Doctoral Dissertation Research: Discounting the Future in Strategic Interactions in a Heterogeneous Population

以种族和社会认同的其他维度为形式的多样性增加与公共产品供应的减少有关（Easterly和Levine, 1997; Alesina et.al, 2003）。然而，大多数研究都没有考虑到公共产品提供中隐含的时间维度，即通常是现在发生的成本和后来获得的公共产品的收益。除了Deck和Jahedi（2011）研究了竞争环境中的折扣行为之外，越来越多的文献研究了个人决策中的跨期选择，但很少有研究提供经验证据，证明个人如何在战略互动中做出跨期选择。在本项目中，合作项目将研究：1)在未来实现福利时，福利的时机如何影响自愿捐款，包括对他人如何贴现未来的预期是否会影响决策；2)捐款的时机如何影响自愿捐款；3)在战略性的、社会异质性的环境中，个人如何贴现公共产品的未来供应。为了解决这些问题，本研究采用了一种新颖的实验设计，该设计改变了(a)自愿捐赠机制（VCM）游戏中从公共物品和私人消费中获得收益的时间，(b)自愿捐赠机制游戏中向公共物品捐款的时间，以及(c)公共物品游戏中参与者的社会异质性，这是基于他们与学生文化组织的关系。就更广泛的影响而言，这项研究将有助于阐明社会距离、时间偏好及其在公共产品提供中的相互作用。实证研究结果从行为上揭示了时间和社会偏好在集体行动情景中的作用，这将有助于解释当异质群体相互作用以提供具有延迟利益的公共产品时不合作的机制。此外，除了具有战略成分的其他跨期选择外，这种调查的结果还可以为许多政策和现实生活中的决定提供信息。研究结果将对关心跨期选择和提供公共产品的学者和决策者有意义。

Increased diversity, in the form of ethnicity and other dimensions of social identity, is associated with decreased provision of public goods (Easterly and Levine, 1997; Alesina et.al, 2003). Most studies, however, do not consider the implicitly embedded temporal dimension in the provision of public goods, i.e. often the costs are incurred now and the benefits from the public good received later. While a voluminous and growing literature investigates intertemporal choices in individual decisions, other than Deck and Jahedi (2011) - who examine discounting behavior in a competitive environment - there is little research providing empirical evidence on how individuals make intertemporal choices in strategic interactions. In this project the co-PI will address: 1) how the timing of benefits affects voluntary contributions when the benefits are realized in the future, including whether expectation of how others' discount the future influences decision-making, 2) how the timing of contributions affects voluntary contributions, and 3) how individuals discount future provision of public goods in strategic, socially heterogeneous environments. To address these questions, the study employs a novel experimental design that varies (a) the timing of benefits received from public goods and from private consumption in a Voluntary Contribution Mechanism (VCM) game, (b) the timing of contributions towards public goods in the VCM game, and c) the social heterogeneity of participants in the public goods game based on their affiliation with student cultural organizations.In terms of broader impacts, this research will help shed light on the roles of social distance, temporal preferences and their interactions in the provision of public goods. Empirical findings that behaviorally unpack the role of time and social preferences in collective action scenarios will contribute to explaining the mechanisms of non-cooperation when heterogeneous populations interact to provide public goods with delayed benefits. Furthermore, the findings of such a line of inquiry could inform many policy and real-life decisions, in addition to other intertemporal choices that have a strategic component to them. Study findings will be of relevance to scholars and policy-makers concerned with intertemporal choice and the provision of public goods.