Contributions for a Community Good: Results from a Field Experiment in India

Santanu Mitra, Gautam Gupta

Abstract


This paper presents the results of a field experiment on voluntary contribution for a proposed community good. The experiment was conducted at village Sundarika, District South 24 parganas, in West Bengal, India. The proposed community good was a community medicinal plant garden. Solicitation letters, on behalf of a local Community Based Organization (CBO), were delivered to one hundred households by the experimenters with the request to contribute generously for the proposed garden. Sixty-five households contributed and a strong positive association is found between contributions and CBO membership on the one hand and landholding on the other.

Keywords


Community good; Field experiment; VCM; social capital

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/j.css.1923669720130903.5758

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