The Effect of Social Fragmentation on Public Good Provision: an Experimental Study

Surajeet Chakravarty and Miguel Fonseca
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Surajeet Chakravarty: Department of Economics, University of Exeter

No 1207, Discussion Papers from University of Exeter, Department of Economics

Abstract: We study the role of social identity in determining the impact of social frag- mentation on public good provision using laboratory experiments. We find that as long as there is some degree of social fragmentation, increasing it leads to lower public good provision. This is mainly because the share of those who contribute fully to the public good diminishes with social fragmentation, while the share of free-riders is unchanged, which suggests social identity preferences drive our result, as opposed to self-interest. Importantly, socially homogeneous groups do not generate the highest contributions: some social diversity is actually welfare-improving. Finally, social fragmentation is felt differently for visible minorities, whose contributions are higher than minority groups whose actions are not identiable.

Keywords: Social Identity; Public Goods; Social Fragmentation; Experiments. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C92 D02 D03 H41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-exp, nep-pbe, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Journal Article: The effect of social fragmentation on public good provision: An experimental study (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:exe:wpaper:1207

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