The Dynamic Free Rider Problem: A Laboratory Study

Marco Battaglini, Salvatore Nunnari and Thomas Palfrey

American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2016, vol. 8, issue 4, 268-308

Abstract: We report the results of an experiment that investigates free riding in the accumulation of durable public goods. We consider economies with reversibility, where contributions can be positive or negative; and economies with irreversibility, where contributions are nonnegative. Aggregate outcomes support the qualitative predictions of the Markov Perfect Equilibria (MPE) characterized in Battaglini, Nunnari, and Palfrey (2014): steady state levels of public good are lower with reversibility than irreversibility; accumulation is inefficiently slow; and the public good is under-provided in both regimes. On the other hand, public good levels are higher than MPE, and some evidence of history dependence is detected.

JEL-codes: C91 H41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
Note: DOI: 10.1257/mic.20150126
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/mic.20150126 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... i71xO1jUiKa27CiSR3QB (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... -fkYpWcCxMWMKKktw5RW (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: The Dynamic Free Rider Problem: A Laboratory Study (2015)
Working Paper: The Dynamic Free Rider Problem: A Laboratory Study (2012)
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:aea:aejmic:v:8:y:2016:i:4:p:268-308

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Microeconomics is currently edited by Johannes Hörner

More articles in American Economic Journal: Microeconomics from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().