Asymmetric Volunteer’s Dilemma Game: Theory and Experiment

This study theoretically and experimentally explores asymmetric volunteers’ dilemma(VOD) games where costs for volunteering is different among players. Diekmann (1993) conjectures that an S-equilibrium, in which a player with less costs contributes, is more likely to be played if it is risk dominant. We re-examined this hypothesis experimentally, as well as via Diekmann\u27s data, to find that even though an S-equilibrium is risk dominant, it does not necessarily hold. Conducting an econometric comparison among models including inequality aversion, level-k, and quantal response equilibrium (QRE), we find that the QRE model fits the data best