Income Redistribution and Public Good Provision: An Experiment

Jonathan Maurice, Agathe Rouaix, Marc Willinger

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We experimentally investigate the impact of income redistribution on voluntary contributions by groups of four subjects. We compare equalizing and unequalizing redistribution. Our data are consistent with the neutrality theorem: Redistribution does not affect the amount of voluntarily provided public good at the group level. However, at the individual level, subjects tend to underadjust with respect to the Nash prediction. We also observe an insignificant adjustment asymmetry between the poor and the rich: Subjects who become poorer adjust their contribution by a larger absolute amount than subjects who become richer. Finally, poor subjects tend to overcontribute significantly more than rich subjects.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)957-975
Number of pages18
JournalInternational Economic Review
Volume54
Issue number3
Early online date17 Jul 2013
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2013

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