Can Laboratory Experiments Test the Cultural Difference?

In the study we conducted a meta-analysis of 24 results drawn from 18 papers in the Voluntary Contribution Mechanism public goods game held in two culturally distant regions, namely US and East Asia. We compared the last round contribution rate from the two regions for both 0.5-MPCR and 0.75-MPCR levels as well as the trend and each round’s contribution rate specifically for the 0.75-MPCR level. No significant difference of the contribution rate related to previous comparisons was found. We suggested two factors might be responsible for this, one involving the subject pool, and the other involving the framing effect. By gathering data from other research, we bolstered the hypotheses regarding these suspects. In a final analysis, we concluded that testing cultural-dependent economic behaviors in laboratory experiments featured by a comparatively clean context might not be a promising approach; we also recommended possible approaches for further studies.