Cooperation and Competition in Intergenerational Experiments in the Field and the Laboratory
Gary Charness and Marie-Claire Villeval
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| Article Citation |
Charness, Gary, and Marie-Claire Villeval. 2009. "Cooperation and Competition in Intergenerational Experiments in the Field and the Laboratory." American Economic Review, 99(3): 956–78.
DOI:10.1257/aer.99.3.956
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| Abstract |
There is economic pressure to postpone the retirement age, but employers are
still reluctant to employ older workers. We investigate the comparative behavior
of juniors and seniors in experiments conducted both onsite with the employees
of two large firms and in a conventional laboratory environment with students
and retirees. We show that seniors are no more risk averse than juniors and are
typically more cooperative; both juniors and working seniors respond strongly
to competition. The implication is that it may be beneficial to define additional
incentives near the end of the career to motivate and retain older workers. (JEL
C90, J14, J26, M12, M51)
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| Article Full-Text Access |
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| Additional Materials |
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| Authors |
Charness, Gary (U CA, Santa Barbara)
Villeval, Marie-Claire (U Lyon-GATE and IZA, Bonn)
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| JEL Classifications |
C90: Design of Experiments: General
J14: Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped
J26: Retirement; Retirement Policies
M12: Personnel Management; Executive Compensation
M51: Personnel Economics: Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions
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