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

以种族和社会认同的其他层面的形式增加的多样性与公共产品的提供减少有关(Easterly和Levine，1997；Alesina et.al，2003)。然而，大多数研究没有考虑公共产品提供中隐含的时间维度，也就是说，通常成本是现在发生的，公共产品的收益是以后获得的。除了Deck和Jahedi(2011)--他们研究了竞争环境中的贴现行为--之外，有大量且不断增长的文献研究了个人决策中的跨期选择，但很少有研究提供实证证据来说明个人如何在战略互动中做出跨期选择。在这个项目中，共同PI将讨论：1)在未来实现福利时，福利的发放时间如何影响自愿捐款，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；以及3)个人如何在战略性的社会异质环境中贴现未来提供的公共产品。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)在自愿捐款机制(VCM)博弈中从公共物品和私人消费中获得利益的时间，(B)在自愿捐款机制(VCM)博弈中向公共物品捐款的时机，以及c)公共物品博弈参与者的社会异质性，基于他们与学生文化组织的联系。从更广泛的影响来看，本研究将有助于揭示社会距离、时间偏好及其相互作用在公共物品提供中的作用。从行为上揭示时间和社会偏好在集体行动情景中的作用的经验发现，将有助于解释不同群体相互作用以提供具有延迟利益的公共产品时的不合作机制。此外，这一系列调查的结果可能会为许多政策和现实生活中的决策提供参考，以及其他具有战略意义的跨期选择。研究结果将对关注跨期选择和提供公共产品的学者和政策制定者具有重要意义。

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.