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Browsing Articles by Subject "Anonymity"

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    Anonymity, reciprocity, and conformity: Evidence from voluntary contributions to a national park in Costa Rica
    (Springer, 2008) Alpizar, Francisco; Carlsson, Fredrik; Johansson-Stenman, Olof; Alpizar, F. Environment for Development Center, Tropical Agricultural and Higher Education Center (CATIE), 7170, Turrialba, Costa Rica
    We investigate the role of anonymity, reciprocity, and conformity for voluntary contributions, based on a natural field experiment conducted at a national park in Costa Rica. Contributions made in public in front of the solicitor are 25% higher than contributions made in private. Giving subjects a small gift before requesting a contribution increases the likelihood of a positive contribution. At the same time, the conditional contribution decreases. The total effect of giving a gift is positive but small, and taking the cost of the gift into account, it is far from profitable. When the subjects are told that the typical contribution of others is $2 (a small contribution), the probability of a contribution increases and the conditional contribution decreases, compared with providing no reference information. Providing a high reference level ($10) increases the conditional contributions. Overall, the total effects have the expected signs, although the magnitudes are smaller than what one might have expected based on existing evidence from laboratory experiments.
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    Does context matter more for hypothetical than for actual contributions? Evidence from a natural field experiment
    (Springer, 2008) Alpizar, Francisco; Carlsson, Fredrik; Johansson-Stenman, Olof; Alpizar, F. Environment for Development Center, Tropical Agricultural and Higher Education Center (CATIE), 7170, Turrialba, Costa Rica
    We investigated the importance of the social context for people’s voluntary contributions to a national park in Costa Rica, using a natural field experiment. Some subjects make actual contributions while others state their hypothetical contribution. Both the degree of anonymity and information provided about the contributions of others influence subject contributions in the hypothesized direction. We found a substantial hypothetical bias with regard to the amount contributed. However, the influence of the social contexts is about the same when the subjects make actual monetary contributions as when they state their hypothetical contributions. Our results have important implications for validity testing of stated preference methods: a comparison between hypothetical and actual behavior should be done for a given social context.