Are poor people conditionally cooperative? Contrasting evidence from a field-adapted contributions game

James Allen, Naureen Karachiwalla and Deboleena Rakshit

No 2364, IFPRI discussion papers from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: We study conditional cooperation using a field-adapted conditional contributions game in rural Mozambique, eliciting community members’ willingness to contribute to a new public program conditional on how many others contribute. While past studies suggest most people are conditional cooperators (contributing more as others do), most of our sample (57%) are undefined by standard classifications. Instead, our sample's most common types are largely absent from the literature: counter conditional cooperators (contributing less as others do) and v-shaped cooperators, both for monetary donations (30% and 19%) and volunteering (35% and 12%). Our findings motivate future research in both non-laboratory and low-income settings.

Keywords: cooperation; low income groups; poverty; school feeding; Mozambique; Africa; Eastern Africa; Southern Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-10-06
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:ifprid:176850

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