IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dlw/wpaper/10-09..html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Context effects in a negative externality experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Kent D. Messer

    (Department of Food & Resource Economics,University of Delaware)

  • Jordan F. Suter

    (Department of Economics and Environmental Studies,Oberlin College)

  • Jubo Yan

    (Graduate Student, Cornell University)

Abstract

This study investigates the degree to which framing and context influence observed rates of free-riding behavior in a negative externality laboratory experiment. Building on the work of Andreoni (1995a) and Messer et al. (2007) we frame the decision not to contribute to a public fund as generating a negative externality on other group members. The experimental treatments involving 252 subjects vary communication, voting, and the status quo of the initial endowment. Results indicate that allowing groups the opportunity to communicate and vote significantly reduces rates of free-riding, and this effect is especially pronounced when initial endowments are placed in the private as opposed to the public fund.

Suggested Citation

  • Kent D. Messer & Jordan F. Suter & Jubo Yan, 2010. "Context effects in a negative externality experiment," Working Papers 10-09, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:dlw:wpaper:10-09.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://graduate.lerner.udel.edu/sites/default/files/ECON/PDFs/RePEc/dlw/WorkingPapers/2010/UDWP2010-09.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Negative externality; voluntary contribution mechanism; cheap talk; voting; status quo bias; experimental economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:dlw:wpaper:10-09.. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Saul Hoffman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deudeus.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.