The advantage of being poor: private provision of public goods, strategic incentives and the role of public provision

Abstract

When people know a public good is to be privately provided in the future, economic behavior may change in periods before the one with the private provision game. Individuals have an incentive to reduce their disposable income so as to shift the burden of provision to others. The incentive is reduced if individuals know that the government will provide some of the public good, as long as this provison is large enough. In a second-best world, private provision of public goods has been claimed to be a reasonably good alternative to public provision. This claim needs to be reconsidered in the light of these results. (author's abstract)