COMMUNICATION and FREE‐RIDING BEHAVIOR: THE VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION MECHANISM

Abstract

We examine experimentally the role of active communication as a mechanism for improving economic efficiency in a voluntary contribution public goods environment. With no communication this environment has been shown to induce significant subop‐timality, approaching zero contributions with iteration of the decision environment. Communication is shown to improve group optimality significantly. We examine the robustness of our results in increasingly complex environments and in environments in which there has been a history of communication but active communication is no longer available.