Voluntary Provision of a Public Good: Results from a Real World Experiment.

According to the standard economic theory, voluntary provision of a public good is, at least in large group settings, hampered by people's presumed free-rider disposition. In this paper, actual behavior of individuals in a nonhypothetical situation with large group characteristics is subjected to empirical testing as regards the validity of the neoclassical claim. In the case under consideration, the citizens of a municipality indeed overcome the free-rider problem by voluntarily contributing on a large scale. It is found that economic factors, such as avoiding individual losses, are important motivations but political and other reasons also play a crucial role. Copyright 1994 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG