Cooperation and Status in Organizations
Journal of Public Economic Theory, Vol. 12, Vol. 4, pp. 737-762, 2010
26 Pages Posted: 17 May 2011
Date Written: August 1, 2010
Abstract
We report the results of experiments designed to test the effect of social status on contributions to a public good, with and without punishment. The experiments are conducted in four-person groups in a “star” network, where one central player observes and is observed by the others. This imposes a social structure on the game, and gives the central player a leadership role in the group, simply by virtue of being commonly observed. We further manipulate status by allocating the central position to the person who earns the highest, or the lowest, score on a trivia quiz. These high-status and low-status treatments are compared, and we find that the effect of organizational structure – the existence of a central position – depends on the status of the central player. Higher status players are attended to and mimicked more systematically. Punishment has differential effects in the two treatments, and is least effective in the high-status case.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
The Effect of Rewards and Sanctions in Provision of Public Goods
By Martin Sefton, Robert Shupp, ...
-
Driving Forces Behind Informal Sanctions
By Armin Falk, Ernst Fehr, ...
-
Driving Forces of Informal Sanctions
By Armin Falk, Ernst Fehr, ...
-
Punishing Free-Riders: How Group Size Affects Mutual Monitoring and the Provision of Public Goods
-
Social Preferences, Beliefs, and the Dynamics of Free Riding in Public Good Experiments
By Urs Fischbacher and Simon Gaechter
-
The Carrot or the Stick: Rewards, Punishments and Cooperation
By James Andreoni, William T. Harbaugh, ...