When does less information translate into more giving to public goods?
When does less information translate into more giving to public goods?
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DOI：
10.1007/s10683-020-09643-1
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发表时间：
2020-02-07
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Krasteva, Silvana
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Aksoy, Billur;Krasteva, Silvana
本文从理论和实验两个方面研究了信息提供对人均边际收益不确定的线性公共产品的自愿贡献的影响。不知情的捐助者仅根据预期的中期PCR（即事先分配）作出捐助决定，而知情的捐助者在捐助前观察已实现的中期PCR。理论分析预测，信息对平均贡献的影响主要取决于人口的慷慨程度，建模为亲社会偏好的随机变化。特别是，慷慨程度较低的人口在听到中期PCR高于预期的好消息时，会大幅增加捐款，而在听到中期PCR低于预期的坏消息时，会相对较少地减少捐款。对于更慷慨的人口来说，情况正好相反。因此，该理论预测，当人口不那么（更）慷慨时，信息提供会增加（减少）平均贡献。这一预测在两阶段实验室实验中得到了有力的支持。第一阶段使用在线实验测量受试者在公益游戏中的慷慨程度。由此产生的措施是用来创建更多和更少的慷慨群体在公共产品实验室的实验，这不同的信息提供给这些群体在实验室。研究结果与理论预测一致，表明向不太慷慨的群体提供有针对性的信息可能比统一的信息提供更有利于公共利益贡献。
This paper theoretically and experimentally investigates the impact of information provision on voluntary contributions to a linear public good with an uncertain marginal per-capita return (MPCR). Uninformed donors make contribution decisions based only on the expected MPCR (i.e. the prior distribution), while informed donors observe the realized MPCR before contributing. The theoretical analysis predicts that the impact of information on average contributions crucially depends on the generosity level of the population, modeled as a stochastic change in the pro-social preferences. In particular, a less generous population increases contributions substantially in response to good news of higher than expected MPCR and reduces contributions relatively little in response to bad news of lower than expected MPCR. The opposite is true for a more generous population. Thus, the theory predicts that information provision increases (reduces) average contributions when the population is less (more) generous. This prediction finds strong support in a two-stage lab experiment. The first stage measures subjects' generosity in the public good game using an online experiment. The resulting measure is used to create more and less generous groups in the public good lab experiment, which varies the information provided to these groups in the lab. The findings are in line with the theoretical predictions, suggesting that targeted information provision to less generous groups may be more beneficial for public good contributions than uniform information provision.