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Viewers like you: community norms and contributions to public broadcasting

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  • Knack, Stephen
  • Kropf, Martha

Abstract

The logic of collective action (Olson 1965) suggests that public broadcasting may be underprovided, because non-contributors are not excluded from receiving the benefits. Why do so many individuals voluntarily contribute to public television, even though they can obtain the benefits of public television without contributing? We explore the hypothesis that giving to public broadcasting is determined in part by the strength of "civic norms" that limit the opportunistic behavior of individuals in large-numbers prisoners' dilemma settings. We also explore a variety of other explanations for charitable giving and collective action, including group size, tax deductibility, crowd out, and selective incentives. Our findings provide evidence linking civic norms and giving to public broadcasting. Education and income have indirect effects through strengthening civic norms. We find some evidence that selective incentives increase the average size of contributions among those who contribute.

Suggested Citation

  • Knack, Stephen & Kropf, Martha, 2003. "Viewers like you: community norms and contributions to public broadcasting," MPRA Paper 27248, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:27248
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Martha E. Kropf & Johnny Blair, 2005. "Eliciting Survey Cooperation," Evaluation Review, , vol. 29(6), pages 559-575, December.
    2. René Bekkers & Ingrid Veldhuizen, 2008. "Geographical Differences In Blood Donation And Philanthropy In The Netherlands – What Role For Social Capital?," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 99(4), pages 483-496, September.
    3. Prasenjit Banerjee & Rupayan Pal & Jason F. Shogren, 2016. "Honor and stigma in mechanisms for environmental protection," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2016-017, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    4. Prasenjit Banerjee & Rupayan Pal, 2016. "Honor and Stigma in Mechanisms for Environmental Protection," Working Papers id:10883, eSocialSciences.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    collective action; selective incentives; norms; free riding; social capital; public goods;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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