Conformity and reciprocity in public good provision

Bardsley, Nicholas and Sausgrueber, Rupert (2005) Conformity and reciprocity in public good provision. Journal of Economic Psychology, 26 (5), 664-681. (doi:10.1016/j.joep.2005.02.001).

Abstract

People contribute more to experimental public goods the more others contribute, a tendency called “crowding-in.” We propose a novel experimental design to distinguish two possible causes of crowding-in: reciprocity, the usual explanation, and conformity, a neglected alternative. Subjects are given the opportunity to react to contributions of a payoff-irrelevant group, in addition to their own group. We find evidence of conformity, accounting for roughly 1/3 of crowding-in.

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