An Experiment on Two-Person Social Choice

Last registered on March 30, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
An Experiment on Two-Person Social Choice
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010662
Initial registration date
March 22, 2023

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
March 30, 2023, 3:17 PM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Sonnur Bas
Affiliation
Sabanci University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2022-12-01
End date
2023-08-01
Keywords
Behavior, Lab, Welfare
Additional Keywords
Social Choice, Bargaining, Consensus
JEL code(s)
C78, D7, D9, C92
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Are there good mechanisms that a group of decision-makers can use to reach a joint decision on a set of alternatives? Applications range from project evaluations and committee decisions to the selection of arbitrators in conflict resolution. In practice, there is a range of mechanisms such as the highly popular Veto Rank mechanism. The related literature also proposes a number of mechanisms that are theoretically argued to be superior. In this project, we will run an experiment to compare these mechanisms in terms of efficiency and fairness, as well as how close the experimental subjects behave in relation to the equilibrium predictions.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bas, Sonnur. 2023. "An Experiment on Two-Person Social Choice." AEA RCT Registry. March 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10662-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We will invite Sabanci University students to experimental sessions where in each session, they will be paired to interact according to the rules of one of the aforementioned mechanisms
Intervention Start Date
2022-12-01
Intervention End Date
2023-08-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Two-Person social choice over 5 alternatives
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Participants will be collected from among Sabanci University students based on voluntary participation. In one session, participants will play the game associated with the respective mechanism for 40 rounds, each time facing a different randomly assigned partner. In each round, participants will see several screens asking them to choose one or more options from among five available alternatives (called a, b, c, d, e). Each option will have a different payoff for a participant (and the two partners will have different payoffs from an option). At the beginning of each round, a player will be presented with a table informing her of her own payoffs as well as the payoffs of her partner. At the end of the experiment, one of the 40 rounds played will be randomly chosen for each player. A player’s payoff from the experiment will be her payoff from the randomly selected round plus her participation payoff
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a compute
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
320 participants
Sample size: planned number of observations
About 320 participants and 40 rounds: 12800 observations
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
The sample will be split approximately equally across the four treatment.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Sabancı University Research and Ethics Council
IRB Approval Date
2022-12-29
IRB Approval Number
7469
Analysis Plan