This seminar is based on a paper co-authored by Heike Auerswald, Carsten Schmidt, Marcel Thum and Gaute Torsvik.                            

Many decisions in politics and business are made by teams rather than by single individuals. In contrast, economic models typically assume an individual rational decision maker. A rapidly growing body of (experimental) literature investigates team decisions in different settings. We study team decisions in a public goods contribution game with a costly punishment option and compare it to the behavior of individuals in a laboratory experiment. We also consider different team decision-making rules (unanimity, majority). We find that teams contribute significantly more and punish less than individuals, regardless of the team decision rule. Overall, teams yield higher payoffs than individuals.

***
This seminar has been jointly organized by FEEM and IEFE, Bocconi University.