Ultimatum game

The ultimatum game is a game in economic experiments. The first player (the proposer) receives a sum of money and proposes how to divide the sum between the proposer and the other player. The second player (the responder) chooses to either accept or reject this proposal. If the second player accepts, the money is split according to the proposal. If the second player rejects, neither player receives any money. The game is typically played only once so that reciprocation is not an issue.

There are huge amount of social experimental studies about this game. It have been usually taken to be as both evidence for and against the so-called Homo economicus assumptions of rational, utility-maximizing, individual decisions. There is also a core experiment in neuroeconomics studies.

See also

Game Theory

Material

• Stewart, Ian (May 1999). A Puzzle for Pirates. Scientific American 05: 98–99.

Papers

• Bearden, J. Neil (2001). Ultimatum Bargaining Experiments: The State of the Art.
• Cesarini, D., Dawes, C. T., Fowler, J. H., Johannesson, M., Lichtenstein, P., & Wallace, B. (2008). Heritability of cooperative behavior in the trust game. Proceedings of the National Academy of sciences, 105(10), 3721-3726.
• Hoppe, Eva I.; Schmitz, Patrick W. (2013). Contracting under Incomplete Information and Social Preferences: An Experimental Study. The Review of Economic Studies 80 (4): 1516-1544.
• Andersen, Steffen; Ertaç, Seda; Gneezy, Uri; Hoffman, Moshe; List, John A (2011). Stakes Matter in Ultimatum Games. American Economic Review 101 (7): 3427-3439
• Gneezy, Haruvy, and Roth, A. E. (2003). Bargaining under a deadline: evidence from the reverse ultimatum game. Games and Economic Behavior 45 (2): 347. doi:10.1016/S0899-8256(03)00151-9. Archived from the original on July 31, 2004.