Abstract
We explore by purely experimental means a heterogeneous agents scenario in experimental public goods games, assuming the existence of at least three types of player: free riders, cooperators, and reciprocators. We identify the various types by means of four classification methods, and then play the public goods game with homogeneous groups. We observe that (eq1) the average contribution level is enhanced in this setting; (2) the decay phenomenon is replicated in groups of ‘pure’ free riders, whereas in groups of cooperative and reciprocating players the contribution is high and fairly stable throughout the game.
References
Anderson, S.P., Goeree, J.K., and Holt, C.A. (1998). “A Theoretical Analysis of Altruism and Decision Error in Public Goods Games.” Journal of Public Economics. 70, 297–323.
Andreoni, J. (1988). “Why Free Ride? Strategies and Learning in Public Goods Experiments.” Journal of Public Economics. 37, 291–304.
Andreoni, J. (1995a). “Warm Glow vs. Cold Prickle: The Effects of Positive and Negative Framing on Cooperation in Experiments.” Quarterly Journal of Economics. 110, 1–21.
Andreoni, J. (1995b). “Cooperation in Public Goods Experiments: Kindness or Confusion?” American Economic Review. 85, 891–904.
Andreoni, J. and Miller, J. (2002). “Giving According to GARP: An Experimental Test of the Consistency of Preferences for Altruism.” Econometrica. 70, 737–753.
Brandts, J. and Schram, A. (2001). “Cooperation and Noise in Public Goods Experiments: Applying the Contribution Function Approach.” Journal of Public Economics. 79, 399–427.
Burlando, R.M. and Hey, J.D. (1997). “Do Anglo-Saxons Free Ride More?” Journal of Public Economics, 64. 41–60.
Burlando, R.M. and Webley, P. (1999). “Individual Differences and Long-run Equilibria in a Public Good Experiment.” In Inquiries into the Nature and Causes of Behavior: Proceedings of the 24th IAREP Annual Colloquium. Belgirate: Italy.
Charness, G. and Rabin, M. (2002). “Understanding Social Preferences with Simple Tests.” Quarterly Journal of Economics. 117, 817–869.
Dufwenberg, M. and Kirchsteiger, G. (2004). “A Theory of Sequential Reciprocity.” Games and Economic Behavior. 47, 268–298.
Ehrhart, K.M. and Keser, C. (1999). “Mobility and Cooperation: On the Run.” Working Paper 99s-24. CIRANO, Montreal.
Falk, A. and Fischbacher, U. (2000). “A Theory of Reciprocity.” Working Paper no. 6. Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich.
Fehr, E. and Fishbacher, U. (2002). “Why Social Preferences Matter–-The Impact of Non-selfish Motives on Competition, Cooperation and Incentives.” Economic Journal. 112, C1–C33.
Fehr, E. and Gachter, S. (2000). “Cooperation and Punishment in Public Goods Experiments.” American Economic Review. 90, 980–994.
Fischbacher, U., Gächter, S., and Fehr, E. (2001). “Are People Conditionally Cooperative? Evidence from a Public Goods Experiment.” Economics Letters. 71, 397–404.
Gächter, S. and Thöni, C. (2005). “Social Learning and Voluntary Cooperation among Like-minded People.” Journal of the European Economic Association. 3, forthcoming.
Goeree, J. K. and Holt, C.A. (2002). “Private Costs and Public Benefits: Unravelling the Effects of Altruism and Noisy Behavior.” Journal of Public Economics. 83, 257–278.
Griesinger, D.W. and Livingston, J.W. (1973). “Towards a Model of Interpersonal Motivation in Experimental Games.” Behavioral Science. 18, 173–188.
Heckman, J.J. (2001a). “Accounting for Heterogeneity, Diversity and General Equilibrium in Evaluating Social Programmes.”Economic Journal. 111, F654–F699.
Heckman, J.J. (2001b). “Microdata, Heterogeneity, and the Evaluation of Public Policy.” Journal of Political Economy. 109, 673–748.
Houser, D. and Kurzban, R. (2002). “Revisiting Kindness and Confusion in Public Goods Experiments.” American Economic Review. 92, 1062–1069.
Isaac, R. M., Walker, J.M., and Thomas, S.H. (1984). “Divergent Evidence on Free Riding: An Experimental Examination of Possible Explanations.” Public Choice. 43, 113–149.
Johnson, D.W. and Norem-Hebeisen, A.A. (1979). “A Measure of Cooperative, Competitive and Individualistic Attitudes.” Journal of Social Psychology. 109, 253–261.
Kelley, H. and Stahelski, A. (1970). “Social Interaction Basis of Cooperators’ and Competitors’ Beliefs About Others.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 16, 66–91.
Keser, C. (1996). “Voluntary Contributions to a Public Good When Partial Contribution is a Dominant Strategy.” Economics Letters. 50, 359–366.
Ledyard, J.O. (1995). “Public Goods: A Survey of Experimental Research.” In J. Kagel and A. Roth (eds.), The Handbook of Experimental Economics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Levine, D. (1998). “Modelling Altruism and Spitefulness in Experiments.” Review of Economic Dynamics. 1, 593–622.
Liebrand, W.B.G. (1984). “The Effect of Social Motives, Communication and Group Size on Behavior in an N-person Multi-stage Mixed-motive Game.” European Journal of Social Psychology. 14, 239– 264.
Offerman, T., Sonnemans, J., and Schram, A. (1996). “Value Orientations, Expectations, and Voluntary Contributions in Public Goods.” Economic Journal. 106, 817–845.
Page, T., Putterman, L., and Unel. B. (2002). “Voluntary Association in Public Goods Experiments: Reciprocity, Mimicry, and Efficiency.” Unpublished paper, Brown University.
Palfrey, T.R. and Prisbey, J.E. (1996). “Altruism, Reputation and Noise in Linear Public Goods Experiments.” Journal of Public Economics. 61, 409–427.
Palfrey, T.R. and Prisbey, J.E. (1997). “Anomalous Behavior in Public Goods Experiments: How Much and Why?” American Economic Review. 87, 829–846.
Plott, C.R. (1996). “Rational Individual Behaviour in Markets and Social Choice Processes: The Discovered Preference Hypothesis.” In K.J. Arrow, E. Colombatto, M. Perlman and C. Schmidt (eds.), The Rational Foundations of Economic Behaviour. London: Macmillan.
Rabin, M. (1993). “Incorporating Fairness into Game Theory and Economics.” American Economic Review. 83, 1281–302.
Rushton, J.P. (1980). Altruism, Socialisation and Society. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Sugden, R. (1984). “Reciprocity: The Supply of Public Goods Through Voluntary Contributions.” Economic Journal. 94, 772–787.
Webley, P., Burgoigne, C., Lea, S.E.G., and Young, B. (2001). The Economic Psychology of Everyday Life. Philadelphia: Psychology Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The experiments reported in this paper were financed by the Cognitive Science Laboratory and the Computational and Experimental Economics Laboratory of the University of Trento. We would like to thank Marco Tecilla, Macrina Marchesin and Dino Parisi for their help in running the experiments, and Luigi Mittone, director of CEEL, for letting us use the laboratory’s resources. Paul Webley, Robert Moir, seminar participants at the Universities of Pisa and Trento, Charles Holt and two anonymous referees provided very useful comments on a previous draft.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Burlando, R.M., Guala, F. Heterogeneous Agents in Public Goods Experiments. Exp Econ 8, 35–54 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-005-0436-4
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-005-0436-4