A Gift is not always a Gift: Heterogeneity and Long Term Effects in a Gift Exchange Experiment

Becker, Sascha; Messer, Dolores; Wolter, Stefan (2013). A Gift is not always a Gift: Heterogeneity and Long Term Effects in a Gift Exchange Experiment. Economica, 80(4), pp. 345-371. Wiley 10.1111/ecca.12004

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We study gift exchange in a field experiment where a random subsample of participants in the Swiss Labour Force Survey received vouchers to be used in adult training. Actual voucher redemption can be traced, giving us the unique opportunity to study whether gift exchange in the form of participation in future rounds of the survey depends on the perceived usefulness of the gift. The group of voucher recipients as a whole has significantly higher response rates. There is considerable heterogeneity, however. Our results point to a long-lasting gift exchange relationship only for the subgroup that redeemed their vouchers.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Department of Economics
03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Department of Economics > Institute of Economics

UniBE Contributor:

Messer, Dolores, Wolter, Stefan Cornelis

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics

ISSN:

1468-0335

Publisher:

Wiley

Language:

English

Submitter:

Dino Collalti

Date Deposited:

03 Feb 2014 21:13

Last Modified:

02 Mar 2023 23:23

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/ecca.12004

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.40278

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/40278

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