Pretending volunteers

Huy X. Nguyen

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2020, vol. 179, issue C, 261-278

Abstract: I introduce the ability to pretend in generalized public goods games. Pretending contributes nothing, but it costs less than helping and confers honor if believed and shame otherwise. The ability to pretend weakly decreases provision. High values of honor increase provision, especially when coupled with high shame. In the long run, pretenders dilute honor and discourage real helpers; authenticated help at a premium can remedy this. Heterogeneity in looking versus feeling good explains why helpers, bystanders, and pretenders often coexist. High thresholds increase helpers and also pretenders, who come mostly from would-be helpers. Linear games have three possible equilibria.

Keywords: Pretense; Volunteer’s dilemma; Public goods game; Honor; Shame; Culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D64 D72 D82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268120303279
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:179:y:2020:i:c:p:261-278

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.08.048

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization is currently edited by Houser, D. and Puzzello, D.

More articles in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().