Replication data for: Partners or Strangers? Cooperation, Monetary Trade, and the Choice of Scale of Interaction

We show that monetary exchange facilitates the transition from small to large-scale economic interactions. In an experiment, subjects chose to play an "intertemporal cooperation game" either in partnerships or in groups of strangers where payoffs could be higher. Theoretically, a norm of mutual support is sufficient to maximize efficiency through large-scale cooperation. Empirically, absent a monetary system, participants were reluctant to interact on a large scale; and when they did, efficiency plummeted compared to partnerships because cooperation collapsed. This failure was reversed only when a stable monetary system endogenously emerged: the institution of money mitigated strategic uncertainty problems.

本研究证实，货币交换能够推动经济互动从规模较小的场景向大规模经济互动转型。在一项实验中，被试可选择以搭档配对或陌生人群体两种形式参与跨期合作博弈（intertemporal cooperation game），陌生人群体场景下的博弈收益往往更高。理论分析表明，仅需建立互助规范，即可通过大规模合作实现效率最大化。实证结果显示，在缺乏货币体系的场景中，被试普遍不愿开展大规模互动；即便尝试开展大规模互动，由于合作关系彻底破裂，其效率相较于搭档配对场景大幅下滑。仅当稳定的货币体系内生形成时，这种合作失败的困境才得以扭转：货币制度有效缓解了策略不确定性问题。