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Ancestral kinship patterns substantially reduce the negative effect of increasing group size on incentives for public goods provision

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  • Rusch, Hannes

Abstract

Numerous theories on the evolution of altruistic in-group beneficial behavior in humans exist. Many of these abstract away from the effects of kinship on incentives for public goods provision, though. Here, a simple model is devised that illustrates how genetic relatedness changes the incentive structure of that paradigmatic game which is conventionally used to model and experimentally investigate collective action problems: the linear public goods game. Using recent anthropological data sets on relatedness in contemporary hunter-gatherer and horticulturalist societies the parameters of the model are estimated. It turns out that the kinship patterns observed in these societies substantially reduce the negative effect of increasing group size on incentives for public goods provision. It is suggested, therefore, that renewed attention should be given to inclusive fitness theory in the context of public goods provision also in sizable groups.

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  • Rusch, Hannes, 2018. "Ancestral kinship patterns substantially reduce the negative effect of increasing group size on incentives for public goods provision," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 105-115.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:64:y:2018:i:c:p:105-115
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2017.12.002
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    Cited by:

    1. Aslihan Akdeniz & Matthijs van Veelen, 2019. "The cancellation effect at the group level," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 19-073/I, Tinbergen Institute.
    2. Espín, Antonio M. & Brañas-Garza, Pablo & Gamella, Juan & Herrmann, Benedikt & Martin, Jesus, 2019. "Bringing together “old” and “new” ways of solving social dilemmas? The case of Spanish Gitanos," MPRA Paper 95423, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public goods; Inclusive fitness; Altruism; Relatedness; Kinship;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B15 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

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