Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2009
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the implications of the philosophical considerations presented in Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia, by examining group formation in a laboratory setting where subjects engage in both cooperative and conflictual interactions. We endow participants with a commodity used to generate earnings, plunder others, or protect against plunder. In our primary treatment, we allow participants to form groups to pool their resources. We conduct a baseline comparison treatment that does not allow group formation. We find that allowing subjects to organize themselves into groups does not lead to more cooperation and may in fact exacerbate tendencies for conflict.
Recommended Citation
Smith, Adam C., Skarbek, D. B., & Wilson, B.J. (2009). Anarchy, groups, and conflict: An experiment on the emergence of protective associations. ESI Working Paper 09-03. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/esi_working_papers/139
Comments
Working Paper 09-03