American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Cooperation and Competition in Intergenerational Experiments in the Field and the Laboratory
American Economic Review
vol. 99,
no. 3, June 2009
(pp. 956–78)
Abstract
There is economic pressure to postpone the retirement age, but employers are still reluctant to employ older workers. We investigate the comparative behavior of juniors and seniors in experiments conducted both onsite with the employees of two large firms and in a conventional laboratory environment with students and retirees. We show that seniors are no more risk averse than juniors and are typically more cooperative; both juniors and working seniors respond strongly to competition. The implication is that it may be beneficial to define additional incentives near the end of the career to motivate and retain older workers. (JEL C90, J14, J26, M12, M51)Citation
Charness, Gary, and Marie-Claire Villeval. 2009. "Cooperation and Competition in Intergenerational Experiments in the Field and the Laboratory." American Economic Review, 99 (3): 956–78. DOI: 10.1257/aer.99.3.956Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- C90 Design of Experiments: General
- J14 Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped
- J26 Retirement; Retirement Policies
- M12 Personnel Management; Executive Compensation
- M51 Personnel Economics: Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions