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

个人为什么做出慈善贡献、自愿提供公共产品、在社会困境中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的提供进行了广泛的研究。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。这个项目将使用现场实验来演示社会比较对慈善捐赠的影响。坊间证据表明，向慈善机构捐款的个人非常关心其他人的贡献。这种对他人贡献的担忧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，以全面了解个人的贡献。实地实验将使用公共无线电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(例如新捐赠者和现有捐赠者)以及在不同环境中(例如通过电话和通过邮件)的影响。该项目是跨学科的。它考察了社会心理因素(社会比较)对经济行为(提供公共产品)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，对行为经济学和实验经济学做出了重要而独特的贡献。该项目将产生多个更广泛的影响。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.