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If the Worst Comes to the Worst. Dictator Giving When Recipient’s Endowments are Risky

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  • Christoph Engel

    (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn)

  • Sebastian Goerg

    (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn)

Abstract

Donors may often not be sure whether a recipient really deserves their help. Does this uncertainty deter generosity? In an experiment we find that, to the contrary, under most specifications of uncertainty, dictators give more, compared with the donation the same dictator makes to a recipient they know to have the expected value of the endowment with certainty. They are particularly concerned about the possibility that a recipient leaves the lab with no payoff from the game.

Suggested Citation

  • Christoph Engel & Sebastian Goerg, 2015. "If the Worst Comes to the Worst. Dictator Giving When Recipient’s Endowments are Risky," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2015_15, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    • Handle: RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2015_15
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    2. Christoph Engel, 2022. "Judicial Decision-Making. A Survey of the Experimental Evidence," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2022_06, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.

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    Keywords

    Dictator Game; Uncertainty; Donation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles

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