Cooperation and Competition in Intergenerational Experiments in the Field and the Laboratory

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American economic review Vol. 99; no. 3; pp. 956 - 978
Main Authors: Charness, Gary, Villeval, Marie-Claire
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Nashville American Economic Association 01.06.2009
Subjects:
Age
Age discrimination
Aging
Behavior
Business structures
Comparative analysis
Competition
Cooperation
Economic competition
Economic theory
Employers
Employment
Experimental economics
Experiments
Female employees
Job search
Labor force
Laboratories
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Occupations
Older adults
Older people
Older workers
Public goods
Retirees
Retirement
Risk
Risk aversion
Social interaction
Standard deviation
Studies
Teams
Workers
Workplaces
Younger workers
ISSN:0002-8282, 1944-7981
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary: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.
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ISSN:0002-8282
1944-7981
DOI:10.1257/aer.99.3.956