Toilet Cleaning and Department Chairing: Volunteering a public service
Abstract
Who will do a job that nobody wants but that someone has to do? The search for a volunteer is modelled as a war of attrition in which everyone is tempted to just wait for someone else to do it. We show that the volunteer will be, ceteris paribus, the individual for whom the benefit/cost ratio of performing the public service is the largest, the one most impatient to consume it, or the one who stands to benefit from it the longest.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
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Bibliographic Info
Paper provided by Departement d'Economique de la Faculte d'administration à l'Universite de Sherbrooke in its series Cahiers de recherche with number 94-01.Length: 7 pages
Date of creation: 1994
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:shr:wpaper:94-01
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Postal: Sherbrooke, Québec, J1K 2R1
Phone: (819) 821-7233
Fax: (819) 821-6930
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Web page: http://www.gredi.org/home/documents-de-travail
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Related research
Keywords: economic theory ; volunteers ; voluntary services;Other versions of this item:
- Bilodeau, Marc & Slivinski, Al, 1996. "Toilet cleaning and department chairing: Volunteering a public service," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 299-308, February.
- Marc Bilodeau & Al Slivinski, . "Toilet Cleaning and Department Chairing: Volunteering a Public service," Public Economics 9405001, EconWPA.
- D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
- D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
- H - Public Economics
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Hendricks, Ken & Weiss, Andrew & Wilson, Charles A, 1988.
"The War of Attrition in Continuous Time with Complete Information,"
International Economic Review,
Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 29(4), pages 663-80, November.
- Hendricks, Kenneth & Weiss, Andrew & Wilson, Charles, 1987. "The War of Attrition in Continuous Time with Complete Information," Working Papers 87-03, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University.
- Bliss, Christopher & Nalebuff, Barry, 1984. "Dragon-slaying and ballroom dancing: The private supply of a public good," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1-2), pages 1-12, November.
Citations
Blog mentions
As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:- The Economics of toilet cleaning
by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2008-09-10 16:13:00 - A public finance vignette
by Nick Rowe in Worthwhile Canadian Initiative on 2010-04-26 20:33:51 - Toilets and Chairs: What Do They Have in Common?
by Phil Miller in Market Power on 2010-01-21 17:09:13
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