Should a benevolent government provide public goods if it cannot commit?

I compare two different systems of provision of binary public goods: a centralized system, operated by a benevolent government that has limited commitment power; and a decentralized system, based on voluntary contributions, where agents can communicate but cannot write contracts. I show that any ex‐...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Economic Inquiry Vol. 61; no. 3; pp. 720 - 738
Autor principal: Silva, Francisco
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Wiley-Blackwell Jul2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Should a benevolent government provide public goods if it cannot commit?
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        au: Silva, Francisco
        affil: Department of Economics, Deakin Business School, Burwood Victoria, , Australia
      su:
        Public goods
        Common good
        Public spending
      sug:
        subj:
          Public goods
          Common good
          Public spending
          Public Finance Activities
      keyword:
        commitment power
        communication
        free‐riding
        voluntary provision of public goods
        commitment power
        communication
        free‐riding
        voluntary provision of public goods
      ab: I compare two different systems of provision of binary public goods: a centralized system, operated by a benevolent government that has limited commitment power; and a decentralized system, based on voluntary contributions, where agents can communicate but cannot write contracts. I show that any ex‐post individually rational allocation that is implementable by the centralized system is also implementable by the decentralized system. This suggests that when the public good provision problem is merely an informational one, as is the case with binary public goods, a decentralized system may perform better.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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