Emotion venting and punishment in public good experiments

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dickinson, David L.; Masclet, David
• 署名单位: University of North Carolina; Appalachian State University; Universite de Rennes; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Universite de Montreal
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.10.008
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 55-67
• 关键词: Sanctions; public good; experiment; Venting emotions

摘要

Experimental studies have shown that sanctions effectively deter free riding within groups. However, the overuse of costly punishment may actually harm overall welfare. A main reason for over-punishment is that free-riders generate negative emotions that likely favor excessive punishments. In this paper we ask whether the venting of one's emotions in different ways can reduce the level of excessive punishment in a standard VCM-with-punishment environment while preserving the norm enforcement properties of punishment. We find that venting emotions reduces (excessive) punishment, and under certain conditions the net effect is an increase in final payoffs (i.e., welfare) to the group. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.