Skip to main content
Log in

A voluntary participation game through a unit-by-unit cost share mechanism of a non-excludable public good

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Social Choice and Welfare Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The strategic analysis of voluntary participation in the public good provision has shown two distinct results. First, when the provision of public goods is binary, there are Nash equilibria supporting efficient allocations, and these are Strong Nash equilibria of the game. On the other hand, a model of a continuous public good (Saijo–Yamato, J Econ Theory 84:227–242, 1999) showed that the participation of all agents is not an equilibrium in many situations. This article considers the provision of a discrete and multi-unit public good, and examines a unit-by-unit participation game. Namely, people are asked to participate in each unit of public good provision, and those who chose to participate share the marginal cost of public good. In this game of public good provision, there are subgame-perfect equilibria that are Pareto efficient. We also use the refinement concepts to eliminate inefficient subgame-perfect equilibria and also to characterize the efficient subgame-perfect equilibria.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aumann R (1959) Acceptable points in general cooperative n-person games. In: Tucker AW, Luce DR (eds) Contributions to the theory of games IV. Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 287–324

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernheim BD, Peleg B, Whinston M (1987) Coalition-proof Nash equilibria I. concepts. J Econ Theory 42: 1–12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cason T, Saijo T, Yamato T (2002) Voluntary participation and spite in public good provision experiments: an international comparison. Exper Econ 5: 133–153

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cason T, Saijo T, Yamato T, Yokotani K (2004) Non-excludable public good experiments. Games Econ Behav 49: 81–102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cavaliere A (2001) Coordination and the provision of discrete public goods by correlated equilibria?. J Public Econ Theory 3: 235–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dixit A, Olson M (2000) Does voluntary participation undermine the Coase theorem?. J Public Econ 76: 309–335

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Furusawa T, Konishi H (2011) Contributing or free-riding? voluntary participation in a public good economy. Theor Econ 6: 219–256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Groves T, Ledyard J (1977) Optimal allocation of public goods: a solution to the “free rider” problem. Econometrica 45: 783–809

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Healy PJ (2010) Equilibrium participation in public goods allocations. Rev Econ Design 14: 27–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nihonsugi T, Nishimura N, Nishimura Y, Saijo T, Shinohara R, Yamakawa T, Yamato T (2009) Unit-by-unit voluntary participation in public goods experiments. mimeo

  • Palfrey T, Rosenthal H (1984) Participation and the provision of discrete public goods: a strategic analysis. J Public Econ 24: 171–193

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rubinstein A (1980) Strong perfect equilibrium in supergames. Int J Game Theory 9: 1–12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saijo T, Yamato T (1999) A voluntary participation game with a non-excludable public good. J Econ Theory 84: 227–242

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saijo T, Yamato T (2010) Fundamental impossibility theorems on voluntary participation in the provision of non-excludable public goods. Rev Econ Design 14: 51–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shinohara R (2007) Voluntary participation in a mechanism implementing a public project. Staff Paper Series ’07-02, Faculty of Economics, Shinshu University. http://www.shinshu-u.ac.jp/faculty/economics/research/pdf/sp_2007-2.pdf

  • Shinohara R (2009) The possibility of efficient provision of a public good in voluntary participation games. Soc Choice Welf 32: 367–387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker M (1981) A simple incentive compatible scheme for attaining Lindahl allocations. Econometrica 49: 65–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yukihiro Nishimura.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Nishimura, Y., Shinohara, R. A voluntary participation game through a unit-by-unit cost share mechanism of a non-excludable public good. Soc Choice Welf 40, 793–814 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00355-011-0644-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00355-011-0644-0

Keywords

Navigation