Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T20:40:47.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does market competition explain fairness?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2013

Peter DeScioli
Peter DeScioli*
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychology and Economics, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02453. [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The target article by Baumard et al. uses their previous model of bargaining with outside options to explain fairness and other features of human sociality. This theory implies that fairness judgments are determined by supply and demand but humans often perceive prices (divisions of surplus) in competitive markets to be unfair.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , February 2013 , pp. 87 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

André, J. B. & Baumard, N. (2011a) Social opportunities and the evolution of fairness. Journal of Theoretical Biology 289:128–35.Google Scholar
Fischbacher, U., Fong, C. M. & Fehr, E. (2009) Fairness, errors and the power of competition. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 72:527–45.Google Scholar
Goeree, J. K. & Holt, C. A. (2000) Asymmetric inequality aversion and noisy behavior in alternating-offer bargaining games. European Economic Review 44:1079–89.Google Scholar
Holt, C. A. (2007) Markets, games, and strategic behavior. Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D., Knetsch, J. L. & Thaler, R. (1986b) Fairness as a constraint on profit seeking: Entitlements in the market. American Economic Review 76:728–41.Google Scholar
Mesterton-Gibbons, M., Gavrilets, S., Gravner, J. & Akcay, E. (2011) Models of coalition or alliance formation. Journal of Theoretical Biology 274:187–204.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murnighan, J. K. (1978) Models of coalition behavior: Game theoretic, social psychological, and political perspectives. Psychological Bulletin 85:1130–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nash, J. F. (1950) The bargaining problem. Econometrica 18:155–62.Google Scholar
New York State Attorney General. (2001) Long Island Hotel cited for price gouging. Retrieved from: http://www.ag.ny.gov/media_center/2001/dec/dec26a_01.htmlGoogle Scholar
Nowak, M. A., Page, K. M. & Sigmund, K. (2000) Fairness versus reason in the Ultimatum Game. Science 289(5485):1773–75.Google Scholar
Schelling, T. C. (1960) The strategy of conflict. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, A. (1776/1904) An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations, 5th edition, ed. Methuen, E. Cannan.. (Original work published 1776.) Retrieved from Library of Economics and Liberty website: http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN.htmlGoogle Scholar
Smith, V. L. (1962) An experimental study of competitive market behavior. Journal of Political Economy 70:111–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, V. L. (1982) Markets as economizers of information: Experimental examination of the “Hayek hypothesis.” Economic Inquiry 20:165–79.Google Scholar
Von Neumann, J. & Morgenstern, O. (1944) Theory of games and economic behavior. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar