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Abstract

Vol. 58, No. 2, pp. 110-121 (2007)

“Social Norms and Voluntary Cooperation”
Masahiro Okuno-Fujiwara (Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo), Takako Fujiwara-Greve (Department of Economics, Keio University), Nobue Suzuki (Department of Economics, Komazawa University)

Unlike the ordinary repeated games, in the real world, people can run away after cheating. In this paper we construct a social game, in which players can repeat Prisoners' Dilemma only if both players agree to continue the partnership. We investigate how a social sanction prevents moral hazard in such a voluntary relationship. We have three conclusions. First, it is possible to enforce voluntary long-term cooperation by trust-building. Second, the trust-building periods can be shortened under diverse strategy distributions. Third, if there is a reference letter system which conveys information that a partnership ended due to an unavoidable cause, then the trust-building periods can be shortened as well.