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The effect of recommended contributions in the voluntary provision of public goods
Author(s) -
Croson R,
Marks M
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2001.tb00063.x
Subject(s) - public good , homogeneous , economics , public economics , turnover , process (computing) , microeconomics , business , management , physics , computer science , thermodynamics , operating system
Recommended contributions are often observed in fundraising campaigns for charitable and other public goods. We present an experiment investigating the impact of recommended contributions in a voluntary threshold public goods process. We find that when valuations for the public good are heterogeneous, recommended contributions significantly increase the likelihood of efficient provision, although when valuations are homogeneous, the effect of recommendations is less compelling. This article represents a first step in understanding recommended contributions and other nonbinding, cheap‐talk announcements in public goods provision and charitable contributions.