Ideals should not be too ideal: Identity and public good contribution

Fuhai Hong
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Fuhai Hong: Division of Economics, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological Univer- sity. Address: 14 Nanyang Drive, Singapore, 637332.

No 1411, Economic Growth Centre Working Paper Series from Nanyang Technological University, School of Social Sciences, Economic Growth Centre

Abstract: This paper incorporates identity into a model of voluntary public good contribution. An ideal of contributing to public goods divides players to di¤erent social categories: Players who identify with the ideal become insiders, obtaining identity utility but incurring disu- tility if their contributions depart from the ideal, while players who do not identify with the ideal remain as outsiders. We show that identity could increase public good contribution; the ideal that best resolves the free-riding problem in the public good game equals either the contribution level of the most altruistic player in the absence of the identity, or a level that makes the least altruistic player indi¤erent between becoming an insider and not, depending on the size of the group. These results have implications for social policymaking.

Keywords: Ideals; Identity; Public Goods; Social Categories (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 H41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2014-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-hpe, nep-mic, nep-pub and nep-sea
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nan:wpaper:1411

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