Joint Vs Individual Real-effort Tasks and Allocation Decisions

Résumé du livre

This paper reports the results of a laboratory experiment conducted to com- pare the effects of the differences in a joint production process on individuals' allocation decisions regarding jointly created surplus. In one production process, the task is individually and independently conducted, whereas in another one, it requires a pair to cooperate and jointly engage in the task. In both cases, the outcome from the task is aggregated within a pair and the joint surplus is shared in the following dictator game. We analyze the results with respect to the perceived differences in the contributions to the production process. We find that (1) dictators allocate more to themselves, as their perceived contribution increases compared to that of their counterparts; and (2) the differences in the task do not lead to a significant difference in the dictator's allocation decision nor in their perceived contributions.