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Matching contributions and the voluntary provision of a pure public good: Experimental evidence

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  • Baker II, Ronald J.
  • Walker, James M.
  • Williams, Arlington W.

Abstract

Laboratory experiments are used to study the voluntary provision of a pure public good in the presence of an anonymous external donor. The external funds are used in two different settings, lump-sum matching and one-to-one matching, to examine how allocations to the public good are affected. The experimental results reveal that allocations to the public good under lump-sum matching are significantly higher and have significantly lower within-group dispersion relative to one-to-one matching and two baseline settings without external matching funds. In addition, a comparison of the two baseline conditions reveals a positive framing effect on public goods allocations when it is explicitly revealed to subjects that an outside source has made an unconditional allocation to the public good.

Suggested Citation

  • Baker II, Ronald J. & Walker, James M. & Williams, Arlington W., 2009. "Matching contributions and the voluntary provision of a pure public good: Experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(1-2), pages 122-134, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:70:y:2009:i:1-2:p:122-134
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    Cited by:

    1. Blanco, Esther & Struwe, Natalie & Walker, James M., 2021. "Experimental evidence on sharing rules and additionality in transfer payments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 1221-1247.
    2. Christiane Reif & Dirk Rübbelke & Andreas Löschel, 2017. "Improving Voluntary Public Good Provision Through a Non-governmental, Endogenous Matching Mechanism: Experimental Evidence," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 67(3), pages 559-589, July.
    3. Anauati, María Victoria & Feld, Brian & Galiani, Sebastian & Torrens, Gustavo, 2016. "Collective action: Experimental evidence," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 36-55.
    4. Indranil Goswami & Indranil Goswami, 2020. "No Substitute for the Real Thing: The Importance of In-Context Field Experiments in Fundraising," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(6), pages 1052-1070, November.
    5. Ronald J. Baker II & James M. Walker & Ioana Schiopu, 2010. "External Matching Funds and the Provision of Public Goods: An Experimental Study," Caepr Working Papers 2010-003, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Economics Department, Indiana University Bloomington.
    6. Baker, Ronald J. & Walker, James M. & Williams, Arlington W., 2011. "An exploration of the robustness of alternative laboratory methodologies: Matching funds and the provision of public goods," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 763-774.
    7. Ding, Shuze & Lugovskyy, Volodymyr & Puzzello, Daniela & Tucker, Steven & Williams, Arlington, 2018. "Cash versus extra-credit incentives in experimental asset markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 19-27.
    8. Reif, Christiane & Rübbelke, Dirk & Löschel, Andreas, 2014. "Improving voluntary public good provision by a non-governmental, endogenous matching mechanism: Experimental evidence," CAWM Discussion Papers 73, University of Münster, Münster Center for Economic Policy (MEP).
    9. Alexander Smith, 2013. "Estimating the causal effect of beliefs on contributions in repeated public good games," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 16(3), pages 414-425, September.
    10. Christian A. Vossler, 2013. "Analyzing repeated-game economics experiments: robust standard errors for panel data with serial correlation," Chapters, in: John A. List & Michael K. Price (ed.), Handbook on Experimental Economics and the Environment, chapter 3, pages 89-112, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Gong, Ning & Grundy, Bruce D., 2014. "The design of charitable fund-raising schemes: Matching grants or seed money," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 147-165.
    12. Indranil Goswami & Oleg Urminsky, 2018. "No Substitute for the Real Thing: The Importance of In-Context Field Experiments In Fundraising," Natural Field Experiments 00660, The Field Experiments Website.
    13. Carlsson, Fredrik & Johansson-Stenman, Olof & Pham Khanh, Nam, 2011. "Funding a New Bridge in Rural Vietnam: A field experiment on conditional cooperation and default contributions," Working Papers in Economics 503, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    14. Ronald J. Baker II & James M. Walker & Ioana Schiopu, 2010. "External Matching Funds and the Provision of Public Goods: An Experimental Study," CAEPR Working Papers 2010-003, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Department of Economics, Indiana University Bloomington.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Laboratory experiments Public goods Matching;

    JEL classification:

    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior

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