The relative price of fairness: Gender differences in a punishment game

Ideas of fairness influence economic transactions. Men and women may differ systematically in the nature and extent of this influence. We investigate gender differences in the impact of fairness on the outcome of economic transactions. In our "punishment game," subjects may choose to split a larger pie with a "bad" partner, or a smaller pie with a "good" partner. We find that a higher relative price for fairness reduces its effect on the outcome of the transaction for women, but not for men. Our interpretation of this result is that men are more likely than women to make decisions on principle.