More than Thirty Years of Ultimatum Bargaining Experiments: Motives, Variations, and a Survey of the Recent Literature

Take-it or leave-it offers are probably as old as mankind. Our
objective here is, first, to provide a, probably
subjectively-colored, recollection of the initial ultimatum game
experiment, its motivation and the immediate responses. Second, we
discuss important extensions of the standard ultimatum bargaining
game in a unified framework, and, third, we offer a survey of the
experimental ultimatum bargaining literature containing papers
published since the turn of the century. The paper argues that the
ultimatum game is an extremely versatile tool for research in
bargaining and on social preferences. Finally, we provide examples
for open research questions and directions for future studies.