Does heterogeneity spoil the basket? The role of productivity and feedback information on public good provision

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics
Year: 2018
Volume: 77
Issue: C
Pages: 40-49

Score contribution per author:

0.402 = (α=2.01 / 5 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

In a circular neighborhood of eight, each member contributes repeatedly to two local public goods, one with the left and one with the right neighbor. All eight two-person games provide only local feedback information and are structurally independent in spite of their overlapping player sets. Heterogeneity is induced intra-personally by asymmetric productivity in left and right games and inter-personally by two randomly selected group members who are less privileged (LP) by being either less productive or excluded from end-of-period feedback information about their payoffs and neighbors’ contributions. Although both LP-types let the neighborhood as a whole evolve less cooperatively, their spillover dynamics differ. While less productive LPs initiate “spoiling the basket” via their low contributions, LPs with no-end-of-round information are exploited by their neighbors. Furthermore, LP-positioning, closest versus most distant, affects how the neighborhood evolves.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:soceco:v:77:y:2018:i:c:p:40-49
Journal Field
Experimental
Author Count
5
Added to Database
2026-01-24