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Volunteering in a Large Community

Lookup NU author(s): Simon Vicary

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Abstract

This paper examines the question of individual volunteering to provide a public good in a repeated game when individual decisions are influenced by a social convention. With some qualifications, and in contrast to the presumption of much of the existing literature on the private provision of public goods, it is found that in a large community agents might be more likely to provide the public good, and that this provision will be close to the optimal. Hence the bystander effect, if it exists, is the result of a failure to achieve a suitable social convention.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Vicary S

Publication type: Report

Publication status: Published

Series Title: Working Paper

Year: 2007

Institution: Newcastle University Business School

Place Published: University of Newcastle upon Tyne

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