purposes of punishment, deterrence and special prevention. We investigate Bentham’s intuition in a public goods lab experiment … prevention effect but show that the deterrence effect is smaller the more information on individual punishment is available. …The most famous element in Bentham’s theory of punishment, the Panopticon Prison, expresses his view of the two …

) there is preference uncertainty. In a linear public good with punishment meted out by a disinterested participant, I test … two implications of the model: (a) participants increase contributions in reaction to imperfect punishment; (b) imperfect … punishment helps sustain cooperation if participants experience free-riding …

. We therefore complement the field evidence by a lab experiment that isolates the definitional feature of probation: the … less to a joint project; punishment cost is higher; efficiency is lower; inequity is higher. While experimental subjects … themselves do trust the institution less if punishment does not become effective immediately. …

controlled conditions, we have conducted a public goods experiment with central punishment. The authority is neutral – she does … not benefit from contributions to the public good. Punishment is costly. Along with the punishment decisions the authority … writes justifications for her decisions. In the Baseline, authorities are requested to justify punishment decisions, but the …

symmetric and asymmetric punishment regimes for bribery, one may wonder which punishment strategy is more effective in curbing … corruption. For this purpose, we designed and ran a lab experiment in Bonn (Germany) and Shanghai (China) with exactly the same … design. The results show that, in both countries, with symmetric punishment recipients are less likely to grant the socially …

, even if punishment is costly. However, these studies focus on situations where there is no uncertainty about others …' behavior. We investigate punishment in a world with “reasonable doubt” about others' contributions. Interestingly, people … level of a setting without punishment. Our findings suggest that sufficient information accuracy about others' behavior is …

, we adopt an experimental approach to test these claims. We show that the willingness to overcome a dilemma transcends …