Abstract
We present a model of altruistically-minded—yet rational—players contributing to a public good. A key feature is the tension between altruism and crowding-out effects. We present three main results: (1) More altruistic behaviour often reduces social welfare; (2) It is almost always optimal for a player to act more selfishly than her true preference; (3) A player’s optimal altruistic commitment is often low or zero—even with strongly altruistic preferences. Applications to a range of public good problems, including climate policy, are discussed. Our results highlight that it will generally be difficult to infer social preferences from observed behaviour.
Reproductive Health Care
What Trump and Harris mean for global reproductive health and rights
