 Challenging the free-rider: Children behavior in a public goods gameMaurizio Caserta, Rosaria Distefano, Livio Ferrante and Francesco Reito Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), 2025, vol. 117, issue C Abstract: This paper presents the results of an educational program designed to promote prosocial attitudes among 11-year-old children in Southern Italy. The experiment investigates whether education on socially beneficial behavior can increase voluntary contributions in a standard public goods game and reduce free riding. The program consists of five interactive lectures delivered by young economics students on sustainable consumption, social responsibility, and environmental awareness. Results suggest that participation in the program significantly increases both the probability of contributing and the size of contributions. Interestingly, the transmission of prosocial behavior appears to have a stronger impact among students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Keywords: Experimental game theory; Free riding; Public goods game (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceco:v:117:y:2025:i:c:s2214804325000667 DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102400 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics) is currently edited by Pablo Brañas Garza More articles in Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics) from Elsevier |
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