The Difference in Economic Decisions between Men and Women - Essay Example

It can be well-stated that conclusions regarding the chosen subject cannot be achieved until or unless the behavior is easily gauged in a general environment. This indicates that the previous studies were unable to demonstrate differences other than the experimental environment. Therefore, Eckel & Grossman (1998) introduced a double-anonymous dictator game experiment to collect data to find the core difference in the behavior of men and women while undertaking economic decisions (Eckel & Grossman, 1998).

The authors of the study undertook to test the hypothesis that exclaimed no difference between men and women and then the donations were taken under consideration. It was noted that men donated $0.82 on average while the amount was $1.60 among women. The statistical observation marked that the p-value was less than 0.01. It is due to this reason that the null hypothesis was rejected by further implying the median test of the hypothesis (Eckel & Grossman, 1998).

The research was able to conclude that women are more selfless in comparison to men. Furthermore, it was also marked that women donate or send out charity double the times of men. The focus of the research was to assess the difference between their economic decisions in order to formulate a thesis for further research work. The authors have suggested that a number of studies could be undertaken to find out the factors that might impact the decision-making process of both within the context of economic influence (Eckel & Grossman, 1998).

Another research entitled ‘Fairness and Retaliation: The Economics of Reciprocity’ conducted by Fehr and Gachter (2000) states that people are more likely to react or behave differently depending upon their self-interest. Herein, reciprocity is defined as an action of a person to be nicer if he or she is approached by a friendly action of another person. This can also be applied in an otherwise situation i.e. if a person becomes unfair then the other person is also predicted to come up with a brutal and inappropriate action (Fehr & Gachter, 2000). 

Therefore, the authors Fehr and Gachter (2000) regarded reciprocity as positive and negative in the study. A condition has been taken into consideration by the authors where people who are self-interested and those who are reciprocal, meet each other. Both categories are more likely to dominate depending on the conditions. This mainly suggests that fairness or retaliation can occur depending upon the positive and negative nature of reciprocity. The authors have taken the example of people who exchange gifts with each other which creates a correlation between the parties. The gift amount can differ in an increasing manner because it tends to happen when relationships between two companies are built upon trust instead of quantity (Fehr & Gachter, 2000).