My research focuses on decision making in Principal–Agent interactions. Principal–Agent interactions are ubiquitous, but enforceable, complete contracts between them are not. It is natural to ask how the strategic environment in which the Principal and Agent interact can be structured so that they reach efficient outcomes even in the absence of a complete contract. This theme cross-cuts areas within economics, psychology, and the cognitive and decision sciences. I also think this research bears in significant ways on socially important issues like gender inequity in wages and compensation, how women are perceived and how they perceive themselves in bargaining and negotiation environments.
Alessandra Cassar and I received a $300K NSF award from Decision, Risk and Management Sciences, Economics, and the Science of Broadening Participation (SES#1919535 “Gender Differences in Willingness to Compete – Incentive Mechanism Effects”). Our federally supported research has been published in Evolution and Human Behavior and in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – see below. It has also received local, national, and international media attention. For an overview, please see our 2022 paper in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, a special issue Cooperation among women: Evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives edited by Stephanie Fox, Brooke Scelza, Joan Silk and Karen Kramer. Download a flier with information on all the articles.
I was selected to present this research at UArizona’s Wonder House at SXSW March 2023! Click here for coverage and the talk.
I was interviewed on March 28. 2023 by Colleen Sikora of 12 News for her story “‘You’re never going to get your full potential’: Pay gap persists between U.S. men and women persists”
I was interviewed by Maddie Bender for the Daily Beast Oct 18, 2022 “Humans are Hardwired To Cheat. Here’s How We Can Stop Ourselves.”
Most Recent
A. Cassar and M. L. Rigdon
Sustaining the Potential for Cooperation as Female Competitive Strategy
– Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, for special issue on cooperation among women (Information on all the articles) 378: 20210440; https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0440
A. Cassar and M. L. Rigdon
Prosocial Option Increases Women’s Entry Into Competition
–Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 11/1/2021; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2111943118
A. Cassar and M. L. Rigdon
Option to Cooperate Increases Women’s Competitiveness and Closes the Gender Gap
–Evolution and Human Behavior, 42(6): 556-572; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2021.06.001
M. Capra, R. Croson, M. L. Rigdon, and T. Rosenblat (eds.)
Handbook of Experimental Game Theory (Edward Elgar)
A. S. Gillies and M. L. Rigdon
Plausible Deniability and Cooperation in Trust Games
–Review of Behavioral Economics 6(2): 95-118; http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/105.00000103
M. L. Rigdon and A. S. Levine
The Role of Expectations and Gender in Altruism
–Review of Behavioral Economics 5: 39-59; http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/105.00000078
M. L. Rigdon and A. P. D’Esterre
Sabotaging Another: Priming Competition Increases Cheating Behavior in Tournaments
–Southern Economic Journal 48(2): 457-473; https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12232
M. L. Rigdon and A. P. D’Esterre
The Effects of Competition on the Nature of Cheating Behavior
–Southern Economic Journal 81(4): 1012-1024; https://doi.org/10.4284/0038-4038-2012.301
In Press
Risk Preferences in Developing Countries (with F. Said and J. Vecci), to appear in Handbook of Experimental Development Economics, Edward Elgar (eds. U. Dasgupta, P. Maitra)
Submitted
Gender differences in competitiveness: The role of social incentives (with M. Drouvelis)
An Experimental Investigation into Gender Differences in Wage Negotiations