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The experimental search for free riders: Some reflections and observations

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  • Thomas McCaleb
  • Richard Wagner

Abstract

The presence of the incentive to free ride in ‘pure situations’ has not heretofore been contested, and we would have expected that choice settings could be designed in which something very close to full free riding would emerge. As K-W correctly claim, however, this conjecture has not yet been tested. The successful design and conduct of such an experiment would offer confirmation of what ‘everyone knows’. On the other hand, the results of the recent experiments in free riding reviewed here cast some doubt on the ability of such experiments to generate full and complete free riding behavior. Instead, what these experiments show is that as the experiment is more carefully designed to enhance the incentives to free ride, it becomes less and less like real world choice settings. We think that experimental studies on free riding can provide valuable evidence on a subject that might otherwise not be amenable to empirical research. Results from experiments conducted in ‘purified’ settings, however, still leave us a long way from understanding the social processes through which real world choices are made. A greater understanding of these processes requires an examination of the evolution of the institutions of social choice to determine why the relatively uncontaminated choice settings represented by the recent experimental research have often not survived the test of time while the relatively contaminated settings explored by others seem to have greater survival value. Copyright Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1985

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas McCaleb & Richard Wagner, 1985. "The experimental search for free riders: Some reflections and observations," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 479-490, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:47:y:1985:i:3:p:479-490
    DOI: 10.1007/BF00182149
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bohm, Peter, 1972. "Estimating demand for public goods: An experiment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 111-130.
    2. R. Isaac & James Walker & Susan Thomas, 1984. "Divergent evidence on free riding: An experimental examination of possible explanations," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 113-149, January.
    3. Peter Bohm, 1972. "Estimating the demand for public goods: An experiment," Framed Field Experiments 00126, The Field Experiments Website.
    4. Marwell, Gerald & Ames, Ruth E., 1981. "Economists free ride, does anyone else? : Experiments on the provision of public goods, IV," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 295-310, June.
    5. Oliver Kim & Mark Walker, 1984. "The free rider problem: Experimental evidence," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 3-24, January.
    6. Brubaker, Earl R, 1975. "Free Ride, Free Revelation, or Golden Rule?," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(1), pages 147-161, April.
    7. Plott, Charles R, 1983. "Externalities and Corrective Policies in Experimental Markets," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 93(369), pages 106-127, March.
    8. Friedrich Schneider & Werner W. Pommerehne, 1981. "Free Riding and Collective Action: An Experiment in Public Microeconomics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 96(4), pages 689-704.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Nelson, Robert G. & Beil, Richard O., Jr., 1994. "When Self-Interest Is Self-Defeating: The Public Goods Experiment As A Teaching Tool," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 26, pages 1-11, December.
    3. Ryan Safner, 2021. "“Public Good” or “Good for the Public?” Political Entrepreneurship and the Public Funding of Scientific Research," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 36(Spring 20), pages 17-44.
    4. Ion Sterpan & Richard E. Wagner, 2017. "The Autonomy of the Political within Political Economy," Advances in Austrian Economics, in: The Austrian and Bloomington Schools of Political Economy, volume 22, pages 133-157, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    5. Jeffrey S. Zax & Casey Ichniowski, 1991. "Excludability and the Effects of Free Riders: Right-To-Work Laws and Local Public Sector Unionization," Public Finance Review, , vol. 19(3), pages 293-315, July.

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