| I conduct three studies to explore the variability in individual social preferences, the stability of these preferences across decision contexts, and the relationship between these preferences and public good provision. In my first essay, I use an experimental design to elicit both unconditional and conditional (based on others' contribution decisions) provision strategies from each participant. I systematically vary the homogeneity of group composition and the information made available to subjects about it. I examine the effects of an individual's own type, group composition and information on contributions.;In my second essay, I investigate whether social preferences are stable across contexts in the field by building a unique data set by recruiting participants from a low-income urban neighborhood to participate in a series of laboratory experiments. Their decisions are used to demonstrate the stability of cooperative actions across multiple decision contexts. I show that choices in a laboratory voluntary contribution mechanism to predict giving in donation experiments, as well as self-reported donations and volunteering outside the lab. In my third essay, I conduct a field experiment to analyze of the impacts of race and community characteristics on the ability of communities to provide local public goods. I use experiments to measure preferences for cooperation, risk and time and then use these to help explain the willingness of individuals to provide local public goods, specifically the willingness to contribute to local charities that provide health, children's education and job training services. The evidence indicates that the observed differences between African-Americans and Hispanics in our sample are largely driven by differences in beliefs about others' provision and patience across the two populations.;I show that different social preference types do exist, that they value different things and that they differ in terms of the factors that impact their decision process. This indicates that it would be useful to incorporate these factors, and other non-traditional assumptions, into our theory and systematically test these models against the standard theory to uncover the relationships that are robust and informative for economic theory and practice. |
