Departmental Papers (CIS)
Date of this Version
6-2012
Document Type
Conference Paper
Recommended Citation
Michael J. Kearns, Stephen Judd, and Yevgeniy Vorobeychik, "Behavioral Experiments on a Network Formation Game", . June 2012.
Abstract
We report on an extensive series of behavioral experiments in which 36 human subjects collectively build a communication network over which they must solve a competitive coordination task for monetary compensation. There is a cost for creating network links, thus creating a tension between link expenditures and collective and individual incentives. Our most striking finding is the poor performance of the subjects, especially compared to our long series of prior experiments. We demonstrate that the subjects built difficult networks for the coordination task, and compare the structural properties of the built networks to standard generative models of social networks. We also provide extensive analysis of the individual and collective behavior of the subjects, including free riding and factors influencing edge purchasing decisions.
Date Posted: 24 July 2012
Comments
Kearns, M., Judd, S., & Vorobeychik, Y., Behavioral Experiments on a Network Formation Game, ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce, June 2012, doi: 10.1145/2229012.2229066
ACM COPYRIGHT NOTICE. Copyright © 2012 by the Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers, or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from Publications Dept., ACM, Inc., fax +1 (212) 869-0481, or permissions@acm.org.