Leader and citizens participation for the environment: Experimental evidence from Eastern Europe

Tiziana Centofanti, Anand Murugesan*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

We examine two aspects of decentralized governance by conducting lab-in-the-field experiments in five villages in Central and Eastern Europe. We experimentally test the effect of (1) democratically elected local leader's endorsement and (2) citizen's participation in the choice of environmental public goods (EPG) on their voluntary contributions. Our design ties the voluntary contributions in the experimental public good game to restoring a real EPG, such as a public park. We find that citizen participation in the endogenous choice of the EPG significantly increases contributions, while the leader's endorsement does not. Our results suggest that while the leader's effect is unclear, participatory decision-making can improve access to public goods and increase the beneficiaries’ willingness to cost-share in rural communities.

Original languageEnglish
Article number101915
JournalJournal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics
Volume100
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2022

Keywords

  • Environment
  • Lab-in-the-field experiments
  • Leaders
  • Participation
  • Public goods

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