Privately Contributing to Public Goods over Time¤- An Experimental Study

Similar to Levati and Neugebauer (2001), a clock is used by which participantscan vary their individual contributions for voluntarily providing apublic good. As time goes by, participants either in(de)crease their contributiongradually or keep it constant. Groups of two poorly and two richlyendowed participants encounter repeatedly the weakest link-, the usualaverage contribution- and the best shot-technology of public good provisionin a within subject-design. Some striking findings are that the weakestlink-technology fares much better than the other two technologies in termsof welfare, and that the willingness of people to voluntarily contribute isgreatly affected by the (increasing or decreasing) clock mechanism.