Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/185591 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper No. TI 2018-072/II
Publisher: 
Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam and Rotterdam
Abstract: 
In many real-life situations people face a simple decision whether to volunteer or not to provide some benefit for themselves and also for others. This research investigates the effects of the group size and the magnitude of the volunteering cost in a controlled large-scale laboratory experiment, where subjects play the volunteer’s dilemma only once. The experiment varies group sizes ranging from groups of 3 to about 100, and 2 different cost/benefit ratios. Results show that high cost reduces volunteering probability only in the smallest groups, but not for other group sizes. Furthermore, non-monotonic group size effect is found on the individual volunteering decisions. These findings are not in line with the mixed-strategy Nash equilibrium prediction. Subjects volunteer more often in most treatments than the Nash prediction which benefits them on average compared to the Nash prediction.
Subjects: 
Volunteer's dilemma
coordination
group size
large-scale experiment
JEL: 
C72
C92
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
583.68 kB





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