coordination and cooperation problems in network good production协调与合作问题在网络良好的生产.pdfVIP

Games 2010, 1, 357-380; doi:10.3390/g1040357 OPEN ACCESS games ISSN 2073–4336 /journal/games Article Coordination and Cooperation Problems in Network Good Production Antonie Knigge 1 and Vincent Buskens 1,2,* 1 Department of Sociology/ICS, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands; E-Mail: a.knigge@uu.nl 2 Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, 3062 PA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: v.buskens@uu.nl; buskens@frg.eur.nl. Received: 7 June 2010; in revised form: 7 August 2010 / Accepted: 6 September 2010 / Published: 28 September 2010 Abstract: If actors want to reach a particular goal, they are often better off forming collaborative relations and investing together rather than investing separately. We study the coordination and cooperation problems that might hinder successful collaboration in a dynamic network setting. We develop an experiment in which coordination problems are mainly due to finding partners for collaboration, while cooperation problems arise at the investment levels of partners who have already agreed to collaborate. The results show that as costs of forming links increase, groups succeed less often in solving the coordination problem. Still, if subjects are able to solve the coordination problem, they invest in a suboptimal way i