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To What Do People Contribute? Ongoing Operations vs. Sustainable Supplies

Author

Listed:
  • Arbel, Yuval

    (School of Business, Carmel Academic Center)

  • Bar-El, Ronen

    (Open University of Israel)

  • Schwarz, Mordechai E.

    (Open University of Israel)

  • Tobol, Yossef

    (Jerusalem College of Technology (JTC))

Abstract

We study how the objective of the contributions affects the willingness to contribute to real-life public goods. We conducted three treatments of a fundraising experiment among religious Jewish students in which the contributions were assigned to finance sustainable supplies and the ongoing operations of their campus synagogue. In each treatment, we informed the subject of the different allocation of their contributions between funding sustainable supplies and ongoing operations. The results show that contributions increase significantly with the share of contributions assigned to the procurement of sustainable supplies. We use the results to derive practical implications for the design of fundraising for public goods.

Suggested Citation

  • Arbel, Yuval & Bar-El, Ronen & Schwarz, Mordechai E. & Tobol, Yossef, 2019. "To What Do People Contribute? Ongoing Operations vs. Sustainable Supplies," IZA Discussion Papers 12180, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12180
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    experiment; Nash equilibrium; public goods; voluntary provision;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

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