In recent years traditional economic theory has been enriched by behavioral components. There
is huge and rapidly growing evidence from empirical and experimental studies that mere profit
maximization is in many cases not a good proxy of real-life decision-making and interaction in
economic situations. Yet although the concept of homo oeconomicus has subsequently been
dismissed by many authors behavior is not random or arbitrary but follows systematic patterns
and rules that researchers in the field of behavioral economics aim at understanding. This
thesis adds to the understanding of actual economic decision-making by analyzing behavior in
three different economic applications. The first application concerns experimental studies on
the performance of partnership dissolution mechanisms. The second application studies the
effects of policy instruments on a firm`s incentives to invest in R&D. Finally the third
application tests the impact of responsibility for being in a disadvantageous situation through
deliberate risk-taking on solidarity behavior of economic agents. Potential readership includes
scholars of experimental economics in the fields of mechanism design industrial organization
and social preferences as well as interested students and practitioners involved in these
areas.
