Research

Although relative performance schemes are known to interact with cooperative attitudes, evidence on how sabotage in competition threaten efficiency from cooperation is almost non-existent. We test experimentally the impact of sabotage activities on cooperation. Participants play a public good game before and after the exposure to a competitive environment, where subjects compete in a all-pay auction with or without the sabotage option. Efficiency decrease by 9% of the initial endowment when observing pre- and post-competition willingness to cooperate. We find no evidence that sabotage in competition further reduces contributions in the public good game played after the tournament, which involves matching participants with perfect strangers. Yet, within the treatment with sabotage, subjects who receive more sabotage cooperate less.

Extended Abstract here.