Centralization vs. Decentralization: First Evidence from the Laboratory

This paper benefitted from several helpful comments and suggestions from Department Editor Camelia Kuhnen, an anonymous associate editor, and a referee as well as seminar participants at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Marburg University; the 2023 North American Meetings Meetings of the Economic Science Association; the 2024 Future of Money Conference at the Bank of Canada; and the University of Arizona 2025 Conference in honor of Gary Charness. Gabriele Camera thanks M. Luetje for laboratory help. Nir Chemaya thanks A. Gornyitzki, A. Kalucha, H. Nesterenko, Z. Nielsen, S. Caruthers, E. Sayag, K. Shah, L. Jones, and M. Weng for research assistance.

This paper is dedicated to the memory of our coauthor Gary Charness, who unexpectedly passed away in May 2024.