Behind the screens: A replication and extension of Coasian bargaining experiments in the digital age

Abstract

This paper replicates Hoffman and Spitzer's seminal Coasian bargaining experiments from the early 1980s and extends them to examine the impact of digital communication. We find that, while the face-to-face replication results mostly align with the original findings, transitioning to a digital environment induces a 23.3 percent decrease in efficient decision-making and over a fourfold increase in self-regarding behavior. These effects are amplified in one-shot bargaining scenarios and when property rights are strengthened and persist as bargainers gain experience. Our findings allude to several implications of digital communication for efficiency and welfare distributions in negotiation settings.