People belong to many different groups, and few belong to the same network of groups. Moreover, people routinely reduce their involvement in dysfunctional groups while increasing involvement in those they find more attractive. The net effect can be an increase in overall cooperation and the partial isolation of free-riders, even if free-riders are never punished, excluded, or recognized. We test this conjecture with a multi-good extension of the standard finitely repeated public goods game. Our results from four treatments suggest that the multi-group setting indeed raises overall cooperation and dampens the impact of free-riders.
","abstract_html":"<p>People belong to many different groups, and few belong to the same network of groups. Moreover, people routinely reduce their involvement in dysfunctional groups while increasing involvement in those they find more attractive. The net effect can be an increase in overall cooperation and the partial isolation of free-riders, even if free-riders are never punished, excluded, or recognized. We test this conjecture with a multi-good extension of the standard finitely repeated public goods game. Our results from four treatments suggest that the multi-group setting indeed raises overall cooperation and dampens the impact of free-riders.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Berman, Aaron S."],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science (MS)","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Behavioral and Computational Economics","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Laurence Iannaccone","Stephen Rassenti","David Porter"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2024,"date_issued":"2024-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2024-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:38:37Z","subjects":["experiment","public goods game","cooperation","multi-group","Behavioral Economics"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/behavioral_and_computational_economics_theses/4","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Laurence Iannaccone","Stephen Rassenti","David Porter"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Berman, Aaron S."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Behavioral and Computational Economics"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science (MS)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["experiment","public goods game","cooperation","multi-group","Behavioral Economics"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/behavioral_and_computational_economics_theses/4"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["People belong to many different groups, and few belong to the same network of groups. Moreover, people routinely reduce their involvement in dysfunctional groups while increasing involvement in those they find more attractive. The net effect can be an increase in overall cooperation and the partial isolation of free-riders, even if free-riders are never punished, excluded, or recognized. We test this conjecture with a multi-good extension of the standard finitely repeated public goods game. Our results from four treatments suggest that the multi-group setting indeed raises overall cooperation and dampens the impact of free-riders.
"]},{"key":"dc:source","label":"Dc Source","values":["Berman, A. S. (2024). A multi-group public goods game experiment Master's thesis, Chapman University]. Chapman University Digital Commons. https://doi.org/10.36837/chapman.000598"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A Multi-Group Public Goods Game Experiment"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Laurence Iannaccone","Stephen Rassenti","David Porter"],"dc:creator":["Berman, Aaron S."],"dc:description.abstract":["People belong to many different groups, and few belong to the same network of groups. Moreover, people routinely reduce their involvement in dysfunctional groups while increasing involvement in those they find more attractive. The net effect can be an increase in overall cooperation and the partial isolation of free-riders, even if free-riders are never punished, excluded, or recognized. We test this conjecture with a multi-good extension of the standard finitely repeated public goods game. Our results from four treatments suggest that the multi-group setting indeed raises overall cooperation and dampens the impact of free-riders.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/behavioral_and_computational_economics_theses/4"],"dc:source":["Berman, A. S. (2024). A multi-group public goods game experiment Master's thesis, Chapman University]. Chapman University Digital Commons. https://doi.org/10.36837/chapman.000598"],"dc:subject":["experiment","public goods game","cooperation","multi-group","Behavioral Economics"],"dc:title":["A Multi-Group Public Goods Game Experiment"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Behavioral and Computational Economics"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science (MS)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:38:37Z"}