| No | SDES-2015-13 |
|---|---|
| Title | The sandwich property in the voluntary contribution mechanism: The instability approach |
| Author | Tatsuyoshi Saijo |
| Abstract | This paper proposes an alternative explanation for the sandwich property in voluntary contribution mechanism experiments. This property refers to the phenomenon of experimental data being “sandwiched” between a Nash equilibrium above the midpoint of the endowment and a Nash equilibrium below this midpoint. The explanation is in terms of the instability of the system with best response dynamics, i.e., “pulsing” behaviors, in nonlinear environments rather than the quantal response equilibrium analysis. Since most experimental models are unstable in quasilinear environments (where the utility function is linear in a private good and nonlinear in a public good), and Cobb–Douglas environments, using equilibrium analysis is problematic. |
| Revised version published in |