A behavioral study of bargaining in social networks

Abstract

We report on a series of highly controlled human subject experiments in networked bargaining. The basic interaction between two players is the decision of how to share a mutual payment; we extend this to situate the players in a network. Various theories predict, to different levels of uniqueness, what the shares will be. We analyze our experimental results from three points of view: social efficiency, nodal differences, and human differences; and contrast our behavioral results with the theories.