The Effect of Communication on Economic Behavior: Experimental Evidence and Methodological Reflections
This dissertation discusses two major issues about communication in experimental economics through a detailed analysis of a pirate-game and a public goods game experiment: comparability and measurement of communication. First, in order to draw definite results from different experiments with communication, communication needs to be classified more thoroughly. The dissertation proposes dimensions that can be used for such a classification on a theoretical basis. Second, it is shown empirically how machine learning can advance behavioral economics by extracting information from communication data and predicting subsequent behavior. Possible implications of this technology for politics, economy, and society in general are outlined. Since currently these implications are mostly unexplored, the thesis ultimately calls for behavioral economics to take part in this development rather than to simply wait for it to happen.
