Essays on behavioral and organizational economics : an experimental approach

Abstract

Most economic models assume that people are exclusively motivated by material self-interests. Recently, countless evidence from many economic experiments has systematically refuted this rational self-interest hypothesis. The evidence has led many people to conclude that people also care about fairness and other peopleb s wellbeing, and exhibits reciprocity towards others. Many theories have been written to explain the observed evidence and some of them have shed lights on issues that have puzzled economists for a long time. In this thesis, I investigate some issues of other-regarding preference. In the first and second essay, I investigate the impact of other regarding preference on behaviour inside organization and in the society at large respectively. I investigate the nature of other-regarding preference under different institutional arrangements in the third and fourth essay.