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Birth, Death and Public Good Provision

Author

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  • John Duffy
  • Jonathan Lafky

Abstract

We explore the effect of fixed versus dynamic group membership on public good provision. In a novel experimental design, we modify the traditional voluntary contribution mechanism (VCM) by periodically replacing old members of a group with new members over time. Under this dynamic, overlapping generations matching protocol we find that average contributions experience significantly less decay over time relative to a traditional VCM environment with fixed group membership. These findings suggest that the traditional pattern of contribution and decay seen in many public goods experiments may not accurately reflect behavior in groups with changing membership, as is the case in many real-world environments.

Suggested Citation

  • John Duffy & Jonathan Lafky, 2014. "Birth, Death and Public Good Provision," Working Paper 520, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh, revised Jan 2014.
    • Handle: RePEc:pit:wpaper:520
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    12. Offerman, Theo & Potters, Jan & Verbon, Harrie A. A., 2001. "Cooperation in an Overlapping Generations Experiment," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 264-275, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Marianna Baggio & Luigi Mittone, 2019. "Grandparents Matter: Perspectives on Intergenerational Altruism and a Pilot Intergenerational Public Good Experiment," Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 255-276, April.
    2. Anna Lou Abatayo & Lea Skræp Svenningsen & Bo Jellesmark Thorsen, 2020. "Thankful or Thankless: Does the Past’s Altruism Increase the Present’s Public Good Contributions?," Games, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-28, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public goods; Overlapping generations; Voluntary contribution mechanism; Experimental economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

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