With regard to global or regional environmental problems, do countries that take unilateral actions inspire other countries to curtail emissions? In this paper this possibility is investigated by the use of a novel design of a laboratory public bad experiment with a leader. Twelve groups of five subjects played the game twice, with two treatments: ten rounds with a leader and ten rounds without a leader. The order of the treatments was varied over groups. A significant (within-subject) effect of leadership is found. Followers invest on average 15 percent less in the public bad when there is a leader setting the good example as opposed to a situation with no leader. Furthermore, total payoffs turn out to be significantly higher in the leader treatment than in the no-leader treatment.
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Paper provided by Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research in its series Discussion Paper with number
102.
Find related papers by JEL classification: C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods Q30 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - General
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Emrah Arbak & Marie-Claire Villeval, 2007.
"Endogenous Leadership Selection and Influence,"
Working Papers
0707, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique (GATE), Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Université Lyon 2, Ecole Normale Supérieure.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions:
Potters, Jan & Sefton, Martin & Heijden, Eline van der, 2005.
"Hierarchy and opportunism in teams,"
Discussion Paper
109, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions:
Eline van der Heijden & Jan Potters & Martin Sefton, 2006.
"Hierarchy and Opportunism in Teams,"
Discussion Papers
2006-15, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
[Downloadable!]