Oliver Williamson has coined the term “fundamental transformation.” It captures the following situation: before they strike a deal, buyers and sellers are protected by competition. Yet, thereafter, they find themselves in a bilateral monopoly. With common knowledge of standard preferences, both sides would conclude the contract regardless if its expected value exceeds their outside options. We run an experiment to test whether additional behavioral concerns deter mutually beneficial trade. We test four concerns: If the risk materializes, another individual makes a windfall profit; she does so by intentionally exploiting another individual; the exploited individual may be her assigned partner; the individual that is let down is her contractual partner, and hence has voluntarily exposed herself to this risk. Behavioral effects are heterogeneous. About a quarter of participants from a standard student subject pool exhibit the hypothesized additional deterrent effect. This fraction is bigger than a third if participants interact with a random partner from somewhere in the world.

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根本性转变会阻碍贸易吗？一个实验

奥利弗·威廉姆森创造了“根本性转变”这个词。它描述了以下情况：在达成交易之前，买家和卖家受到竞争的保护。然而此后，他们发现自己处于双边垄断之中。在对标准偏好的共同了解下，无论合同的预期价值是否超过他们的外部选择，双方都会签订合同。我们进行了一项实验来测试其他行为问题是否会阻碍互利贸易。我们测试了四个问题：如果风险成为现实，另一个人会获得意外的利润；她通过故意剥削另一个人来做到这一点；被剥削的人可能是她指定的伴侣；感到失望的人是她的合同伙伴，因此自愿将自己暴露在这种风险之下。行为影响是异质的。来自标准学生科目池的大约四分之一的参与者表现出假设的额外威慑效应。如果参与者与来自世界某个地方的随机伙伴互动，这个比例会大于三分之一。