Levels of Information and Contributions to Public Goods Academic Article

abstract

• The provision of public goods is a social dilemma in which individuals must decide whether to contribute to the group or not to contribute and therefore free ride. We posit that if individuals have information about how each of the other group members has contributed, free riding will occur less frequently than if they do not have this information. If individuals know how others have contributed, they are able to employ trigger strategies. Three experimental treatments are used to test our predictions: (1) no information about other members' contributions, (2) aggregated information about other members' contributions, and (3) individualized information about each member's contribution. We find that contributions to a public good in the individualized information condition are greater than contributions in the other two conditions. However, contribution levels for no information and aggregated information do not differ. 1991 The University of North Carolina Press.

authors

• Sell, Jane

published proceedings

• Social Forces

author list (cited authors)

• Sell, J., & Wilson, R. K.

citation count

• 77

complete list of authors

• Sell, J||Wilson, RK

publication date

• September 1991

publisher

• Oxford University Press (OUP)  Publisher

published in

• SOCIAL FORCES  Journal

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1093/sf/70.1.107

start page

• 107

end page

• 124

volume

• 70

issue

• 1