American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Announcements of Support and Public Good Provision
American Economic Review
vol. 107,
no. 12, December 2017
(pp. 3760–87)
Abstract
Providing information about contributions to public goods is known to generate further contributions. However, it is often impossible to provide verifiable information on contributions. Through a large-scale field experiment and a series of laboratory experiments, I show that nonbinding announcements of support for a public good encourage others to contribute, even when actual contributions might not or cannot be made. Providing a way to easily announce support for a charity increases donations by $865 per workplace fundraising campaign (or 16 percent of average giving). I discuss implications for understanding prosocial behavior and for organizations aiming to increase contributions to public goods.Citation
Kessler, Judd B. 2017. "Announcements of Support and Public Good Provision." American Economic Review, 107 (12): 3760–87. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20130711Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- C93 Field Experiments
- D64 Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
- D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
- H41 Public Goods
- L31 Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship