IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v228y2024ics0167268124004037.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How to increase and sustain cooperation in public goods games: Conditional commitments via a mediator

Author

Listed:
  • Gürdal, Mehmet Y.
  • Gürerk, Özgür
  • Kaçamak, Yeliz
  • Kart, Edip

Abstract

Conditional commitment devices, such as price-matching guarantees, legal agreements, and smart contracts, can significantly enhance cooperation and improve outcomes in various scenarios. Despite their potential, empirical evidence of their effectiveness in the context of public goods is limited. This paper addresses this gap by demonstrating that conditional and binding commitments can indeed increase voluntary contributions to public goods. We begin by theoretically analyzing the impact of conditional commitments managed by a mediator on public good contributions. Our analysis shows that conditional commitments can be structured to achieve a Pareto Optimal Nash Equilibrium (PONE). We then validate our theoretical findings with laboratory experiments. The results reveal that when a PONE exists, nearly all participant groups adopt conditional commitments and achieve high levels of sustained cooperation. Conversely, when conditional commitments lead to socially inefficient outcomes, their use declines and cooperation levels drop significantly.

Suggested Citation

  • Gürdal, Mehmet Y. & Gürerk, Özgür & Kaçamak, Yeliz & Kart, Edip, 2024. "How to increase and sustain cooperation in public goods games: Conditional commitments via a mediator," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:228:y:2024:i:c:s0167268124004037
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2024.106789
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268124004037
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2024.106789?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Prisoner’s dilemma; Cooperation; Public goods; Assortative matching; Mediator; Commitment;
    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

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:228:y:2024:i:c:s0167268124004037. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.