Abstract
We present a simple dynamic model of contributions to a public good. We test the model by conducting a public good game experiment and fundraising experiment among religious Jewish students for the procurement of sustainable supplies for their campus synagogue. The results of the experiments show a high level of cooperation; particularly, the results of the public good experiment show that contributions are above the predicted optimum. Nevertheless, in accordance with the economic theory, we find that the contribution path is upward sloping and contributions increase with the benefit of the public good. Our findings also suggest that the level of contributions and their path are affected by peer and gender effects.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1179-1199 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Journal of Public Economic Theory |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Dec 2019 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Funding
We are grateful for comments received from Rabah Amir, Ted Bergstrom, Eran Menes, Steven Slutsky, Gideon Yaniv, two anonymous referees, and from the seminar participants in APET 15, Bar-Ilan University, The Open University of Israel, and the Jerusalem College of Technology. Any errors are solely those of the authors. We also would like to thank the Research authority of the Open University of Israel for financing this study.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Jerusalem College of Technology | |
| Open University of Israel |