This paper proposes a simple two-stage mechanism to establish positive contributions to public goods in the absence of powerful institutions to provide the public good and to sanction free-riders. In this mechanism players commit to the public good by paying a deposit prior to the contribution...

This paper considers the endogenous formation of an institution to provide a public good. If the institution governs only its members, players have an incentive to free ride on the institution formation of others and the social dilemma is simply shifted to a higher level. Addressing this...

This paper investigates the effectiveness of two instruments designed to defer termination in the centipede game: an insurance against termination by the opponent, and an option to offer the opponent a bonus for not terminating the game. The rational prediction in both cases is passing until...

The provision of public goods is often hindered by a lack of powerful institutions that can sanction free riders or otherwise enforce private contributions to the public good. The simple deposit based solution introduced by Gerber and Wichardt (J Public Econ 93:429–439, <CitationRef CitationID="CR11">2009</CitationRef>) solves this...</citationref>