THE POVERTY GAME AND THE PENSION GAME - THE ROLE OF RECIPROCITY

We examine the force of the reciprocity norm in gift giving experiment s in which mutual gift giving is efficient but gifts are individually costly. Our main result is that we find almost no evidence for recipro city. Gifts supplied are unrelated to gifts received. This applies equ ally to the Poverty Game (player 1 gives to player 2, player 2 gives t o player I) and the Pension Game (player 2 gives to player 1, player 3 gives to player 2, player 4 gives to player 3, etc.). Nevertheless, w e do find substantial levels of gift giving. Furthermore, these levels are higher in the Pension Game than in the Poverty Game. (C) 1998 Els evier Science B.V. All rights reserved.