IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecorec/v55y1979i2p95-107.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Free‐Rider Problem: A Survey

Author

Listed:
  • JOHN McMILLAN

Abstract

A number of recent papers have developed a variety of ways of overcoming the free‐rider problem. This essay presents a survey and exposition of these contributions and suggests that the free‐rider problem is a statement of the incompleteness of the standard theory rather than a description of the world. Misallocation of resources is not inevitable in a public‐goods economy.

Suggested Citation

  • JOHN McMILLAN, 1979. "The Free‐Rider Problem: A Survey," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 55(2), pages 95-107, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecorec:v:55:y:1979:i:2:p:95-107
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4932.1979.tb02209.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4932.1979.tb02209.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1475-4932.1979.tb02209.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Groves, Theodore & Ledyard, John O, 1977. "Optimal Allocation of Public Goods: A Solution to the "Free Rider" Problem," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(4), pages 783-809, May.
    2. Bohm, Peter, 1972. "Estimating demand for public goods: An experiment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 111-130.
    3. Paul Champsaur, 1976. "Neutrality of Planning Procedures in an Economy with Public Goods," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 43(2), pages 293-299.
    4. Kurz, Mordecai, 1974. "Experimental approach to the determination of the demand for public goods : A reply," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 431-432, November.
    5. Green, Jerry & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1977. "Characterization of Satisfactory Mechanisms for the Revelation of Preferences for Public Goods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(2), pages 427-438, March.
    6. T. Nicolaus Tideman & Gordon Tullock, 1977. "Some limitations of demand revealing processes: Comment," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 125-128, March.
    7. Martin Loeb, 1977. "Alternative versions of the demand-revealing process," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 15-26, March.
    8. Jerry Green & Jean-Jacques Laffont, 1977. "Imperfect personal information and the demand revealing process: A sampling approach," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 79-94, March.
    9. Brubaker, Earl R, 1975. "Free Ride, Free Revelation, or Golden Rule?," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(1), pages 147-161, April.
    10. Dagenais, Denyse L., 1977. "Evaluating public goods from individual welfare functions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 123-149.
    11. Kurz, Mordecai, 1974. "Experimental approach to the determination of the demand for public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 329-348, November.
    12. Bolnick, Bruce R, 1976. "Collective Goods Provision through Community Development," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(1), pages 137-150, October.
    13. Roberts, John, 1976. "The incentives for correct revelation of preferences and the number of consumers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 359-374, November.
    14. CHAMPSAUR, Paul, 1976. "Neutrality of planning procedures in an economy with public goods," LIDAM Reprints CORE 264, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    15. Johansen, Leif, 1977. "The theory of public goods: Misplaced emphasis?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 147-152, February.
    16. Smith, Vernon L, 1977. "The Principle of Unanimity and Voluntary Consent in Social Choice," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(6), pages 1125-1139, December.
    17. SCHOUMAKER, Françoise, 1977. "Révélation des préférences et planification: une approche stratégique," LIDAM Reprints CORE 323, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    18. Tideman, T Nicolaus & Tullock, Gordon, 1976. "A New and Superior Process for Making Social Choices," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(6), pages 1145-1159, December.
    19. Gordon Tullock, 1977. "The demand-revealing process as a welfare indicator," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 51-63, March.
    20. Groves, Theodore & Loeb, Martin, 1975. "Incentives and public inputs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 211-226, August.
    21. Green, Jerry & Kohlberg, Elon & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1976. "Partial equilibrium approach to the free-rider problem," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 375-394, November.
    22. Ferejohn, John A & Noll, Roger G, 1976. "An Experimental Market for Public Goods: The PBS Station Program Cooperative," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(2), pages 267-273, May.
    23. Walker, Mark, 1978. "A Note on the Characterization of Mechanisms for the Revelation of Preferences," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 147-152, January.
    24. Kikuchi, Masao & Dozina, Geronimo, Jr & Hayami, Yujiro, 1978. "Economics of Community Work Programs: A Communal Irrigation Project in the Philippines," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 212-225, January.
    25. Peter Bohm, 1972. "Estimating the demand for public goods: An experiment," Framed Field Experiments 00126, The Field Experiments Website.
    26. Coase, R H, 1974. "The Lighthouse in Economics," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(2), pages 357-376, October.
    27. William Vickrey, 1961. "Counterspeculation, Auctions, And Competitive Sealed Tenders," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 16(1), pages 8-37, March.
    28. Newbery, David, 1974. "Experimental approach to the determination of the demand for public goods : A comment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 425-429, November.
    29. Milleron, Jean-Claude, 1972. "Theory of value with public goods: A survey article," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 419-477, December.
    30. Marsh, David, 1976. "On Joining Interest Groups: An Empirical Consideration of the Work of Mancur Olson Jr," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(3), pages 257-271, July.
    31. Elaine Bennett & David Conn, 1977. "The group incentive properties of mechanisms for the provision of public goods," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 95-102, March.
    32. McMillan, John, 1979. "Individual incentives in the supply of public inputs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 87-98, August.
    33. Theodore Groves & John Ledyard, 1974. "An Incentive Mechanism for Efficient Resource Allocation in General Equilibrium with Public Goods," Discussion Papers 119, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    34. Gordon Tullock, 1977. "Demand-revealing process, coalitions, and public goods," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 103-105, March.
    35. Green, Jerry R & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1978. " An Incentive Compatible Planning Procedure for Public Good Production," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(1), pages 20-33.
    36. Bradford, David F. & Hildebrandt, Gregory G., 1977. "Observable preferences for public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 111-131, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jesse Malkin & Aaron Wildavsky, 1991. "Why the Traditional Distinction between Public and Private Goods Should be Abandoned," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 3(4), pages 355-378, October.
    2. Margaret A. McKean, 1992. "Success on the Commons," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 4(3), pages 247-281, July.
    3. Vincy Fon, 1988. "Free-Riding versus Paying under Uncertainty," Public Finance Review, , vol. 16(4), pages 464-481, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ledyard, John O., "undated". "Public Goods: A Survey of Experimental Research," Working Papers 861, California Institute of Technology, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
    2. Don Coursey & William Schulze, 1986. "The application of laboratory experimental economics to the contingent valuation of public goods," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 47-68, January.
    3. Jon X. Eguia & Dimitrios Xefteris, 2021. "Implementation by Vote-Buying Mechanisms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(9), pages 2811-2828, September.
    4. Charles Laine, 1985. "Distribution of jointly owned private goods by the demand-revealing process: Applications to divorce settlements and estate administration," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 437-457, January.
    5. A. Hamlin, 1984. "Constitutional control of processes and their outcomes," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 133-145, January.
    6. Steven Johnson, 1984. "Demand-revealing processes and accounting standard-setting," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 3-24, January.
    7. T. Tideman, 1983. "An experiment in the demand-revealing process," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 387-401, January.
    8. Harrison, Glenn W & Hirshleifer, Jack, 1989. "An Experimental Evaluation of Weakest Link/Best Shot Models of Public Goods," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(1), pages 201-225, February.
    9. Shilony, Yuval, 2000. "Diversity and ingenuity in voluntary collective action," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 429-443, September.
    10. Nicolaus Tideman & Florenz Plassmann, 2017. "Efficient collective decision-making, marginal cost pricing, and quadratic voting," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 172(1), pages 45-73, July.
    11. Jeffrey S. Zax & Casey Ichniowski, 1991. "Excludability and the Effects of Free Riders: Right-To-Work Laws and Local Public Sector Unionization," Public Finance Review, , vol. 19(3), pages 293-315, July.
    12. Daniel McFadden, 2009. "The human side of mechanism design: a tribute to Leo Hurwicz and Jean-Jacque Laffont," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 13(1), pages 77-100, April.
    13. Vernon L. Smith, 1980. "Relevance of Laboratory Experiments to Testing Resource Allocation Theory," NBER Chapters, in: Evaluation of Econometric Models, pages 345-377, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Tian, Guoqiang, 1997. "Virtual implementation in incomplete information environments with infinite alternatives and types," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 313-339, October.
    15. Kazuhiko Hashimoto & Kohei Shiozawa, 2016. "Strategy-Proof Probabilistic Mechanisms for Public Decision with Money," ISER Discussion Paper 0964, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    16. Eli Noam, 1982. "Demand functions and the valuation of public goods," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 271-280, January.
    17. Makowski, Louis & Ostroy, Joseph M., 1987. "Vickrey-Clarke-Groves mechanisms and perfect competition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 244-261, August.
    18. Klein, Daniel B, 1990. "The Voluntary Provision of Public Goods? The Turnpike Companies of Early America," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(4), pages 788-812, October.
    19. Francesco Feri & Anita Gantner & Wolfgang Höchtl & Rupert Sausgruber, 2013. "The pivotal mechanism revisited: some evidence on group manipulation," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 16(1), pages 23-51, March.
    20. Murphy, James J. & Stevens, Thomas H., 2004. "Contingent Valuation, Hypothetical Bias, and Experimental Economics," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(2), pages 182-192, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecorec:v:55:y:1979:i:2:p:95-107. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esausea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.