Type of Document	Dissertation
Author	Collins, Sean
URN	etd-07292010-150754
Title	Essays On Heterogeneity And Learning In Sequential Games
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy
Department	Economics, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title R. Mark Isaac Committee Chair Svetlana Pevnitskaya Committee Member Timothy Salmon Committee Member Douglas Stevens University Representative
Keywords	Team Production Auctions Holdout
Date of Defense	2010-06-15
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract This dissertation is a collection of three essays that employ experiments to study how economically relevant outcomes and institutions are influenced by behavioral heterogeneity in decision making. The first essay is a study of the impact of the relative position of team members of differing skill on team productivity in sequential production. Insight is offered on how to minimize free-riding by members of an assembly line, relay team, or similar cooperative group solely by adjusting the order in which team members take action or make decisions. The second essay is a test of competing explanations for observed overbidding relative to theoretical risk neutral predictions in a commonly studied type of first price auction. We find mixed evidence that overbidding is motivated by regret and learning. The final essay concerns the “holdout” problem that permeates policy debates on multilateral assembly situations, most notably land acquisition. We find that holdout can reliably produce large inefficiencies and lost opportunities for mutually advantageous trade. However, contingent contracts offer an effective means of mitigating these inefficiencies.
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