Martin Kocher

Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna

About the talk

Cooperation in a company: a large-scale experiment

We analyze cooperation within a company setting in order to study external validity and consequences of a cooperative attitude. Around 450 employees of a large software firm participate in a fully incentivized online experiment. We observe very high levels of cooperation in a modified public goods game and the typical conditional cooperation patterns. When linking cooperation levels with company decisions and outcomes, cooperation is predictive, for instance, for the receipt of appreciation awards. However, performance ratings are higher for more cooperative employees only in the sales division of the company. For the remaining employees the relationship is significantly negative. More cooperative individuals also report a higher level of perceived stress.

About the speaker

Martin Kocher is Scientific Director at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, and Chair Professor in Economics at the Department of Economics, University of Munich. He has previously held positions at the University of East Anglia, the University of Amsterdam and the University of Innsbruck, where he obtained his doctorate. He has held the positions of Dean and Dean of Studies at Munich. Martin Kocher’s research centers on behavioral and experimental economics. He is interested in the effects of uncertainty and insurance on economic decision making, in analyzing cooperation and trust, in economic behavior of children and adolescents, in auctions, in behavioral public policy, and in moral behavior. His around 50 scientific papers have been published in the major outlets of the professions such as the American Economic Review, the Review of Economic Studies, Management Science, the Economic Journal and the European Economic Review, among many others. Martin Kocher is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Economic Psychology, director of the interdisciplinary laboratory MELESSA at the University of Munich, Visiting Professor at the Economics Department, University of Gothenburg, Adjunct Professor at the School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology, and CESifo Research Fellow. He has provided expertise in panels and solicited studies to the Governments of Austria, Germany, and Liechtenstein and to private companies.