Abstract
A commonly used assumption in economics states that when making economic decisions people will choose the option that maximizes their expected utility (in this context utility refers to monetary gain). An application of the dictator game experiment was used to answer the question: Do UNCA students make decisions that maximize their monetary gain? The results showed that most participants did not choose the option that maximized their monetary gain, a finding consistent with previous research. The experiment tracked age, gender, and experience with the game but found that those factors were not related to choices. The motivation for conducting this research was to better understand models that are often used in economics in order to evaluate and prescribe complex scenarios. These models are based on assumption about the nature of human behavior. By improving the assumptions economists thereby improve the models they use and their predictive analyses.
How to Cite
Rogers, R., (2014) “A Dictator Experiment: Are there Differences between Gender, Age, and Experience?”, Capstone, The UNC Asheville Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship 27(1).
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