The ‘Decision Maker’ Matters: Individual versus Group Behavior in Experimental ‘Beauty-Contest’ Games

نویسندگان

  • Martin G. Kocher
  • Matthias Sutter
چکیده

Economics has devoted little attention so far as to whether the type of decision maker matters for economic decisions. However, many important decisions like those on monetary policy or a company’s business strategy are made by (small) groups rather than an individual. We compare behavior of individuals and small groups in an experimental beauty-contest game. Our findings suggest that groups do not apply deeper levels of reasoning per se, but that they learn faster than individuals. When individuals compete against groups, the latter significantly outperform the former in terms of payoff. JEL classification: C72, C91, C92, D70

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تاریخ انتشار 2002