Reciprocity in Gift-Exchange-Games

TL;DR

This paper analyzes gift-exchange game data using advanced data science techniques, revealing insights into human reciprocity behaviors that deviate from rational economic models.

Contribution

It applies modern data science methods to experimental economics data, offering new perspectives on reciprocity and social comparison effects.

Findings

Average gift rate was 31%

Gift rate was never zero under any conditions

Certain findings were statistically significant

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of data from a gift-exchange-game experiment. The experiment was described in `The Impact of Social Comparisons on Reciprocity' by G\"achter et al. 2012. Since this paper uses state-of-art data science techniques, the results provide a different point of view on the problem. As already shown in relevant literature from experimental economics, human decisions deviate from rational payoff maximization. The average gift rate was $31$%. Gift rate was under no conditions zero. Further, we derive some special findings and calculate their significance.