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Leadership and Group Size: An Experiment

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Author Info
Mana Komai
Philip J. Grossman () (Department of Economics, St. Cloud State University)
Abstract

Recent theoretical and experimental work suggests that leading by example can induce full cooperation in collective actions. Our experimental study suggests that leading by example loses its effectiveness in large groups. Our interpretation is that the discrepancy between the leaders’ incentives and those of an individual follower increases with group size. On one hand, leaders become more pivotal in larger groups and thus eager to participate. On the other hand, followers become more marginal in larger groups and thus more eager to free ride. Under these circumstances, leading by example becomes too weak to overcome the strong free riding problem.

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File URL: http://www.stcloudstate.edu/economics/documents/Groupsize.pdf
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Paper provided by Saint Cloud State University, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number 2008-06 Classification-C92, H41.

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Date of creation: Mar 2008
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Handle: RePEc:scs:wpaper:0806

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Related research
Keywords: Leading by example; Free-riding; Cooperation; Group size;

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  1. Jan Potters & Martin Sefton & Lise Vesterlund, 2007. "Leading-by-example and signaling in voluntary contribution games: an experimental study," Economic Theory, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 169-182, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. James Andreoni, 1994. "Warm-Glow versus Cold-Prickle: The Effects of Positive and Negative Framing on Cooperation in Experiments," Experimental 9410002, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
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  3. Andreoni, James, 1988. "Why free ride? : Strategies and learning in public goods experiments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 291-304, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-16.

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