The second-order dilemma of public goods arises from individuals' incentive to free ride on a mechanism to solve the provision problem (first-order dilemma) of public goods. Without relying on social and behavioral arguments, we show by a voluntary participation game that the accumulation of...

Centralized sanctioning institutions are of utmost importance for overcoming free-riding tendencies and enforcing outcomes that maximize group welfare in social dilemma situations. However, little is known about how such institutions come into existence. In this paper we investigate, both...

We consider how public goods can be provided and accumulated over generations of self-interested individuals in the absence of a government authority. A dynamic voluntary participation game is presented to analyze interrelations among group formation, accumulation and population change. We show...