Obstinate Parties and Non-binding Outside Options in the Lab

Last registered on January 17, 2018

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Obstinate Parties and Non-binding Outside Options in the Lab

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0002674

Initial registration date

January 15, 2018

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

January 17, 2018, 11:03 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

Norway

Region

Oslo

Primary Investigator

Name

Leif Helland

Affiliation

BI Norwegian Business School

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Magnus Vaage Knutsen

PI Affiliation

BI Norwegian Business School

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Tom-Reiel Heggedal

PI Affiliation

BI Norwegian Business School

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Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2018-01-16

End date

2018-07-01

Keywords

Welfare

Additional Keywords

Sequential bargaining; common knowledge; outside options

JEL code(s)

C78; C92

Secondary IDs

Abstract

We set up a controlled laboratory experiment to test a bargaining model. There are obstinate types present in the population of bargainers, and bargainers may have access to outside options or not. In the model access to outside options removes the incentive non-obstinate bargainers have to mimik obstinate bargainers, with efficiency gains resulting.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Heggedal, Tom-Reiel, Leif Helland and Magnus Vaage Knutsen. 2018. "Obstinate Parties and Non-binding Outside Options in the Lab." AEA RCT Registry. January 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2674-1.0

Former Citation

Heggedal, Tom-Reiel, Leif Helland and Magnus Vaage Knutsen. 2018. "Obstinate Parties and Non-binding Outside Options in the Lab." AEA RCT Registry. January 17. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2674/history/24985

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

2 treatments with and without outside options respectively X 2 treatments with and without induced obstinate types respectively

Intervention Start Date

2018-01-16

Intervention End Date

2018-07-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Average length of play per block over treatments with and without outside options.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Average loss of payoffs per block over treatments with and without outside options.
Probability of obstinate demands per block over treatments with and without outside options.
Probability of exercising the outside options per block over treatments with and without outside options.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Laboratory experiment: 2X2 design - with and without access to outside options; with and without induced obstinate types (robots that insist on a fixed demand).
Observational unit: average behavior in blocks of 8 human subjects. Subjects are kept within blocks and unique subjects are used in all treatments.
Random matching of subjects within a block in each new game.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by a computer.

Randomization Unit

Subjects within matching blocks.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

48 blocks (of 8 human subjects each)

Sample size: planned number of observations

48 blocks (of 8 human subjects each); requiring a total of 384 subjects.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

12 blocks per treatment.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Main effect: 7 percentage point difference - based on pilot study containing 2 treatments and 3 blocks per treatment. Standard deviation treatments: 0.07 and 0.01 respectively. Study is calibrated to give a power of 80 percent for the main treatment measure.

Supporting Documents and Materials

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