Leveling up? An inter-neighborhood experiment on parochialism and the efficiency of multi-level public goods provision

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Carlo Gallier
  • Timo Goeschl
  • Martin Kesternich
  • Johannes Lohse
  • Christiane Reif
  • Daniel Römer

Many public goods can be provided at different spatial levels. Evidence from social identity theory and in-group favoritism raises the possibility that when higher-level provision is more efficient, subjects’ narrow concern for local outcomes could undermine efficiency. Building on the experimental paradigm of multi-level public good games and the concept of “neighborhood attachment,” we conduct an artefactual field experiment with over 600 participants in a setting conducive to routine parochial behavior. In an inter-neighborhood intra-region design, subjects allocate an endowment between a personal, a local, and a regional public good account. The between-subjects design crosses two treatment dimensions: One informs subjects that the smaller local group consists of members from their own neighborhood, while the other varies the relative productivity at the two public goods provision levels. We find evidence for parochialism, but contrary to our hypothesis, parochialism does not interfere with efficiency: The average subject responds to a change in relative productivities at the local and regional levels in the same way, whether they are aware of their neighbors’ presence in the small group or not. The results even hold for subjects with above-median neighborhood attachment and subjects primed on neighborhood attachment.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Volume164
Pages (from-to)500-517
Number of pages18
ISSN0167-2681
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 08.2019
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Financial support by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (FKZ 01UN1204A/C) is gratefully acknowledged. Further details can be obtained from http://kooperationen.zew.de/en/soko/homepage.html.

Funding Information:
Financial support by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research ( FKZ 01UN1204A/C ) is gratefully acknowledged. Further details can be obtained from http://kooperationen.zew.de/en/soko/homepage.html .

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.

    Research areas

  • Artefactual field experiment, Multi-level public goods, Parochialism, Social identity
  • Economics

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Lernsoftware im Unterricht
  2. How can Environmental Management contribute to Shareholder Value?
  3. Tormentil for active ulcerative colitis
  4. Microtomography on biomaterials using the harwi-2 beamline at desy
  5. A Dual Kalman Filter to Identify Parameters of a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor
  6. Conditionality of EU funds: an instrument to enforce EU fundamental values?
  7. Video Game Microtransactions & Loot Boxes - An Empirical Study on the Effectiveness of Social Responsibility Measures
  8. Assessing User Behavior by Mouse Movements
  9. An Integrated Case Study of the Concepts and Applications of SAP ERP HCM
  10. Was gibt´s heute?
  11. Impacts of Multiple Environmental Change Drivers on Growth of European Beech (Fagus sylvatica)
  12. The relationship between acculturation strategies and depressive and anxiety disorders in Turkish migrants in the Netherlands
  13. Predictive modeling in e-mental health
  14. Enforcement concepts and strategies in the EU
  15. Performance measurement systems
  16. Orientations for co-constructing a positive climate for diversity in teaching and learning
  17. Introduction
  18. The theory of socio-cultural evolution
  19. Perceptions of science, science communication, and climate change attitudes in 68 countries - the TISP dataset
  20. Myth and Metaphor
  21. CODA - A Groupbase System For Cooperative Design Applications
  22. Is Code Law? Kritik in Zeiten algorithmischer Gouvernementalität
  23. EVALUATION FORM FOR TRAINEES AS A HUMAN-RESOURCE DATA INSTRUMENT - SUGGESTIONS FOR ITS CONSTRUCTION AND RESULTS OF AN EMPIRICAL-STUDY
  24. Thanking and responding to thanks in American English: Language patterning and contextual appropriateness