Leaders as Role Models for the Voluntary Provision of Public Goods

Simon Gaechter () and Elke Renner
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Simon Gaechter: School of Economics, University of Nottingham
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Simon Gächter

No 2014-11, Discussion Papers from The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham

Abstract: We investigate the link between leadership, beliefs and pro-social behavior. This link is interesting because field evidence suggests that people’s behavior in domains like charitable giving, tax evasion, corporate culture and corruption is influenced by leaders (CEOs, politicians) and beliefs about others’ behavior. Our framework is an experimental public goods game with a leader. We find that leaders strongly shape their followers’ initial beliefs and contributions. In later rounds, followers put more weight on other followers’ past behavior than on the leader’s current action. This creates a path dependency the leader can hardly correct. We discuss the implications for understanding belief effects in naturally occurring situations.

Keywords: Leadership; beliefs; experiments; public goods; path dependency; public policy; management. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-exp, nep-iue, nep-pbe and nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Leaders as Role Models for the Voluntary Provision of Public Goods (2014)
Working Paper: Leaders as Role Models for the Voluntary Provision of Public Goods (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:not:notcdx:2014-11

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