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Journal ArticleDOI

z-Tree: Zurich toolbox for ready-made economic experiments

07 Feb 2007-Experimental Economics (Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers)-Vol. 10, Iss: 2, pp 171-178
TL;DR: Z-Tree as mentioned in this paper is a toolbox for ready-made economic experiments, which allows programming almost any kind of experiments in a short time and is stable and easy to use.
Abstract: z-Tree (Zurich Toolbox for Ready-made Economic Experiments) is a software for developing and conducting economic experiments. The software is stable and allows programming almost any kind of experiments in a short time. In this article, I present the guiding principles behind the software design, its features, and its limitations.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
10 Jan 2002-Nature
TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that negative emotions towards defectors are the proximate mechanism behind altruistic punishment and that cooperation flourishes if altruistic punishments are possible, and breaks down if it is ruled out.
Abstract: Human cooperation is an evolutionary puzzle. Unlike other creatures, people frequently cooperate with genetically unrelated strangers, often in large groups, with people they will never meet again, and when reputation gains are small or absent. These patterns of cooperation cannot be explained by the nepotistic motives associated with the evolutionary theory of kin selection and the selfish motives associated with signalling theory or the theory of reciprocal altruism. Here we show experimentally that the altruistic punishment of defectors is a key motive for the explanation of cooperation. Altruistic punishment means that individuals punish, although the punishment is costly for them and yields no material gain. We show that cooperation flourishes if altruistic punishment is possible, and breaks down if it is ruled out. The evidence indicates that negative emotions towards defectors are the proximate mechanism behind altruistic punishment. These results suggest that future study of the evolution of human cooperation should include a strong focus on explaining altruistic punishment.

4,353 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
02 Jun 2005-Nature
TL;DR: It is shown that intranasal administration of oxytocin, a neuropeptide that plays a key role in social attachment and affiliation in non-human mammals, causes a substantial increase in trust among humans, thereby greatly increasing the benefits from social interactions.
Abstract: Trust pervades human societies. Trust is indispensable in friendship, love, families and organizations, and plays a key role in economic exchange and politics. In the absence of trust among trading partners, market transactions break down. In the absence of trust in a country's institutions and leaders, political legitimacy breaks down. Much recent evidence indicates that trust contributes to economic, political and social success. Little is known, however, about the biological basis of trust among humans. Here we show that intranasal administration of oxytocin, a neuropeptide that plays a key role in social attachment and affiliation in non-human mammals, causes a substantial increase in trust among humans, thereby greatly increasing the benefits from social interactions. We also show that the effect of oxytocin on trust is not due to a general increase in the readiness to bear risks. On the contrary, oxytocin specifically affects an individual's willingness to accept social risks arising through interpersonal interactions. These results concur with animal research suggesting an essential role for oxytocin as a biological basis of prosocial approach behaviour.

3,202 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article studied the importance of conditional cooperation in a one-shot public goods game by using a variant of the strategy-method and found that a third of the subjects can be classified as free riders, whereas 50% are conditional cooperators.

2,133 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Men and women of the same ability differ in their selection into a competitive environment as discussed by the authors, and this gender gap in tournament entry is not explained by performance, and factors such as risk and feedback aversion only play a negligible role.
Abstract: We examine whether men and women of the same ability differ in their selection into a competitive environment. Participants in a laboratory experiment solve a real task, first under a noncompetitive piece rate and then a competitive tournament incentive scheme. Although there are no gender differences in performance, men select the tournament twice as much as women when choosing their compensation scheme for the next performance. While 73 percent of the men select the tournament, only 35 percent of the women make this choice. This gender gap in tournament entry is not explained by performance, and factors such as risk and feedback aversion only playa negligible role. Instead, the tournament-entry gap is driven by men being more overconfident and by gender differences in preferences for performing in a competition. The result is that women shy away from competition and men embrace it.

2,017 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the characteristics and relative strength of third-party sanctions in a series of experiments and show that the notion of strong reciprocity extends to the sanctioning behavior of "unaffected" third parties.

1,825 citations

References
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DOI
01 Sep 1999
TL;DR: The z-tree toolbox for readymade economic experiments as discussed by the authors allows to program and conduct a wide range of experiments, including simultaneous and sequential games as well as market experiments and posted offer markets.
Abstract: "This manual explains the use of z-Tree, the ""Zurich Toolbox for Readymade Economic Experiments"". No programming knowledge is necessary to use z-Tree. This software allows to program and to conduct a wide range of experiments. This includes simultaneous and sequential games as well as market experiments and posted offer markets or double auctions. Because many features needed in an experimental software are built into z-Tree (as data saving, time and period display, profit calculation, group matching, provisions in case of losses and bankruptcy), new experiments can be developed quickly and easily."

664 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a series of experiments designed to investigate the factor of incentive mechanisms in the case of private provisions of public goods is presented. But the results showed that the proposed incentive mechanism is very promising.
Abstract: The author reports on a series of experiments designed to investigate the factor of incentive mechanisms in the case of private provisions of public goods. In the Control treatment, there was no mechanism so that subjects faced strong free-riding incentives. In the so-called Falkinger mechanism treatment, the author implemented the Falkinger mechanism. The studies explored the impact of the mechanism in different economic environments. Results showed that the proposed incentive mechanism is very promising. Section I of the paper introduces the mechanism to be examined. Section II discusses the experimental design. Empirical results are provided in Section III, and Section IV interprets these results followed by a summary.

271 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: RatImage contains Borland Turbo Pascal constans, variables, functions, and procedures which, when used, relieve programmers of many tedious and complex tasks, like graphical output, keyboard handling, mouse control, file access, and network communication.
Abstract: This paper reports on RatImage, a toolbox specifically developed to simplify the programming of software used in computerized human behavior experiments. RatImage contains Borland Turbo Pascal constans, variables, functions, and procedures which, when used, relieve programmers of many tedious and complex tasks, like graphical output, keyboard handling, mouse control, file access, and network communication. The structure of the toolbox, its relationship to other programming methods, and its significance for computerized human behavior experiments are discussed. All provided pre-defined elements and routines are listed and described.

133 citations

Posted Content

16 citations


Additional excerpts

  • ...Software packages for a particular family of experiments (such as public goods experiments, oligopoly experiments, or double auctions; see Plott (1991), for example) were developed in a first generation....

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