A comparison of public goods and resource dilemmas

Vita.This study assesses the relative strength of expected utility theory and prospect theory in explaining behavior in social dilemmas. A 2 x 2 factorial experiment measures the effect of framing games as give or take on level of cooperation. The effects are examined in static and dynamic settings. The overall results are consistent with expected utility theory in that no independent effect of frames is found in either condition. However, an interaction effect of time and frame is found in games with a dynamic function