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Legitimate Punishment, Feedback, and the Enforcement of Cooperation

Author

Listed:
  • Marco Faillo

    (Department of Economics, University of Trento)

  • Daniela Grieco

    (Department of Economics (University of Verona))

  • Luca Zarri

    (Department of Economics (University of Verona))

Abstract
In real life, punishment is often implemented only insofar as punishers are entitled to punish and punishees deserve to be punished. We provide an experimental test for this principle of legitimacy in the framework of a public goods game, by comparing it with a classic (unrestricted) punishment institution. A significant advantage of our institution is that it rules out antisocial punishment, a phenomenon which recent studies document to play a key role in undermining the scope for self-governance. Our findings show that, despite the lack of additional monetary incentives to cooperate, the introduction of legitimate punishment leads to substantial efficiency gains, in terms of both cooperation and earnings. Therefore, in businesses and other organizations, this device could successfully deal with the principal-agent problem, with the principal delegating a task to a team of agents. Further, we interestingly find that removing the information over high contributors’ choices only leads to a dramatic decline in cooperation rates and earnings. This result implies that providing feedback over virtuous behavior is necessary to make an institution based on legitimate punishment effective.

Suggested Citation

  • Marco Faillo & Daniela Grieco & Luca Zarri, 2010. "Legitimate Punishment, Feedback, and the Enforcement of Cooperation," Working Papers 16/2010, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ver:wpaper:16/2010
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    Cited by:

    1. DeAngelo, Gregory & Gee, Laura Katherine, 2018. "Peers or Police? Detection and Sanctions in the Provision of Public Goods," IZA Discussion Papers 11540, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Kirchkamp, Oliver & Mill, Wladislaw, 2020. "Conditional cooperation and the effect of punishment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 150-172.
    3. Gross, Jörg & De Dreu, Carsten K.W. & Reddmann, Lennart, 2022. "Shadow of conflict: How past conflict influences group cooperation and the use of punishment," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    4. Walid Merouani & Claire El Moudden & Nacer Eddine Hammouda, 2021. "Social Security Enrollment as an Indicator of State Fragility and Legitimacy: A Field Experiment in Maghreb Countries," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-25, July.
    5. Faillo, Marco & Grieco, Daniela & Zarri, Luca, 2012. "Cultural Diversity, Cooperation,and Anti-social Punishment," AICCON Working Papers 102-2012, Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit.
    6. Mike Farjam & Marco Faillo & Ida Sprinkhuizen-Kuyper & Pim Haselager, 2015. "Punishment Mechanisms and Their Effect on Cooperation: A Simulation Study," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 18(1), pages 1-5.
    7. Anwar Shah & Karim Khan & Muhammad Zubair, 2019. "Moral Hazard, Monitoring and Punishment: Evidence from a Field Experiment," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 58(2), pages 109-134.
    8. Grieco, Daniela & Faillo, Marco & Zarri, Luca, 2017. "Enforcing cooperation in public goods games: Is one punisher enough?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 55-73.
    9. Daniela Grieco & Michela Braga & Francesco Bripi, 2016. "Cooperation and leadership in a segregated community: Evidence from a lab-in-the-field experiment in a South African township," WIDER Working Paper Series 076, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Daniela Grieco & Michela Braga & Francesco Bripi, 2016. "Cooperation and leadership in a segregated community: Evidence from a lab-in-the-field experiment in a South African township," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-76, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Hoeft, Leonard & Mill, Wladislaw, 2017. "Selfish punishers," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 41-44.
    12. Daniel Villatoro & Giulia Andrighetto & Rosaria Conte & Jordi Sabater-Mir, 2015. "Self-Policing Through Norm Internalization: A Cognitive Solution to the Tragedy of the Digital Commons in Social Networks," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 18(2), pages 1-2.
    13. Laura K. Gee & Xinxin Lyu & Heather Urry, 2017. "Anger Management: Aggression and Punishment in the Provision of Public Goods," Games, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-28, January.
    14. Alt, Marius & Gallier, Carlo, 2022. "Incentives and intertemporal behavioral spillovers: A two-period experiment on charitable giving," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 959-972.
    15. Christoph Engel, 2019. "When Does Transparency Backfire? Putting Jeremy Bentham's Theory of General Prevention to the Experimental Test," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), pages 881-908, December.
    16. Erte Xiao & Howard Kunreuther, 2016. "Punishment and Cooperation in Stochastic Social Dilemmas," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 60(4), pages 670-693, June.
    17. Daniela Grieco & Marco Faillo & Luca Zarri, 2013. "Top Contributors as Punishers," Working Papers 24/2013, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    18. Liying Zhang & Chengliang Wu & Yang Zhang, 2020. "Experimental Study Based on Game Theory on the Private, Voluntary Supply Mechanisms of Goods for Forestry Infrastructure from the Perspective of Quasi-Public Goods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-28, April.
    19. DeAngelo, Gregory & Gee, Laura K., 2020. "Peers or police?: The effect of choice and type of monitoring in the provision of public goods," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 210-227.
    20. Hoeft, Leonard & Mill, Wladislaw, 2024. "Abuse of power," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 305-324.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Experimental Economics; Public Good Games; Costly Punishment; Cooperation; Legitimacy; Immunity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

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