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Provision of step-level public goods: Effects of different information structures

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Abstract

We report the results of two experiments on social dilemmas in which each of n players receives an endowment and then decides privately whether to contribute it for the provision of a monetary public good. The good is provided if and only if at least m group members contribute. Decisions are made sequentially. We present and then test an equilibrium model under two different information conditions in which players are informed of 1) the previous decisions in the sequence; 2) either the number of previous contributions or the number of previous non-contributions. When the equilibrium solution yields unique predictions, most of the subjects behaved in accordance with it.

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© 1984 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg

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Rapoport, A., Erev, I. (1984). Provision of step-level public goods: Effects of different information structures. In: Schulz, U., Albers, W., Mueller, U. (eds) Social Dilemmas and Cooperation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-78860-4_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-78860-4_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-78862-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-78860-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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