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Volunteering under Population Uncertainty

Author

Listed:
  • Adrian Hillenbrand

    (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods)

  • Fabian Winter

    (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods)

Abstract
There is ample evidence that the number of players can have an important impact on the cooperation and coordination behavior of people facing social dilemmas. With extremely few exceptions, the literature on cooperation assumes common knowledge about who is a player and how many players are involved in a certain situation. In this paper, we argue that this assumption is overly restrictive, and not even very common in real-world cooperation problems. We show theoretically and experimentally that uncertainty about the number of players in a Volunteer's Dilemma increases cooperation compared to a situation with a certain number of players. We identify additional behavioral mechanisms amplifying and impairing the effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Adrian Hillenbrand & Fabian Winter, 2017. "Volunteering under Population Uncertainty," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2017_12, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    • Handle: RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2017_12
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Campos-Mercade, Pol, 2022. "When are groups less moral than individuals?," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 20-36.
    2. Shakun D. Mago & Jennifer Pate, 2023. "Greed and fear: Competitive and charitable priming in a threshold volunteer's dilemma," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(1), pages 138-161, January.
    3. Kopányi-Peuker, Anita, 2019. "Yes, I’ll do it: A large-scale experiment on the volunteer’s dilemma," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 211-218.
    4. Campos-Mercade, Pol, 2021. "The volunteer’s dilemma explains the bystander effect," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 646-661.
    5. Adrian Hillenbrand & Tobias Werner & Fabian Winter, 2020. "Volunteering at the Workplace under Incomplete Information: Teamsize Does Not Matter," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2020_04, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    6. Hillenbrand, Adrian & Werner, Tobias & Winter, Fabian, 2022. "Willingness to volunteer among remote workers is insensitive to the team size," ZEW Discussion Papers 22-050, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Kloosterman, Andrew & Mago, Shakun, 2023. "The infinitely repeated volunteer's dilemma: An experimental study," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 812-832.
    8. Frédéric Koessler & Marieke Pahlke, 2023. "Feedback Design in Strategic-Form Games with Ambiguity Averse Players," Working Papers halshs-04039083, HAL.
    9. Andrew J. Healy & Jennifer G. Pate, 2018. "Cost asymmetry and incomplete information in a volunteer’s dilemma experiment," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 51(3), pages 465-491, October.
    10. Ennio Bilancini & Leonardo Boncinelli & Lorenzo Spadoni, 2020. "Motivating Risky Choices Increases Risk Taking," Working Papers CESARE 1/2020, Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, LUISS Guido Carli.
    11. Wang, Tse-Min & Heine, Florian & van Witteloostuijn, Arjen, 2023. "Pro-social risk-taking and intergroup conflict: A volunteer's dilemma experiment," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 363-379.
    12. Brishti Guha, 2020. "Revisiting the volunteer's dilemma: group size and public good provision in the presence of some ambiguity aversion," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(2), pages 1308-1318.
    13. Werner, Tobias & Hillenbrand, Adrian & Winter, Fabian, 2020. "Volunteering at the Workplace under Incomplete Information: Team Size Does Not Matter," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224519, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior

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