When Governments Increase Their Funding of Public Goods, How Do Individuals Respond?
Kotchen, Matthew J. and Katherine R.H. Wagner
from ARE Update Vol. 25, No. 5, May/Jun, 2022
Abstract
We discuss how standard public goods theory can explain a wider range of individual responses to changes in government funding of public goods than the literature suggests. For example, increases in volunteerism in national parks in response to increases in public parks funding are consistent with volunteers obtaining private benefits, such as park enjoyment, and contributing to environmental conservation within the model of “impure altruism.”
Keywords
Public goods, conservation, impure altruism, national parks, volunteerism
Citation
Kotchen, Matthew J. and Katherine R.H. Wagner. 2022. "When Governments Increase Their Funding of Public Goods, How Do Individuals Respond?" ARE Update 25(5): 9-11. University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics.
https://giannini.ucop.edu/filer/file/1656364114/20446/