Must Communication Be Able to Improve Cooperation? Evidence from Experiment of Voluntary Provision of Double-level Public Goods

Wang Yilin, Wang Guocheng

Journal of Finance and Economics Vol. 42, Issue 09, pp. 16 - 29 (2016)  DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.jfe.2016.09.002

Abstract

Cooperation is not only the focus of experimental economics,but also the basic issue of social sciences. Based on the hypothesis that communication can significantly improve social cooperation mechanisms,this paper takes voluntary provision of double-level public goods as the basis,tests the stability of the effectiveness of communication mechanism by the adjustment to communication scope and frequency,and then explores the function routes of communication mechanism. It arrives at the conclusions as follows: firstly,the operation effectiveness of communication mechanism is restricted by conditions; open communication between ones with heterogeneous endowments can promote cooperation,but the internal close communication among ones with homogeneous endowments will undermine cooperation; secondly,repeated communication can better promote social cooperation than one-time communication; thirdly,there is no single factor that can explain the changes in cooperation level under the communication mechanism alone. The experimental study actually provides the premise condition of the improvement of social cooperation by communication mechanism,namely communication mechanism must be open and it is best to be sustainable.

Keywords

communication; local public good; global public good