When Social Forces Remove the Impact of Competition. Social Exchange in Experimental Labor Markets

Abstract

Do competitive markets remove the impact of social norms and customs on market out-comes? Or are these social forces capable of exerting a persistent influence? Many economists seem to believe that social norms and customs have, if at all, only temporary effects in competitive markets. So far this belief has been confirmed by the evidence of many competitive market experiments. In this paper we report the results of a series of competitive market and bilateral bargaining experiments. They indicate that social norms may not only persist in a competitive environment but that they may completely remove the impact of competition on the market outcome.Competition, Social Exchange, Trust, Reciprocity, Social Norms