The Online Coalition Game: A tool for online interactive coalition formation research

In this paper, we present the Online Coalition Game (OCG): an open-source tool written for the open-access research platform oTree that enables high-powered interactive coalition formation experiments. Besides containing a tutorial on conducting and configuring studies using the OCG, we discuss two previous implementations. With these examples, we demonstrate that online use of the OCG provides the benefits of large sample sizes and fast data collection, while leading to convergent and robust findings. Moreover, we show that small changes in the experimental setup offer interesting opportunities to expand coalition formation theory by including insights from, amongst others, literature on bargaining, ostracism, and communication, and vice versa.

Automated summary

In this paper, we introduce the Online Coalition Game (OCG) as an open-source tool for conducting high-powered interactive coalition formation experiments on the oTree research platform. Through two previous implementations, we illustrate the advantages of using OCG online, including large sample sizes, fast data collection, and robust findings. Furthermore, we demonstrate that small changes in the experimental setup provide interesting opportunities to expand coalition formation theory.