Heterogeneous Returns and Group Formations in the Public Goods Game

Elena Molis, Levent Neyse () and Raul Peña-Fernandez
Additional contact information
Raul Peña-Fernandez: University of Granada

No 16/02, ThE Papers from Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada.

Abstract: In a public goods game, it is usually assumed that people only consider their private returns when contributing to public goods. However, individuals in a same society may benefit from a public project differently. As a result, their willingness to contribute may vary. We experimentally analyze individuals contribution behavior in a repeated public goods game, where participants are categorized in two types, low or high, according with the returns they derive from the public good. In our design we consider different group formations, homogeneous and heterogeneous. All the members of a homogeneous group benefit from the public good equally, while in a heterogeneous group, the return levels are not equally distributed among the members. We show that the dif- ferences in contributions between the two types of players are larger in heterogeneously formed groups than the homogeneous ones, although the contribution differences are insignificant on ag- gregate level. These results underline the social aspect of public good provision and suggest that aggregation may misleadingly cover heterogeneities in the societies.

Keywords: Public Goods; Heterogeneity; Group Effects; Marginal per Capita Returns (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 D80 H41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 7 pages
Date: 2016-02-15
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.ugr.es/~teoriahe/RePEc/gra/wpaper/thepapers16_02.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:gra:wpaper:16/02

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ThE Papers from Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada. Campus Universitario de Cartuja. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Angel Solano Garcia. ().