Privately Provided Public Goods: A Theoretical, Econometricand Experimental Study of Cooperation

这项研究的目的是研究为支持私人提供的公共产品而进行的捐赠，比如对慈善机构的支持。该项目将需要发展适当的理论模型、计量经济学分析和实验室实验。这项研究的动机是最近的研究表明，经典的搭便车假说不足以描述观察到的行为。理论工作考察了一个通用模型，其中包括私人和公共物品的捐赠动机。它强调对政策采取一般均衡方法是必要的。计量经济学研究在理论研究的基础上，提出了慈善捐赠的空间自回归研究。这种技术将解释偏好的相互依赖性，并将允许对理论假设进行测试。实验室实验的目的是测试关于搭便车发生的时间和原因的其他假设。在过去的十年里，关于私人提供的公共产品的理论、计量经济学和实验研究越来越多。公共产品的标准观点是，如果让个人提供，私人提供的数量将少于理想的数量，因此政府必须提供这些产品以达到社会最优。然而，研究人员惊讶地发现，在提供某些类型的公共产品时，个人之间有相当多的合作，比如慈善捐赠。这个项目包括三个方面的方法，包括发展更好的理论，给予行为的统计分析，以及研究合作行为的实验室实验。这三种不同方法的基本主题是，传统的公共物品理论不能充分解释观察到的私人捐赠行为。这项研究很重要，因为它将有助于解释有关慈善捐赠的已知事实，从而为政策分析提供更好的框架。该项目还将开发新的方法来衡量税收和补贴对捐赠行为的影响。

The purpose of this research is to study giving for the support of privately provided public goods, like the support of charities. The project will entail the development of appropriate theoretical models, econometric analysis, and laboratory experiments. This research is motivated by recent studies showing that the classical free rider hypothesis is insufficient for describing observed behavior. The theoretical work examines a general model that includes both private and public goods motives for giving. It stresses that a general equilibrium approach to policy is necessary. The econometric research follows from the theoretical work by proposing a spatial autoregressive study of charitable giving. This technique will account for the interdependence of preferences, and will permit tests of the theoretical hypotheses. The laboratory experiments are designed to test alternative hypotheses about when and why free riding occurs. %%% Over the past ten years there has been a growing body of theoretical, econometric, and experimental work on privately provided public goods. The standard view of public goods is that if left to individuals to supply, a less than desirable amount will be privately provided, and thus government must supply these goods to attain a social optimum. However, researchers have been surprised that there is a considerable amount of cooperation among individuals in supplying certain types of public goods, as in the case of charitable giving. This project involves a three pronged approach involving the development of better theory, statistical analysis of giving behavior, and laboratory experiments studying cooperative behavior. The underlying theme of these three different approaches is that the traditional theory of public goods does not adequately explain observed behavior of private giving. This research is important because it will help explain known facts about charitable giving and, hence, provide a better framework for policy analysis. The project will also develop new methods for measuring the effects of taxes and subsidies on giving behavior.