lower-ranked subjects within the sequence. Taken
together, the above results support the idea that individuals
reciprocate previously observed contributions in the sequence.
Interestingly, our data also indicate that the first-ranked player who
cannot rely on any information generated within the sequence relies more
strongly on the previous period average contribution observed in the
group than the last-ranked player, as shown by the positive and
significant coefficient associated to the interaction term
"others' lagged average contribution x positionl" (see
column 8).
We conclude that the higher average contribution levels observed in
the sequential treatment with information is mainly driven by a strong
reciprocity effect induced by the possibility to observe previous
contributions by lower-ranked contributors. However, our findings also
show that there are two types of reciprocity effects in our data: first,
group members reciprocate to others' average contribution in the
previous period; second, group members reciprocate to previous
contributions within a sequence. A key question is whether these two
reciprocity effects act as complements or as substitutes. According to
our analyses, the within-sequence reciprocity effect is more likely to
be a substitute than a complement with respect to past contributions
(the robustness check shows only a weak significance of past
contributions).
C. Contribution Dynamics within Sequences
In this subsection, we investigate subjects' contribution
behavior within sequences under observability (sequentiality with
information). Result 3 indicates the dynamics in the sequence over time.
Result 3: Consistent with a "'leadership" effect,
individuals who decide first in the sequence, contribute significantly
more than other group members in the sequential treatment with
observability. The level of contribution declines with the position in
the group. In contrast, contributions are unaffected by the position in
the sequential treatment without information.
Support for Result 3: Figure 3 shows the average contribution of
small groups, by position (rank) in the group, for the two sequential
treatments. Figure 4 provides similar information for large groups. Both
figures indicate that the average contribution in the sequential
treatment with information decreases with the position in the game. In
contrast, the average level of contribution in the sequential treatment
without information does not vary across positions. Figures 3 and 4 also
reveal that the average contribution of the early players in the
sequence is higher than in the baseline, whereas the opposite is true
for later players in the sequence. Indeed for small groups, the average
contribution of the three first players in the sequence is larger than
the average contribution in the simultaneous treatment, but the average
contribution of the fourth player is lower than in the benchmark
suggesting a possible "end-of-sequence effect." Figure 4 shows
a similar pattern for large groups: the average contribution of the
first six players in the sequence is larger than the average
contribution in the simultaneous treatment, whereas the average
contribution of the last two players is lower than in the benchmark
treatment. These facts suggest that the combined effect of leadership
and reciprocity explains why subjects who have to decide early in the
sequence contribute larger amounts under observability than under
nonobservability.
Further evidence about the decline of contributions with the
position can be found in Tables 4 and 5 which display the average
contribution levels by position, respectively, for small and large
groups. In both tables, the second and the fifth columns indicate the
overall average individual contribution for each group, respectively,
for the sequential treatments with and without information. The third
and sixth columns give the average individual contribution for the first
position in the group. Finally, the fourth and seventh columns provide
similar information for the final position of the group. Our data
clearly indicate that contributions in the sequential treatment with
information are higher in the first position than in the last position.
Our finding that the average contribution declines within a sequence
according to the rank of the contributor, seems to mimic the general
pattern of the decline of the average contribution in a repeated game
where contributions are simultaneous. No such rank-effect appears in the
sequential treatment without information.
[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]
[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]
Table 6 provides the results of a more refined analysis of the
dynamics of contributions within sequences. The reported evidence
supports the hypothesis of the co-existence of an imperfect reciprocity
effect and a vanishing leading-by-example effect. The dependent variable
is [x.sub.it] the contribution of subject i in period t. The left panel
displays the results of four regressions for small groups and the right
panel reproduces similar regressions for large groups. The independent
variables include dummy variables for each position in the group. The
variable "position 2" is equal to 1 if subject i is in the
second position and equal to 0 otherwise. The other position dummies are
defined in a similar way. The results from columns 1, 2, 5, and 6 are
interpreted in relation with the omitted category position 1. Columns 3,
4, 7, and 8 report similar estimates with the notable exception that the
"average contribution of lower-ranked subjects" variable is
included in the regressions. The "position" variables are
therefore interpreted in reference to the omitted variable
"position 2" in these estimates as observations from position
1 are excluded from the analysis when one controls for average
contribution of lower-ranked players.
As expected from previous results, the position in the sequence has
no influence on players' contribution in the sequential treatment
without information (see columns 1 and 5). In contrast, the position in
the sequence has a strong negative impact in the sequential treatment
with information, for both group sizes (see columns 2 and 6). Notice
that the absolute value of the coefficients tends to become larger for
later positions, indicating that the negative impact gets stronger as
the position rank increases. Similar results are found using Random
Effects Tobit models (see columns 4 and 8).
The above result is compatible with a vanishing leadership effect,
an imperfect reciprocity effect, or a combination of these two effects.
To obtain some insight about which of the two effects fits our data
best, we included the variable "average contribution of
lower-ranked subjects" in estimates 3, 4, 7, and 8. The coefficient
associated with this variable is positive and significant, indicating
that subjects are positively influenced by the observation of previous
contributions in the rank. For each token contributed by lower-ranked
players, subjects contribute 0.310 tokens (0.168 tokens), in the
sequential treatment with information in small (large) groups (see
columns 3 and 7). We interpret the fact that the magnitude of the
coefficient on "average contribution of lower-ranked subjects"
is less than one as evidence of imperfect reciprocity within sequences.
Furthermore, the fact that the coefficient of the variable
"others' lagged average contribution" is also less than
one, provides evidence about imperfect reciprocity across periods. Both
results are in line with recent findings about imperfect reciprocity
(Fichbacher and Gachter 2009; Neugebauer et al. 2009).
However, imperfect reciprocity is not the sole driving force of the
dynamics of contributions in our data. After controlling for average
contribution of lower-ranked players, most of the estimated coefficients
of the "position" variables are still negative and
significant, suggesting that imperfect reciprocity is not the only
reason of the decline of contributions within sequences of the
sequential game with information. Column 3 indicates that players in
position 3 (position 4) contribute 0.998 (2.558) tokens less than
players in position 2 for small groups, which is consistent with a
vanishing leadership effect.
Finally, Table 6 provides a rather mixed support for the existence
of an end-of-sequence effect. A t test comparing "position 4"
and "position 3" shows a significant difference at the 1%
level, a difference that we tentatively attribute to an
"end-of-sequence" effect. However, no such effect can be found
under the large group size condition (see column 7). (15)
Taken together, these findings indicate that the decline of
contributions with the position in the sequence would be mainly because
of the combination of a fading reciprocity effect and a vanishing
leadership effect. Early contributors in the sequence may feel
responsible for setting a good example for later contributors, expecting
later contributors to imperfectly reciprocate their decisions.
Our findings are consistent with the experimental literature on
two-stage sequential contribution games (Arbak and Villeval 2007;
Gachter et al. 2009b; Gachter and Renner 2010; Guth et al. 2007; Levati,
Sutter, and van der Heijden 2007; Moxnes and van der Heijden 2003; Rivas
and Sutter 2009): the first mover contributes a larger amount, but the
second mover reciprocates strongly. When more stages are involved, as in
our experiment, the leadership effect characterizes also later movers,
but tends to become consistently weaker as the number of remaining
players decreases.
V. CONCLUSION
We studied an experimental game of voluntary contributions to a
public good, in which players move sequentially. In our two test
treatments, players contribute sequentially--with or without being able
to observe the contributions of lower-ranked subjects, while in our
control treatments all players have to make their contribution
simultaneously. Our paper contributes to the existing literature by
showing what effects sequentiality and information induce on the
individual contribution levels. Our results show that sequentiality
without observability does not significantly affect the average level of
contribution, compared to the simultaneous contribution treatment, in
accordance with Guth, Huck, and Rapoport (1998), who showed that in a
game with a unique equilibrium, the positional order effect is seriously
weakened.
Two major experimental results have been obtained: (1) the average
level of contribution is significantly increased with respect to
simultaneous contributions when subjects contribute sequentially and
have the opportunity to observe previous contributions, and (2) the
average contribution declines with the position in the sequential
contribution game with information. We showed that Result (1) is because
of the combined effect of leadership and reciprocity while Result (2) is
mainly because of the combination of a vanishing leadership effect and
imperfect reciprocity.
These findings are consistent with the fact that contributions are
not purely intrinsically motivated, but are conditioned on observed
contributions within each sequence and across sequences, which is in
line with earlier findings on conditional cooperation in social dilemma games. Our results are also compatible with the so-called leadership
effect, highlighted in several experiments on public goods provision.
Subjects who decide earlier in the sequence expect that their
contribution will affect positively the contributions of later decision
makers. Accordingly, they try to encourage them by making a large
contribution. As the decision sequence moves toward the last player,
implying that fewer players are likely to be influenced, the leadership
effect vanishes, and the average contribution declines in the higher
ranks of the game.
We also found that in the sequential treatment with observability,
the level of contribution is only weakly influenced by the previous
period average contribution in contrast to the treatments without
observability. Instead, subjects rely more strongly on the contributions
observed in the current sequence. Also, we found that the size of the
group does not have a significant impact on contributions.
The fact that later contributors are influenced by the observed
contributions of early players in sequential games might have important
policy implications. Posting information on previous contributions might
be considered as a tool for increasing the level of contributions, and
the design of some public policies could take into account the
leading-by-example effect. For example, public announcements of previous
efforts to reduce polluting emissions might increase society's
overall abatement effort. However, according to our findings, such
effect is weak in particular as group size increases. Nevertheless, our
findings also show that it might be effective at solving social dilemmas
arising within small groups of players who can potentially increase
their well-being by cooperating in the form of voluntary contributions.
ABBREVIATIONS
RE GLS: Random Effects Generalized Least Squares RE Tobit: Random
Effects Tobit
REFERENCES
Andreoni, J. "Why Free Ride? Strategies and Learning in Public
Goods Experiments." Journal of Public Economics, 37, 1988, 291-304.
Andreoni, J., P. Brown, and L. Vesterlund. "What Makes an
Allocation Fair? Some Experimental Evidence." Games and Economic
Behavior, 40, 2002, 1-24.
Arbak, E., and M. C. Villeval. "Endogenous Leadership
Selection and Influence." Working Paper No. 07-07.
Bolton, G. E., and A. Ockenfels. "ERC: A Theory of Equity,
Reciprocity, and Competition." The American Economic Review, 90(1),
2000, 166-93.
Budescu, D., R. Suleiman, and A. Rapoport. "Positional Order
and Group Size Effects in Resources Dilemmas with Uncertain
Resources." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes,
61(3), 1995, 225-38.
Clark, K., and M. Sefton. "The Sequential Prisonner's
Dilemma: Evidence on Reciprocation." Economic Journal, 111(468),
2001, 51-68.
Fischbacher, U. "z-Tree: Zurich Toolbox for Ready-made
Economic Experiments." Experimental Economics, 10(2), 2007, 171-78.
Fischbacher, U., and S. Gachter. "Hetergeneous Social
Preferences and the Dynamics of Free Riding in Public Good."
Discussion Paper. Nottingham: School of Economics, 2006.
--. "Social Preferences, Beliefs, and the Dynamics of Free
Riding in Public Goods Experiments." American Economic Review,
100(1), 2010, 541-56.
Fischbacher, U., S. Gachter, and E. Fehr. "Are People
Conditionally Cooperative? Evidence from Public Goods Experiment"
Economics Letters, 71, 2001, 397 -404.
Gachter, S., D. Nosenzo, E. Renner, and M. Sefton. "Sequential
Versus Simultaneous Contributions to Public Goods: Experimental
Evidence." CEDEX Discussion Paper No. 2009-17, 2009a.
--. "Who Makes a Good Leader: Cooperativeness, Optimism and
Leading-by-Example." Economic Inquiry., 2009b. DOI:
10.1111/j.14657295.2010.00295.
Gachter, S., and E. Renner. "The Effects of (Incentivized)
Belief Elicitation in Public Good Experiments." Experimental
Economics, 13(3), 2010, 364-77.
Gonzalez, G., W. Gueth, and V. Levati. "When Does the Game
End? Public Good Experiments with Nondefinite and Non-commonly Known
Time Horizons." Economic Letters, 88(2), 2005, 221-26.
Guth, W., S. Huck, and A. Rapoport. "The Limitations of the
Positional Order Effect: Can It Support Silent Threats and
Non-equilibrium Behaviour." Journal of Economic Behavior &
Organization, 34, 1998, 313-25.
Guth, W., V. Levati, M. Sutter, and E. van der Heijden.
"Leading by Example with and without Exclusion Power in Voluntary
Contribution Experiments." Journal of Public Economics, 91, 2007,
1023-42.
Herrmann, B., and C. Thani. "Measuring Conditional
Cooperation: A Replication Study in Russia." CeDEx Discussion Paper
No. 2007-07, 2007.
Isaac, M., and J. Walker. "Nash as an Organizing Principle in
the Voluntary Provision of Public Goods: Experimental Evidence."
Experimental Economics, 1, 1988, 191-206.
Isaac, R. M., J. M. Walker, and S. H. Thomas. "Divergent Evidence on Free Riding: An Experimental Examination of Possible
Explanations." Public Choice, 43, 1984, 113-49.
Keser, C., and F. Van Winden. "Conditional Cooperation and
Voluntary Contributions to Public Goods." Scandinavian Journal of
Economics, 102(1), 2000, 23-39.
Kolm, S. C. "Reciprocity: Its Scope, Rationales and
Consequences," Chapter 6 in The Handbook of the Economy of Giving,
Altruism and Reciprocity, edited by S. C. Kolm and J. M. Ythier.
North-Holland: Elsevier, 2006.
Krishnamurthy, S. "Communication Effects in Public Good Games
with and without Provision Points," in Research in Experimental
Economics, Vol. 8, edited by M. Isaac and D. Norton. Bingley, UK:
Emerald Group Publishing Ltd, 2001, 25-46.
Ledyard, J. O. "Public Goods: A Survey of Experimental
Research," in The Handbook of Experimental Economics, edited by J.
H. Kagel and A. E. Roth. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Levati, V., M. Sutter, and E. van der Heijden. "Leading by
Example in a Public Goods Experiment with Heterogeneity and Incomplete
Information." Journal of Conflict Resolution, 51(5), 2007, 793-818
Martin, R., and J. Randal. "Voluntary Contribution to a Public
Good: A Natural Field Experiment." Discussion Paper, 2005.
Moxnes, E., and E. van der Heijden. "The Effect of Leadership
in a Public Bad Experiment." Journal of Conflict Resolution, 47,
2003, 773-95.
Neugebauer, T., J. Perote, U. Schmidt, and M. Loos.
"Selfish-biased Conditional Cooperation: On the Decline of
Contributions in Repeated Public Good Experiments." Journal of
Economic Psychology, 30(1), 2008, 52-60.
Potters, J., M. Sefton, and L. Vesterlund. "Leading-by-Example
and Signaling in Voluntary Contribution Games: An Experimental
Study." Economic Theory, 33(1), 2007, 169-82.
Rapoport, A. "Order of Play in Strategically Equivalent Games
in Extensive Form." International Journal of Game Theory, 26(1),
1997, 113-36.
Rapoport, A., D. Budescu, and R. Suleiman. "Sequential
Requests from Randomly Distributed Shared Resources." Journal of
Mathematical Psychology, 37, 1993, 241-65.
Rivas, F., and M. Sutter. "Leadership in Public Good
Experiments--On the Role of Reward, Punishment and Endogenous
Leadership." Discussion Paper, 2009.
Shang, J., and R. Croson. "Field Experiments in Charitable
Contribution: The Impact of Social Influence on the Voluntary Provision
of Public Goods." Discussion Paper, 2005.
Suleiman, R., A. Rapoport, and D. Budescu. "Fixed Position and
Property Rights in Sequential Resource Dilemmas under Uncertainty."
Acta Psychologica, 93, 1996, 229-45.
Varian, H. R. "Sequential Provision of Public Goods."
Journal of Public Economics, 53, 1994, 165-86.
Weber, R. A., C. F. Camerer, and M. Knez. "Timing and Virtual
Observability in Ultimatum Bargaining and 'Weak Link'
Coordination Games." Experimental Economics, 7, 2004, 25-48.
Weimann, J. "Individual Behavior in a Free Riding
Experiment." Journal of Public Economics, 54, 1994, 185-200.
(1.) Rivas and Sutter (2009) use a slightly different procedure for
assigning the first mover position in a group, but which does not
fundamentally differ from a random assignment.
(2.) In the case of quasi-linear self-centered preferences, Varian
(1994) demonstrated that, incentives to free ride are exacerbated when
contributions are sequential with respect to a simultaneous contribution
environment. Two experimental papers (Andreoni, Brown, and Vesterlund
2002; Gachter et al. 2009a) addressed the issue, with mixed evidence
concerning Varian's conjecture.
(3.) Experiments considered either a two-player game (Gachter et
al. 2009b; Kumru and Vesterlund 2008; Potters, Sefton, and Vesterlund
2007), or larger numbers of players (Arbak and Villeval 2007; Guth et
al. 2007; Levati et al. 2007; Moxnes and van der Heijden 2003; Pogrebna
et al. 2009; Rivas and Sutter 2008).
(4.) CREM (Centre de Recherche en Economie et Management), LABEX (Laboratoire d'Experimentation en Sciences Sociales), LAMETA
(Laboratoire de Recherche en Economie Theorique et Appliquee). No
significant differences were found in data between the two locations of
the experiments.
(5.) The sequential treatments took slightly more time in large
groups.
(6.) Instructions are available upon request to the authors.
(7.) To control for the existence of a possible "framing
effect," we also ran two sessions with a variant of the reference
treatment, labeled " simultaneous treatment with framing."
This control was useful because the sequential version of the
contribution game required a slight alteration of the usual presentation
of the instructions. For this variant the investment in the group
account is presented as an explicit addition of individual contributions
which matches the presentation that was used for the sequential
contribution treatments. The instructions pointed out that each
subject's contribution would be identified by an index, for
example, subject i's contribution is noted [I.sub.i], and that the
payoff of the group account would be given by 0.5 x ([I.sub.1] +
[I.sub.2] + ... + [I.sub.N]).
This point was described to the subjects in the following language:
"[I.sub.1] is member 1's investment to the collective
account [I.sub.2] is member 2's investment to the collective
account [I.sub.3] is member 3's investment to the collective
account" This presentation, by making explicit the summation of
individual contributions, could have influenced the subjects'
decisions in a nonpredictable way. However, the results indicate no
significant difference (at any conventional level of significance) in
average contribution between the simultaneous treatments with and
without framing. Note that this presentation was only used for
simultaneous contribution treatments. In sequential treatments index i
referred to the rank of the players.
(8.) Fischbacher, Gachter, and Fehr (2001) investigated the
importance of conditional cooperation in the context of a one-shot game
using a variant of the strategy method. The authors found that 50% of
subjects are conditional cooperators.
(9.) To some extent the effects of sequentiality with information
may be comparable to the effects of some reduced form of communication.
Previous research has found that communication (including nonbinding,
pre-play, face-to-face communication between players) increases the
level of contributions. However, there is no consensus on why this
occurs (see Krishnamurthy 2001 for a survey).
(10.) As Ledyard (1995) noted, "Those arguing for a decrease
as group size increases argue that, in larger groups, non-cooperative
behavior is more difficult to detect and therefore self-interested
subjects should contribute less. The opposite argument usually relies on
the fact that any tendency toward altruism may be also reinforced as N
increases." Furthermore, with other regarding preferences a la
Bolton and Ockenfels (2000), it is easy to check that marginal
incentives to contribute depend on the size of the group, in an
ambiguous way however.
(11.) We thank an anonymous referee for this helpful remark.
(12.) In all statistical tests reported in this paper, the unit of
observation is the group.
(13.) There were no right-censored observations in our data.
(14.) Separate estimates for each size condition (not reported here
but available upon request) provide similar findings. These findings
contrast with our previous nonparametric results presented above. The
difference between our parametric and nonparametric analysis can be
easily explained by the fact that estimates provide more precise results
as we control for several other effects as well as for panel dimension.
(15.) Note that the interpretation in term of end-of-sequence
effect also coincides with the absence of the leading-by-example effect
in the last position of the game. Another interpretation is to consider
that the end-of-sequence effect simply results from the absence of a
leading-by-example effect in the last position of the sequence.
CHARLES FIGUIERES, DAVID MASCLET, and MARC WILLINGER *
* We thank participants at the 2009 International Meetings of the
Association for Public Economic Theory (APET) at the National University
of Ireland, Galway. We also thank Marie-Claire Villeval for helpful
comments, and Elven Priour and Dimitri Dubois for programming and
research assistance. Financial support from the Agence Nationale de la
Recherche (ANR-08-JCJC-0105-01, "CONFLICT" project) is
gratefully acknowledged.
Figuieres: Research Director, INRA, CNRS, Universite Montpellierl,
LAMETA, INRA, 2 place Viala, 34060 Montpellier, France. Phone +33 (0)499
61 22 09, E-mail
[email protected]
Masclet: Research Associate Professor, CNRS, CREM, Universite
Rennes 1, 7 Place Hoche, 35065 Rennes, France; CIRANO, Montreal, Canada.
Phone +33(0)223 23 33 18, E-mail
[email protected]
Willinger: Professor, INRA, CNRS, Universite Montpellierl, LAMETA,
Faculte d'Economie, Avenue Raymond Dugrand--Site de Richter C.S.
79606, 34960 Montpellier CEDEX 2, France. Phone +33(0)434 43 25 19,
E-mail
[email protected].
doi: 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2011.00415.x
TABLE 1
Number of Independent Observations Per Cell
Session Number Number of
Number Treatment of Groups Subjects
1 Simultaneous game 5 20
2 Simultaneous game # 4 16
3 Simultaneous game # 4 16
4 Simultaneous game 2 16
5 Simultaneous game 2 16
6 Simultaneous game 2 16
7 Sequential game with info 3 12
8 Sequential game with info 3 12
9 Sequential game with info 2 16
10 Sequential game with info 2 16
11 Sequential game with info 2 16
12 Sequential game without info 4 16
13 Sequential game without info 4 16
14 Sequential game without info 2 16
15 Sequential game without info 2 16
16 Sequential game without info 2 16
Session Size of
Number the Group Location
1 4 Rennet
2 4 Montpellier
3 4 Rennet
4 8 Montpellier
5 8 Montpellier
6 8 Rennet
7 4 Rennet
8 4 Montpellier
9 8 Montpellier
10 8 Rennet
11 8 Montpellier
12 4 Rennet
13 4 Montpellier
14 8 Rennet
15 8 Rennet
16 8 Montpellier
Note: # indicates simultaneous game with framing.
TABLE 2
Group Average Contribution Levels (SD in brackets)
Group N=4
Sim Seq. without Info Seq. with Info Sim
1 4.3 # 5.4 4.58 4.84
(2.94) (4.57) (3.67) (3.44)
2 4.15 # 4.7 6.23 4.95
(2.83) (3.17) (3.11) (3.38)
3 5.91 # 4.28 5.15 3.48
(2.33) (4.72) (2.99) (3.44)
4 2.78 # 5.93 5.53 5.26
(3.26) (3.06) (3.31) (3.34)
5 5.25 # 4.21 5.35 3.52
(2.93) (3.12) (3.30) (3.61)
6 6.08 # 4.1 4.68 3.18
(2.52) (3.05) (3.11) (3.35)
7 2.61 # 2.28
(2.96) (2.59)
8 2.5 # 3.05
(2.48) (3.03)
9 4.95
(1.92)
10 2.05
(1.99)
11 2.96
(3.17)
12 5.25
(2.47)
13 4.46
(3.13)
4.09 4.24 5.25 4.20
(2.68) (3.41) (3.32) (3.42)
Group N=8
Sim Seq. without Info Seq. with Info
1 4.3 # 2.65 3.85
(2.94) (3.43) (3.08)
2 4.15 # 2.7 3.88
(2.83) (2.5) (3.85)
3 5.91 # 3.22 6.025
(2.33) (2.43) (3.08)
4 2.78 # 4.28 5.50
(3.26) (2.91) (4.03)
5 5.25 # 4.05 4.24
(2.93) (3.04) (2.22)
6 6.08 # 3.34 6.53
(2.52) (2.72) (4.28)
7 2.61 #
(2.96)
8 2.5 #
(2.48)
9 4.95
(1.92)
10 2.05
(1.99)
11 2.96
(3.17)
12 5.25
(2.47)
13 4.46
(3.13)
4.09 3.37 5.03
(2.68) (2.83) (3.42)
Notes: # indicates that the results show no significant difference at
any level of significance in average contribution between the
simultaneous treatments with and without framing. All simultaneous
treatments with large groups were conducted with framing.
TABLE 3
Determinants of Individual Contribution
All All Sim. and Seq.
Treatments Treatments Treatments without Info.
Models RE GLS (1) RE Tobit (2) RE Tobit (3)
Others' average 0.299 *** 0.388 *** 0.485 ***
contribution (lagged) (0.030) (0.039) (0.047)
Others' average
contribution (lagged)
x position 1
Information 1.047 *** 1.252 ***
(0.293) (0.401)
Sequentiality -0.272 -0.228 -0.177
(0.369) (0.370) (0.387)
Seq. and info
Contribution of
lower-ranked subjects
Size N = 4 0.232 0.325 0.311
(0.230) (0.316) (0.386)
Round 15 -1.070 *** -1.676 *** -1.626 ***
(0.191) (0.255) (0.299)
Constant 2.751 1.681 1.275
(0.249) (0.338) (0.382)
Observations 3528 3528 2520
[R.sup.2] 0.08
Left cens. 839 651
Seq. with and Sim. and Seq.
Treatments Without Info. with Info.
Models RE Tobit (4) RE Tobit (5)
Others' average 0.363 *** 0.319 ***
contribution (lagged) (0.049) (0.046)
Others' average
contribution (lagged)
x position 1
Information 1.295
(0.361)
Sequentiality
Seq. and info 1.080
(0.405)
Contribution of
lower-ranked subjects
Size N = 4 0.363 0.274
(0.369) (0.405)
Round 15 -1.445 *** -1.914 ***
(0.340) (0.046)
Constant 1.498 2.022
(0.340) (0.389)
Observations 2128 2408
[R.sup.2]
Left cens. 493 534
Seq. with
Seq. with Seq. with Info. First
Info. All Info. Final and Final
Treatments Positions Position Positions
Models RE Tobit (6) RE Tobit (7) RE Tobit (8)
Others' average 0.142 * 0.321 -0.092
contribution (lagged) (0.075) (0.201) (0.116)
0.739***
Others' average (0.078)
contribution (lagged)
x position 1
Information
Sequentiality
Seq. and info
Contribution of 0.345 *** 0.300 **
lower-ranked subjects (0.040) (0.121)
Size N = 4 -0.126 0.487 0.026
(0.580) (1.275) (0.705)
Round 15 -1.433 *** -2.221 -1.571*
(0.535) (1.680) (0.873)
Constant 1.800 -1.714 ** 3.026
(0.545) (1.407) (0.732)
Observations 840 168 336
[R.sup.2]
Left cens. 177 73 84
Note: Standard errors in parentheses.
*** Significant at the 0.01 level; ** significant at the 0.05 level;
* significant at the 0.1 level.
TABLE 4
Small Groups Average Contribution by Position in the Game (SD in
brackets)
Sequential Treatment with Info
Group All Positions First Position Last Position
1 4.58 6.33 2.26
(3.67) (3.24) (3.43)
2 6.23 7.33 4.33
(3.11) (1.87) (3.90)
3 5.15 6.86 3.4
(2.99) (2.16) (3.37)
4 5.53 6.33 3.13
(3.31) (2.60) (3.15)
5 5.35 6.93 2.86
(3.30) (2.93) (2.58)
6 4.68 4.4 4.13
(3.11) (2.13) (3.92)
7
8
5.25 6.36 3.35
(3.32) (2.64) (3.40)
Sequential Treatment without Info
Group All Positions First Position Last Position
1 5.4 5.13 6.2
(4.57) (4.77) (4.49)
2 4.7 3.8 4
(3.17) (3.21) (3.11)
3 4.28 4.33 4.73
(4.72) (4.77) (4.90)
4 5.93 5.46 4.93
(3.06) (2.97) (3.69)
5 4.21 3 3.66
(3.12) (2.92) (2.46)
6 4.1 5.33 4.13
(3.05) (3.08) (2.97)
7 2.28 1.53 1.8
(2.59) (1.84) (3.12)
8 3.05 3 3.8
(3.03) (3.42) (2.73)
4.24 3.94 4.15
(3.41) (3.37) (3.43)
TABLE 5
Large Groups Average Contribution by Position in the Game (SD
in brackets)
Sequential Treatment with Info
Groups All Positions First Position Last Position
1 3.85 4.26 2
(3.08) (3.41) (2.23)
2 3.88 6.33 0.93
(3.85) (3.19) (2.63)
3 6.025 8.26 6.2
(3.08) (1.83) (3.91)
4 5.50 7.86 2.66
(4.03) (3.02) (4.23)
5 4.24 4.6 2.8
(2.22) (2.55) (2.54)
6 6.53 6.6 5.53
(4.28) (4.70) (4.71)
Average 5.03 6.31 3.35
(3.42) (3.11) (3.37)
Sequential Treatment without Info
Groups All Positions First Position Last Position
1 2.65 3.13 2.93
(3.43) (3.96) (3.55)
2 2.7 2.8 2.53
(2.5) (2.30) (2.79)
3 3.22 3.46 3.2
(2.43) (2.41) (1.89)
4 4.28 4.2 4.06
(2.91) (3.12) (3.08)
5 4.05 2.46 5
(3.04) (2.19) (3.31)
6 3.34 2.4 2.86
(2.72) (2.5) (2.26)
Average 3.37 3.07 3.43
(2.83) (2.74) (2.81)
TABLE 6
Regression of Contribution by Position in the Game
Group Size N = 4
N=4 N=4 N=4
Seq. without Seq. with Seq. with
Treatment Info Info Info
Models RE GLS (1) RE GLS (2) RE GLS (3)
Others' average 0.457 *** 0.229*** 0.160 ***
contribution (0.068) (0.0718) (0.082)
(lagged)
Position 1 Ref. Ref.
Position 2 0.717 -0.375 Ref.
(0.435) (0.435)
Position 3 -0.07 -1.453*** -0.998 **
(0.435) (0.434) (0.417)
Position 4 0.286 -3.353*** -2.558 ***
(0.435) (0.440) (0.430)
Position 5
Position 6
Position 7
Position 8
Average contribution 0.310 ***
lower ranks (0.062)
Round 15 -1.766 *** -2.066 *** -1.642 ***
(0.609) (0.597) (0.680)
Constant 1.971 *** 5.462 *** 3.411 ***
(0.471) (0.541) (0.701)
Observations 448 336 252
Lef. cens.
Group Size
N = 4 Group Size N = 8
N=4 N=8 N=8
Seq. with Seq. without Seq. with
Treatment Info Info Info
Models RE Tobit (4) RE GLS (5) RE GLS (6)
Others' average 0.197 ** 0.236 ** 0.078
contribution (0.100) (0.093) (0.075)
(lagged)
Position 1 Ref. Ref.
Position 2 Ref. 0.409 -0.639
(0.406 (0.461)
Position 3 -1.258 ** -0.254 -1.143 **
(0.503) (0.405) (0.457)
Position 4 -3.254 *** -0.203 -0.947 **
(0.531) (0.407) (0.453)
Position 5 0.182 -1.837 ***
(0.407) (0.469)
Position 6 -0.387 -2.274 ***
(0.412) (0.457)
Position 7 0.342 -3.687 ***
(0.405) (0.460)
Position 8 -0.119 -3.763 ***
(0.395) (0.460)
Average contribution 0.365 ***
lower ranks (0.078)
Round 15 -2.357 *** 0.139 -0.858 *
(0.889) (0.395) (0.442)
Constant 2.823 *** 2.216 *** 6.442 ***
(0.849) (0.250) (0.580)
Observations 252 672 672
Lef. cens. 51
Group Size N = 8
N=8 N=8
Seq. with Seq. with
Treatment Info Info
Models RE GLS (7) RE Tobit (8)
Others' average 0.076 0.073
contribution (0.079) (0.099)
(lagged)
Position 1
Position 2 Ref. Ref.
Position 3 -0.369 -0.362
(0.466) (0.568)
Position 4 -0.109 -0.137
(0.456) (0.555)
Position 5 -1.001** -1.135 **
(0.471) (0.574)
Position 6 -1.354*** -1.599 ***
(0.464) (0.570)
Position 7 -2.684*** -3.449 ***
(0.470) (0.586)
Position 8 -2.647*** -3.788 ***
(0.476) (0.604)
Average contribution 0.168 *** 0.195 ***
lower ranks (0.036) (0.046)
Round 15 -0.724 -1.208 **
(0.470) (0.606)
Constant 4.684 *** 4.386 ***
(0.640) (0.782)
Observations 588 588
Lef. cens. 126
Note: Standard errors in parentheses.
*** Significant at the 0.01 level; ** significant at the 0.05 level;
* significant at the 0.1 level.