On the External Validity of Social Preference Games: A Systematic Lab-Field Study
Matteo M. Galizzi, Daniel Navarro-Martinez
Management Science · 2019 · Volume 65 · Issue 3
Abstract
We present a lab-field experiment designed to systematically assess the external validity of social preferences elicited in a variety of experimental games. We do this by comparing behavior in the different games with several behaviors elicited in the field and with self-reported behaviors exhibited in the past, using the same sample of participants. Our results show that the experimental social preference games do a poor job explaining both social behaviors in the field and social behaviors from the past. We also include a systematic review and meta-analysis of previous literature on the external validity of social preference games. Data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2908 . This paper was accepted by John List, behavioral economics.
Keywords
field behavior, external validity, experimental games, social preferences
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