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Public good provision in blended groups of partners and strangers

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  • Grund, Christian
  • Harbring, Christine
  • Thommes, Kirsten

Abstract

We experimentally analyze cooperation in blended groups, where some group members stay together (partners) and others are switching groups (strangers). Our results reveal that teams consisting partly of members with strangers display a lower productivity compared to teams of permanent group members only. First, strangers cooperate less than partners in blended groups. Second, individual effort decisions increase with the number of group mates who are of the same type. This second effect holds for both strangers and partners and is neither driven by beliefs nor conditional willingness to cooperate. We argue that social identity plays a role here depending on group composition and the individuals’ role in a group.

Suggested Citation

  • Grund, Christian & Harbring, Christine & Thommes, Kirsten, 2015. "Public good provision in blended groups of partners and strangers," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 41-44.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:134:y:2015:i:c:p:41-44
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2015.06.008
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    4. Urs Fischbacher, 2007. "z-Tree: Zurich toolbox for ready-made economic experiments," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 10(2), pages 171-178, June.
    5. Simon Gachter & Ernst Fehr, 2000. "Cooperation and Punishment in Public Goods Experiments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 980-994, September.
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    7. Ananish Chaudhuri, 2011. "Sustaining cooperation in laboratory public goods experiments: a selective survey of the literature," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 14(1), pages 47-83, March.
    8. Francesco Feri & Bernd Irlenbusch & Matthias Sutter, 2010. "Efficiency Gains from Team-Based Coordination—Large-Scale Experimental Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(4), pages 1892-1912, September.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Angelova, Vera & Güth, Werner & Kocher, Martin G., 2019. "Leadership in a Public Goods Experiment with Permanent and Temporary Members," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 202, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    2. Christian Grund & Christine Harbring & Kirsten Thommes & Katja Rebecca Tilkes, 2020. "Decisions on Extending Group Membership—Evidence from a Public Good Experiment," Games, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-27, December.
    3. Britta Butz & Christine Harbring, 2021. "The Effect of Disclosing Identities in a Socially Incentivized Public Good Game," Games, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-31, April.
    4. Kusterer, David J. & Schmitz, Patrick W., 2020. "Public goods, property rights, and investment incentives: An experimental investigation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 514-532.
    5. Alexandra Baier & Natalie Struwe, 2024. "Accepting the Newcomer: Do Information and Voting Shape Cooperation within Groups?," Working Papers 2024-08, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    6. Jan Schmitz, 2019. "When Two Become One: How Group Mergers Affect Solidarity," Games, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-42, July.
    7. Otten, Kasper & Buskens, Vincent & Przepiorka, Wojtek & Ellemers, Naomi, 2021. "Cooperation between newcomers and incumbents: The role of normative disagreements," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    8. Kasper Otten & Ulrich J. Frey & Vincent Buskens & Wojtek Przepiorka & Naomi Ellemers, 2022. "Human cooperation in changing groups in a large-scale public goods game," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cooperation; Economic experiment; Group; Public good;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C9 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments
    • M5 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics

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