Economics Seminar: M. Yiğit Gürdal (Boğaziçi University)

Sabancı University
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

ECONOMICS SEMINAR

Why Blame?

M. Yiğit Gürdal

(Boğaziçi University)

Friday, November 15, 2013

14:00    FASS 2034

Abstract: We provide experimental evidence that subjects blame others based on events they are not responsible for. In our experiment an agent chooses between a lottery and a safe asset; payment from the chosen option goes to a principal who then decides how much to allocate between the agent and a third party. We observe widespread blame: regardless of their choice, agents are blamed by principals for the outcome of the lottery, an event they are not responsible for. We provide an explanation of this apparently irrational behavior with a delegated-expertise principal-agent model, the subjects’ salient perturbation of the environment.

P.S.: The seminar will be held in English.