The effect of recommended contributions in the voluntary provision of public goods

Recommended contributions are often observed in fundraising campaigns for c haritable and other public goods. We present an experiment investigating ri te impact of recommended contributions in a voluntary threshold public good s process. We find that when valuations for the public good are heterogeneo us recommended contributions significantly increase the likelihood of effic ient provision, although when valuations are homogeneous, the effect of rec ommendations is less compelling. This article represents a first step in un derstanding recommended contributions and other nonbinding, cheap-talk anno uncements in public goods provision and charitable contributions.