Does commonness fill the common fund? Experimental evidence on the role of identity for public good contributions in India
Bruhan Konda, Stephan Dietrich & Eleonora Nillesen
#2021-037
We examine how the type of common identity affects voluntary
contribution to public goods in groups that differ in their social
image. We conjecture that groups with perceived high-status identity
engage in higher levels of collective action compared to groups with
perceived low-status identity. We study this using a lab-in-the-field
experiment in rural India with members from the top and bottom of the
caste hierarchy. Using a 2-person public good game, we empirically test
(i) whether a caste gap in contributions emerges when group identities
are made salient (ii) whether these differences are driven by the
presence of punishment, and (iii) whether exogenously boosting caste
identities by a role model prime diminishes the caste gap. Our results
show that stereotyped groups fail to act collectively to provide public
goods, possibly due to lack of trust towards their own group members.
This gap disappears after the role model priming treatment and reaffirms
the role of social identity in explaining the difference in
contributions between groups that differ in the social image.
Keywords: Common identity, Caste, Public goods, Lab-in-the-field experiment
JEL Classification: C91, D64, D91, H41