If the worst comes to the worst: Dictator giving when recipient´s endowments are risky

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Preprints of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods ; No. 2015/15

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty ; Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Individual
• Subject: dictator game ; uncertainty ; donation

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Engel, Christoph ; Goerg, Sebastian J.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2015

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/126517
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET