eprintid: 10086885 rev_number: 16 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/08/68/85 datestamp: 2019-11-29 08:57:12 lastmod: 2021-06-29 09:58:14 status_changed: 2019-11-29 08:57:12 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Ensthaler, L creators_name: Huck, S creators_name: Leutgeb, J title: Games played through agents in the laboratory — a test of Prat & Rustichini's model ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: A01 divisions: B03 divisions: C03 divisions: F24 keywords: Games played through agents, Experiment, Quantal response equilibrium note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. abstract: From the regulation of sports to lawmaking in parliament, in many situations one group of people (“agents”) make decisions that affect the payoffs of others (“principals”) who may offer action-contingent transfers in order to sway the agents' decisions. Prat and Rustichini (2003) characterize pure-strategy equilibria of such Games Played Through Agents. Specifically, they predict the equilibrium outcome in pure strategies to be efficient. We test the theory in a series of experimental treatments with human principals and computerized agents. The theory predicts remarkably well which actions and outcomes are implemented but subjects' transfer offers deviate systematically from equilibrium. We show how quantal response equilibrium accounts for the deviations and test its predictions out of sample. Our results show that quantal response equilibrium is particularly well suited for explaining behavior in such games. date: 2020-01 date_type: published official_url: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geb.2019.09.013 oa_status: green full_text_type: other language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1717580 doi: 10.1016/j.geb.2019.09.013 lyricists_name: Huck, Steffen lyricists_id: SHUCK00 actors_name: Kalinowski, Damian actors_id: DKALI47 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Games and Economic Behavior volume: 119 pagerange: 30-55 issn: 0899-8256 citation: Ensthaler, L; Huck, S; Leutgeb, J; (2020) Games played through agents in the laboratory — a test of Prat & Rustichini's model. Games and Economic Behavior , 119 pp. 30-55. 10.1016/j.geb.2019.09.013 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geb.2019.09.013>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10086885/1/Huck_Games%20played%20through%20agents%20in%20the%20laboratory%20%E2%80%94%20a%20test%20of%20Prat%20%26%20amp.%20Rustichini%27s%20model_AAM2.pdf