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This paper presents the results of an experiment where an unequal wealth distribution was created and then subjects could act to change this wealth distribution. Subjects received money by betting and possibly by arbitrary (“undeserved”) gifts; they could then pay to reduce, redistribute and, in half of the sessions, steal money from others. The experimental results are incompatible with some standard models of interdependent preferences. Over 80% of redistributors were rank egalitarian, but how subjects perceived the problem significantly affected their redistribution activity: perceptions of fairness were not simply a matter of relative payoff, and changed according to whether a subject was undeservedly advantaged or otherwise.

We study whether group identity mitigates inefficiencies associated with appropriable quasi-rents, which are often created by relationship-specific investments in bilateral trade relationships. We conjecture that group identity strengthens the effect of an agent’s generous action in increasing his trade partner’s altruistic preferences, and this effect helps reduce incentives to undertake ex-post inefficient opportunistic behavior such as investment in an outside option. Our experimental results, however, do not support this conjecture, and contrast with our previous experimental findings that group identity mitigates distortions in ex-ante efficient relation-specific investment. We discuss a possible cause of the difference and its implications for the theory of the firm.

Despite widespread demand for consultants and especially within the surveying profession, driving forces of service/pricing/quality are not fully understood and have received minimal research attention. The purpose of this paper is to review contemporary knowledge in this field, highlighting en route the dilemmas of the consultancy pricing paradox.

Methodology is of axiological, philosophical tradition – induction and inference, generalized concepts and theories. A critique of extant literature underpins a theoretical pricing problem framework, a future research agenda, and a model of the pricing paradox.

The study elucidates paradoxical aspects regarding value perceptions, objectives, strategies, cost recovery, competition and systematic processes. It conceptually models the dilemma of service pricing and suggests a research agenda based on process and value, nature of service, competence and branding.

The formalisation of the paradox and development of the conceptual model opens opportunities for a new research agenda in the future, which is highlighted as part of the study.

Advancement of theory will impact pricing paradigms.

The paper presents a novel conceptualisation of the subject.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the manner in which the rate of product consumption contributes to the formation and strengthening of the price-quality heuristic.

The research included a literature review with a series of tests across a sequence of blind and sighted tasting experiments involving 278 subjects assessing seven differently priced products of orange juice, coffee and wine.

The paper found evidence that consumption rates do affect the way consumers respond to price information and that sight-based “System 1” judgement errors accrue and increase progressively with consumption. This relationship was observed to be stronger in sight-based product assessments for consumption of four or more units per week compared to those consuming one unit per week. For blind-based product assessments, an inverse relationship between price affect and consumption was observed, with affect reported to be stronger for minimal rates of consumption.

The observation of sight-based and blind-based affect relationships which are dependent on the levels of product consumption appears to be an interesting advancement in consumer behaviour research. This provides support for a dual structure of rationality operated by an interconnection between “System 1” sight-based associations and “System 2” blind-based ponderous thinking. The paper further provides support for Kahneman’s “conflation of intuition” as classically conditioned memory.