Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/38859 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
Preprints of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods No. 2010,06
Publisher: 
Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn
Abstract: 
The most famous element in Bentham's theory of punishment, the Panopticon Prison, expresses his view of the two purposes of punishment, deterrence and special prevention. We investigate Bentham's intuition in a public goods lab experiment by manipulating how much information on punishment experienced by others is available to would-be offenders. Compared with the tone that Jeremy Bentham set, our results are non-expected: If would-be offenders learn about contributions and punishment of others at the individual level, they contribute much less to the public project. Our results confirm the special prevention effect but show that the deterrence effect is smaller the more information on individual punishment is available.
Subjects: 
Punishment
Deterrence
Special Prevention
Jeremy Bentham
Experiment
Public Good
JEL: 
C91
H41
K14
K42
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
786.27 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.