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Competitive Private Supply of Public Goods

Author

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  • Arnaud Dragicevic
  • Guy Meunier

Abstract

This paper compares guilt alleviation and competition for social status in the private provision of a public good. When agents are intrinsically impulsed, that is, they mostly provide the public good in order to alleviate their guilt, they tend to free-ride. In contrast, when agents are extrinsically impulsed and compete for social status, their provisions become strategic complements. In the latter case, the aggregate level of the public good increases as the disparity between agents' incomes shrinks. In the see-through scenario, subsidizing has an ambiguous impact on the aggregate level of the public good. In any case, injecting competition for social status into utility functions increases provisions to a public good, and hence its aggregate level. Market competition thus creates incentives to overcome the free-riding issue. Le papier fait la comparaison entre déculpabilisation et compétition pour le statut social dans la provision privée des biens publics. Lorsque les agents sont intrinsèquement impulsés, c'est-à-dire qu'ils contribuent essentiellement aux biens publics dans le but de soulager leur culpabilité d'avoir indirectement participé à leur dégradation, ils tendent à se comporter en passagers clandestins. En revanche, lorsque les agents sont extrinsèquement impulsés et se mettent en compétition pour atteindre du statut social qu'ils visent par le financement des biens publics à titre privé, leurs contributions deviennent des compléments stratégiques. Dans ce cas, le niveau agrégé des biens publics croît avec la réduction des écarts de revenus entre les agents. Dans un scénario de transparence fiscale, les subventions ont un impact ambigu sur le niveau global des biens publics. Dans tous les cas, injecter de la compétition pour le statut social dans des fonctions d'utilité augmente les contributions aux biens publics, et donc leur niveau global, faisant de la concurrence une incitation féconde pour résoudre le problème du passager clandestin.

Suggested Citation

  • Arnaud Dragicevic & Guy Meunier, 2010. "Competitive Private Supply of Public Goods," CIRANO Working Papers 2010s-06, CIRANO.
  • Handle: RePEc:cir:cirwor:2010s-06
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    File URL: https://cirano.qc.ca/files/publications/2010s-06.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Chan, Kenneth S. & Mestelman, Stuart & Muller, R. Andrew, 2008. "Voluntary Provision of Public Goods," Handbook of Experimental Economics Results, in: Charles R. Plott & Vernon L. Smith (ed.), Handbook of Experimental Economics Results, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 88, pages 831-835, Elsevier.
    2. Jean Tirole & Roland Bénabou, 2006. "Incentives and Prosocial Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1652-1678, December.
    3. Kenneth S. Chan & Stuart Mestelman & Rob Moir & R. Andrew Muller Moir, 1996. "The Voluntary Provision of Public Goods under Varying Income Distributions," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 29(1), pages 54-69, February.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    public good private supply; guilt relieving; social status; competition; income transfer; subsidies; provision privée des biens publics; déculpabilisation; statut social; compétition; transfert de revenu; subventions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • C7 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory
    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

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