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Birth, death and public good provision

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  • John Duffy

    (University of California)

  • Jonathan Lafky

    (Lafayette College)

Abstract

We explore the effect of fixed versus dynamic group membership on public good provision. In a novel experimental design, we modify the traditional voluntary contribution mechanism (VCM) by periodically replacing old members of a group with new members over time. Under this dynamic, overlapping generations matching protocol we find that average contributions experience significantly less decay over time relative to a traditional VCM environment with fixed group membership and a common termination date. These findings suggest that the traditional pattern of contribution and decay seen in many public goods experiments may not accurately reflect behavior in groups with changing membership, as is the case in many real-world environments.

Suggested Citation

  • John Duffy & Jonathan Lafky, 2016. "Birth, death and public good provision," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 19(2), pages 317-341, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:expeco:v:19:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s10683-015-9439-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s10683-015-9439-y
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    Cited by:

    1. Keisaku Higashida, 2019. "Burden of Inspection Costs and Effectiveness of Environmental Regulations," Discussion Paper Series 189, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University.
    2. Xu, Xue & Potters, Jan, 2018. "An experiment on cooperation in ongoing organizations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 28-40.
    3. Xu, Xue, 2018. "Experiments on cooperation, institutions, and social preferences," Other publications TiSEM d3cf4dba-b0f3-4643-a267-7, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Marianna Baggio & Luigi Mittone, 2019. "Grandparents Matter: Perspectives on Intergenerational Altruism and a Pilot Intergenerational Public Good Experiment," Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 255-276, April.
    5. Otten, Kasper & Buskens, Vincent & Przepiorka, Wojtek & Ellemers, Naomi, 2021. "Cooperation between newcomers and incumbents: The role of normative disagreements," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

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