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Providing public goods in the absence of strong institutions

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  • Gerber, Anke
  • Wichardt, Philipp C.
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    Abstract

    This paper proposes a simple two-stage mechanism to establish positive contributions to public goods in the absence of powerful institutions to provide the public good and to sanction free-riders. In this mechanism players commit to the public good by paying a deposit prior to the contribution stage. If there is universal commitment, deposits are immediately refunded whenever a player contributes her specified share to the public good. If there is no universal commitment, all deposits are refunded and the standard game is played. For suitable deposits, prior commitment and full ex post contributions are supported as a subgame-perfect Nash equilibrium for the resulting game. As the mechanism obviates the need for any ex post prosecution of free-riders, it is particularly suited for situations where players do not submit to a common authority as in the case of international agreements.

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    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6V76-4TT9GDD-2/2/36d15b8a4d74f3074de695afc31ae1a4
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    Bibliographic Info

    Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Public Economics.

    Volume (Year): 93 (2009)
    Issue (Month): 3-4 (April)
    Pages: 429-439

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    Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:93:y:2009:i:3-4:p:429-439

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    Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505578

    Related research

    Keywords: Public goods Cooperation Institutions Climate-change treaties;

    References

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    1. Ernst Fehr & Simon Gaechter, 1999. "Cooperation and Punishment in Public Goods Experiments," CESifo Working Paper Series 183, CESifo Group Munich.
    2. Farrell, Joseph & Maskin, Eric, 1989. "Renegotiation in repeated games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 1(4), pages 327-360, December.
    3. Boadway,Robin & Pestieau,Pierre & Wildasin,David, 1986. "Tax-transfer policies and the voluntary provision of public goods," Discussion Paper Serie A 130, University of Bonn, Germany.
    4. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2000. "Economics And Identity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 115(3), pages 715-753, August.
    5. Hans Gersbach & Ralph Winkler, 2007. "On the Design of Global Refunding and Climate Change," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 07/69, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich, revised Jul 2007.
    6. Francesco Bosello & Barbara Buchner & Carlo Carraro, 2003. "Equity, Development, and Climate Change Control," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(2-3), pages 601-611, 04/05.
    7. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2005. "Identity and the Economics of Organizations," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 9-32, Winter.
    8. Josef Falkinger, 2000. "A Simple Mechanism for the Efficient Provision of Public Goods: Experimental Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(1), pages 247-264, March.
    9. Gary Charness & Martin Dufwenberg, 2006. "Promises and Partnership," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(6), pages 1579-1601, November.
    10. Scott Barrett, 1994. "The biodiversity supergame," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 4(1), pages 111-122, February.
    11. Bagnoli, Mark & Lipman, Barton L, 1989. "Provision of Public Goods: Fully Implementing the Core through Private Contributions," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 583-601, October.
    12. Froyn, Camilla Bretteville & Hovi, Jon, 2008. "A climate agreement with full participation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 317-319, May.
    13. Michael Finus & Bianca Rundshagen, 1998. "Renegotiation–Proof Equilibria in a Global Emission Game When Players Are Impatient," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 12(3), pages 275-306, October.
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    Cited by:
    1. Dannenberg, Astrid & Lange, Andreas & Sturm, Bodo, 2010. "On the formation of coalitions to provide public goods: Experimental evidence from the lab," ZEW Discussion Papers 10-037, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
    2. Boadway, Robin & Song, Zhen & Tremblay, Jean-François, 2010. "The Efficiency of Voluntary Pollution Abatement when Countries can Commit," CCES Discussion Paper Series 28, Center for Research on Contemporary Economic Systems, Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University.

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