Giorgi Jvarsheishvili, a Ph.D. candidate from Friedrich Schiller University Jena visited ISET this Thursday, February 9 to present his research topic on Experimental Analysis of Creativity, Cooperation, and Competition to ISET students and faculty.

Mr. Jvarsheishvili started his presentation by introducing the design and the results of the experiments conducted by a number of researchers who observed the effects of earning endowments on changing behavior during trials. As findings showed, levels of cooperation within groups may depend on whether subjects were granted or have earned their endowments. This paper expands this literature by analyzing how creativity affects cooperation in Public Goods Experiments. More specifically, it is explored whether effort level and effort type have an effect on cooperative behavior.

In addition, individual characteristics such as the big five personality traits and social value orientation of group members have been elicited to check if these factors influence cooperation. According to the results, exerted effort does not explain differences in cooperation and personal characteristics are better explanatory variables for individual cooperative decisions.

After introducing the findings of the paper mentioned above, Mr. Jvarsheishvili reflected on his future research interests. Giorgi started his studies at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, The International Max Planck Research School in 2014, his current research focus is incentives for task performance, creativity and endowment effects, contests and tournaments, intra and inter-group cooperation, and competition.