A cross-cultural study of reciprocity, trust and altruism in a gift exchange experiment

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a bilateral gift exchange experiment in which mutual gift giving is efficient but gifts are individually costly.We compare the results for Norway and the Netherlands and for two information treatments: one with and one without information about previous gifts.We find that average gifts are higher in Norway.Furthermore, gifts are higher when information is provided about the previous gift.A model of individual behaviour suggests that Norwegian and Dutch subjects behave similarly along the egoist-altruist dimension.The observed differences in behaviour can be fully rationalised by a difference in the degree of reciprocity, with Norwegian subjects having more concerns for reciprocity.