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Voluntary contributions by consent or dissent

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  • Tan, Jonathan H.W.
  • Breitmoser, Yves
  • Bolle, Friedel

Abstract

We study games where voluntary contributions can be adjusted until a steady state is reached. In consent games contributions start low and can be increased; in dissent games contributions start high and can be decreased. The equilibrium prediction is free riding in consent games but as much as social efficiency in dissent games. We test it experimentally and confirm that the dissent mechanism yields substantial welfare improvements over the consent mechanism. With experience, subjects contribute on average less than 30% of the endowment in consent games but more than 60% in dissent games. Generally, subjects match the lower of the opponents' contributions: they do not follow when single opponents increase contributions in consent games, but follow when single opponents decrease contributions in dissent games. This asymmetry in the conditional cooperation is predicted by heterogeneity of egoistic and inequity averse types, with individual types being private information.

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  • Tan, Jonathan H.W. & Breitmoser, Yves & Bolle, Friedel, 2015. "Voluntary contributions by consent or dissent," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 106-121.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:92:y:2015:i:c:p:106-121
    DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2015.05.007
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    Cited by:

    1. Bolle, Friedel, 2017. "Passing the Buck On the acceptance of responsibility," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 86-101.
    2. Bolle, Friedel & Spiller, Jörg, 2016. "Not efficient but payoff dominant: Experimental investigations of equilibrium play in binary threshold public good games," Discussion Papers 379, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Department of Business Administration and Economics.
    3. Haruvy, Ernan & Li, Sherry Xin & McCabe, Kevin & Twieg, Peter, 2017. "Communication and visibility in public goods provision," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 276-296.
    4. Adrian Hillenbrand, 2018. "Cooperation with lists," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2018_01, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
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    6. He, Simin & Zhu, Xun, 2023. "Real-time monitoring in a public-goods game," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 454-479.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public good; Contribution game; Mechanism; Laboratory experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

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