Date: September 26th, 2024 (12:30 pm – 1:30 pm)

Speaker: Jeff Carpenter

Paper Title: Cooperative Games and Economic Behavior

Abstract: We design an experiment to examine coalition formation in cooperative games. Using a newly designed interface, our protocol nests characteristic functions from key cooperative game theory experiments over the past half century and adds new functions to fill the gaps. The resulting data allows us to analyze the length of negotiations, which coalitions form, and the extent to which standard solution concepts predict outcomes (e.g., the core and Shapley value). Lastly, we develop a new behavioral solution concept, sequential equal shares, and test whether it performs better.

Bio: Jeffrey Carpenter is the James Jermain Professor of Political Economy at Middlebury College and is currently (or has been) an Associate Editor at Management Science, the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, and the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Professor Carpenter holds a Ph.D. in Economics from University of Massachusetts (Amherst). His research has been published in the American Economic Review, the Review of Economic Studies, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Economic Journal, Games and Economic Behavior, the Journal of Labor Economics, the Industrial and Labor Relations Review, the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Development Economics and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, among other journals.

Professor Carpenter’s research interests include Experimental and Behavioral Economics with applications to Labor, Public, and Development Economics. While pursuing these interests he has conducted lab and field experiments in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.