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| Katerina Sherstyuk, Oliver Hill, Malcolm Dowling and Leanne Ma |
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| ''Altruism and voluntary provision of public goods'' |
| ( 2002, Vol. 3 No.31 ) |
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| We study how people's predisposition towards altruism affects their behavior in a voluntary contributions public good experiment. We investigate whether a high level of contributions can be sustained in groups of subjects who have been pre-selected on the basis of their altruistic inclinations. In the first stage of the experiment, each subject responds to a psychology questionnaire that measures various dimensions of one''s personality. The subjects are then matched in groups according to their altruism scores, and engage in a voluntary contributions game. We consider whether the levels and dynamics of group contributions differ significantly between the groups with altruists and non-altruists. We find that subjects'' altruism has only a weak positive effect on group behavior in the public good game. |
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| Keywords: Altruism |
JEL: C9 - Design of Experiments: General
H4 - Publicly Provided Goods: General |
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| Manuscript Received : Dec 17 2002 | | Manuscript Accepted : Dec 18 2002 |
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