Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Field Experiments on Public Goods Provision

为什么个人会进行慈善捐赠，自愿提供公共产品，在社会困境中进行合作，是现代社会的一个重要问题。经济学家、心理学家、社会学家和政治学家对公共产品供应进行了广泛的研究。以前的研究主要是通过经验（历史）数据和实验室实验来研究这些问题。这个项目将使用实地实验来证明社会比较对慈善捐赠的影响。轶事证据表明，向慈善机构捐款的个人非常关心其他人的捐款。这种对他人贡献的关注可能是由于社会比较。这项研究还将实验结果与经验（历史）数据和调查数据相结合，以全面了解个人贡献的原因。现场实验将使用来自公共广播行业和一个宗教团体的数据。它们涉及操纵个人收到的社会比较信息，并检查这些信息对不同个人（例如，新捐赠者与现有捐赠者）和不同环境（例如，通过电话与通过邮件）的影响。这个项目是跨学科的。它考察了社会心理因素（社会比较）对经济行为（公共产品的提供）的影响。因此，它通过确定在这些环境中影响行为的一个重要而未被认识的因素，对行为和实验经济学做出了重要而独特的贡献。该项目将产生多重更广泛的影响。更好地理解合作行为的动机可以帮助非营利组织（和社会）创造社会福利。

Why individuals make charitable contributions, voluntarily provide public goods and cooperate in social dilemmas is an important question in modern society. Extensive research on public goods provision has been conducted by economists, psychologists, sociologists, and political scientists . Previous research has primarily looked at these questions with empirical (historical) data and with laboratory experiments. This project will use field experiments to demonstrate the impact of social comparisons on charitable giving. Anecdotal evidence suggests that individuals donating to charity care deeply about what others are contributing. This concern for what others contribute may be due to social comparisons. This research also combines experimental results with empirical (historical) data and survey data to achieve a complete picture of what makes individuals contribute. The field experiments will use data from the public radio industry and from a religious group. They involve manipulating the social comparison information that individuals receive and examining the impact of that information on different individuals (e.g. new versus existing donors) and in different settings (e.g. via phone versus via mail). The project is interdisciplinary.it examines the impact of a social psychological factor (social comparisons) on economic behavior (provision of public goods). Thus it makes an important and unique contribution to behavioral and experimental economics by identifying an important and unrecognized factor which impacts behavior in these settings. The project will have multiple broader impacts. A better understanding of the motivations for cooperative behavior can help nonprofits (and society) create social welfare.