An Empirical Analysis of Voluntary Payments for Information Goods on the Internet

Abstract

This paper presents results from a field study on voluntary contributions for an information public good provided via the Internet (an electronic newsletter for authors). Whereas the standard private provision model predicts that individuals contribute less if other individuals contribute more, we find that readers are more likely to pay the more they expect others to give. This result is consistent with more refined private provision models or with fairness models. We also find individuals contribute more the older they are. Women are also more cooperative in this sense, while income has no significant effect.