@techreport{58fb75a6a2c941f3b60735b9cfe78ec5,
title = "Leveling up? An inter-neighborhood experiment on parochialism and the efficiency of multi-level public goods provision",
abstract = "Many public goods can be provided at different spatial levels. Evidence from social identity theory and in-group favoritism raises the possibility that where higher-level provision is more efficient, subjects{\textquoteright} narrow concern for local outcomes (parochialism) could harm efficiency. Building on the experimental paradigm of multi-level public good games and the {\textquoteleft}neighborhood attachment{\textquoteright} concept, we conduct an artefactual field experiment with 600 participants in a setting conducive to parochial behavior. In an inter-neighborhood intraregion design, subjects allocate an endowment between a personal account, a local, and a regional public good account. The between-subjects design varies across two dimensions: One informs subjects that the smaller local group consists of members from their own neighborhood ({\textquoteleft}neighbors{\textquoteright}). The other varies the relative productivity at the two public goods provision levels. We find evidence for parochialism, but contrary to our hypothesis, parochialism does not interfere with efficiency: The average subject responds to a change in relative productivities at the local and regional level in the same way, whether aware of their neighbors{\textquoteright} presence in the small group or not. The results even hold for subjects with above-median neighborhood attachment and subjects primed on neighborhood attachment.",
keywords = "Social Identity, Parochialism, Multi-Level Public Goods, Artefactual Field Experiment",
author = "Johannes Lohse and Timo Goeschl and Martin Kesternich and Daniel Roemer and Carlo Gallier",
year = "2017",
month = mar,
day = "3",
doi = "10.2139/ssrn.2926356",
language = "English",
series = "Discussion Paper Series",
publisher = "Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)",
number = "17-012",
type = "WorkingPaper",
institution = "Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)",
}