IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/osloec/2025_001.html

The mixed effects of making contribution behaviors observable

Author

Listed:
  • Nyborg, Karine

    (Dept. of Economics, University of Oslo)

  • Hoven, Noel Z.

Abstract

Voluntary contributions to public goods have been shown to increase when contribution behaviors become observable by peers. We examine the effect of social pressure on moral behaviour, using a framework distinguishing explicitly between observable and nonobservable forms of contribution. We show that even with moral motivation and social pressure, there is underprovision of the public good. Making some contribution behaviors observable does increase effort, but also causes misallocation of effort between observable and non-observable effort types. The latter negative effect can possibly outweigh the positive effect of increased effort on public good provision.

Suggested Citation

  • Nyborg, Karine & Hoven, Noel Z., 2025. "The mixed effects of making contribution behaviors observable," Memorandum 1/2025, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:osloec:2025_001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.sv.uio.no/econ/english/research/publications/memoranda/pdf-files/2025/memo-01-2025.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Karine Nyborg, 2020. "No Man is an Island: Social Coordination and the Environment," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 76(1), pages 177-193, May.
    2. Andreoni, James, 1988. "Privately provided public goods in a large economy: The limits of altruism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 57-73, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chin Lim, 2003. "Public Good Contributions Between Communities," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 5(3), pages 541-548, July.
    2. Pavel Ciaian & Ján Pokrivčák & Dušan Drabik, 2008. "Prečo sú niektoré sektory v tranzitívnych ekonomikách menej reformované ako ostatné? prípad výskumu a vzdelávania v oblasti ekonómie [Why some sectors of transition economies are less reformed than others? the case of economic research and educati," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2008(6), pages 819-836.
    3. Pilar Useche, 2016. "Who Contributes to the Provision of Public Goods at the Community Level? The Case of Potable Water in Ghana," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 34(6), pages 869-888, November.
    4. Jochimsen, Beate, 2019. "Christmas lights in Berlin: New empirical evidence for the private provision of a public good," FiFo Discussion Papers - Finanzwissenschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 19-04, University of Cologne, FiFo Institute for Public Economics.
    5. Rune Jansen Hagen & Jørn Rattsø, 2024. "Strategic interaction in the market for charitable donations: The role of public funding," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 26(1), February.
    6. James Andreoni, 1998. "Toward a Theory of Charitable Fund-Raising," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1186-1213, December.
    7. Brunner, Eric & Sonstelie, Jon, 2003. "School finance reform and voluntary fiscal federalism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 2157-2185, September.
    8. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2006. "Environmental Morale and Motivation," CREMA Working Paper Series 2006-17, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    9. Tilak Sanyal, 2025. "Revisiting the ‘group-size paradox' in the private provision of a pure public good," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 45(1), pages 653-667.
    10. Nyborg, Karine, 2011. "I don't want to hear about it: Rational ignorance among duty-oriented consumers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 79(3), pages 263-274, August.
    11. Tae-Yeoun Lee, 2001. "Effects of Technology Transfers on the Provision of Public Goods," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 18(2), pages 193-218, February.
    12. Katia Melnik & Jean-Benoît Zimmermann, 2008. "An Economic Approach To Voluntary Association," Working Papers halshs-00347448, HAL.
    13. Carvajal, Andrés & Song, Xinxi, 2022. "A simple(r) Lindahl solution to the provision of public goods with warm-glow: Efficiency and implementation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    14. Terrence August & Hyoduk Shin & Tunay I. Tunca, 2018. "Generating Value Through Open Source: Software Service Market Regulation and Licensing Policy," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(1), pages 186-205, March.
    15. Laura Marsiliani & Thomas I. Renstroem, 2010. "Privately provided public goods in a dynamic economy," Department of Economics Working Papers 2010_02, Durham University, Department of Economics.
    16. Potters, Jan & Sefton, Martin & Vesterlund, Lise, 2005. "After you--endogenous sequencing in voluntary contribution games," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(8), pages 1399-1419, August.
    17. Charles Ayoubi & Boris Thurm, 2023. "Knowledge diffusion and morality: Why do we freely share valuable information with Strangers?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 75-99, January.
    18. Masatoshi Yoshida & Stephen J. Turnbull & Mitsuru Ota, 2023. "Environmental offsets and production externalities under monopolistic competition," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(2), pages 305-325, April.
    19. Wolfgang Buchholz & Kai Konrad, 1994. "Global environmental problems and the strategic choice of technology," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 299-321, October.
    20. Warren B. Hrung, 2004. "After‐Life Consumption and Charitable Giving," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 731-745, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D00 - Microeconomics - - General - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:osloec:2025_001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mari Strønstad Øverås (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/souiono.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.