PUBLIC-GOODS WITHOUT THE STATE

The provision of public goods is generally assumed to required compuls ion by the state. Individuals may want them, but they have no incentiv e to contribute voluntarily to their production. David Schmidtz propos es ''assurance contracts'' as a way around the problem of ''wasted'' c ontributions. However, such contracts do not eliminate the incentive t o free ride on public goods. Empirical evidence suggests that enforced contributions may be a more effective way of combatting this problem than assurance contracts. More generally, we need to investigate diffe rent kinds of moral motivation to see how they may elicit voluntary co ntributions of public goods.