[Marxism] The ultimatum game.

[David Picón Álvarez <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a game in experimental economics. There are players A and B. Player 
A gets an amount of money M, that he can split between himself and B in 
whatever proportion he pleases. B gets A's proposal and can accept it and 
get what A gave him, or refuse it, and neither A nor B get anything. The 
basic version is played only once (no iteration) and anonymously.

It turns out that a few of the expected "rational" responses are not 
followed, but there is a tendency towards even or near-even splits. More 
information available here: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ultimatum_game&printable=yes

This one, together with the dictator game, seems to be a datum in favour of 
inequity aversion, and certainly against the traditional utility 
maximization theory of rational actors, with purely endogenous utility 
functions.

Do you think this kind of experiment has power to expose the problematic 
with the capitalist assumptions about rational agent behaviour? To what 
extent does it have explanatory power, or is it just a random game?

--David.


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