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Does Public Policy Crowd Out Private Contributions to Public Goods?

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Abstract

It is sometimes claimed that individuals' contributions to public goods are not motivated by economic costs and benefits alone, but that people also have a moral or norm-based motivation. A number of studies indicate that such moral or norm-based motivation might be crowded out, or crowded in, by public policy. This paper discusses some models that can yield insight into the interplay between economic and moral or norm-based motivation for voluntary contributions to public goods, and compares their policy implications. We distinguish between four types of models: Altruism models, social norm models, models of commitment and the cognitive evaluation theory.

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  • Karine Nyborg & Mari Rege, 2001. "Does Public Policy Crowd Out Private Contributions to Public Goods?," Discussion Papers 300, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:ssb:dispap:300
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Private provision; altruism; social norms; commitment.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • Q28 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy

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