2021/07/12 by Armin Falk · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies
paper · doi:10.4324/9781003019121-9
openalex publication_date 2021/07/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Homo economicus has no gender, age, or cultural identity, but is it plausible to assume that all people behave in the same way? This paper is one of the first experimental studies in economics to tackle cultural differences with data. In a simple set of bargaining and market experiments, the authors studied potential differences in four different cultures – the US, Yugoslavia, Israel, and Japan. In short, they found no cultural differences in the markets, all of which converged to the predicted subgame perfect outcome. However, they did find differences in bargaining behavior, shedding light on underlying fairness perceptions and motives.