GROUP-SIZE AND THE VOLUNTARY PROVISION OF PUBLIC-GOODS - EXPERIMENTAL-EVIDENCE UTILIZING LARGE GROUPS

New experimental evidence extending the investigation of free-riding b ehavior in public goods provision is presented. Procedures are develop ed to deal with the logistical problems inherent in experiments involv ing many subjects. Data from Voluntary Contribution Mechanism experime nts are reported utilizing group sizes of 4, 10, 40 and 100. These exp eriments provide replicable results that contradict the widely held vi ew that a group's ability to provide the optimal level of a pure publi c good is inversely related to group size. On the contrary, groups of size 40 and 100 provided the public good more efficiently than groups of size 4 and 10. Several possible alternative explanations are discus sed.