When future cash flows and the lives of capital projects are known, the optimal solution is usually one of choosing the project that maximizes net present value of future returns on the project. In many situations, however, the information needed for cost-benefit analysis is not known with...

This paper studies the mechanism that a profit-making principal should adopt to provide a discrete public good when the values of the consumers are their private information and their participation is voluntary. The free-riding issue is resolved through threatened nonprovision of the good by the...