Seminar details
BENC seminar, 19 November, 2015, 4:30pm, NUBS 306
Speaker: Professor Matthias Sutter, University of Cologne & University of Innsbruck
Topic: Children learn to coordinate more efficiently from age three to six
Date & Time: 19 November, Thursday, 4:30-5:45 PM
Venue: Newcastle University Business School, Room 306,
5 Barrack Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SE
Abstract: Social interaction depends strongly on an ability to coordinate actions efficiently. Here we examine how coordination behavior develops in early childhood. We let 3 to 6 year old children play an experimental coordination game and examine how their behavior changes with age and is related to other important economic preferences, like risk and time preferences. We find that coordination becomes significantly more efficient as children get older. Moreover, children who are more risk tolerant and more patient are more likely to coordinate on more efficient outcomes. Other-regarding preferences have no influence on the likelihood of efficient coordination in our experiment. Overall, the level of efficient coordination in our simultaneous move game is remarkable, given that non-human primates have only been found to successfully coordinate in sequential decision making and given that no communication was allowed between children. Hence, children develop an ability to coordinate efficiently very early on.
About the speaker: Matthias Sutter is Professor and Chair in Economics: Design and Behavior at University of Cologne, and Professor of Experimental Economics at University of Innsbruck. He has published articles in Econometrica, American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies, Economic Journal, Management Science and a number of other journals. Professor Sutter is an Associate Editor of Management Science, European Economic Review, and Economics Letters, and an Editorial Board Member of Experimental Economics and Journal of the Economic Science Association.
Last modified: Fri, 13 Nov 2015 11:26:14 GMT