AEAweb: Journal Article Full-Text Access
Note to Institutional Subscribers: If you normally access AEAweb journal content via your university or firm's subscription and receive this page, please click
here. The most likely causes of this are a recently changed IP address, a new subscription, or the renewal of a lapsed institutional subscription. This page will stop appearing on the next synchronisation of the document delivery and authentication systems.
You may also click here for pay-per-view, Athens login and other access options .
AEA Members, please click the button below to access the login form:
Zhang, Xiaoquan (Michael), and
Feng Zhu. 2011. "Group Size and Incentives to Contribute: A Natural Experiment at Chinese Wikipedia."
,
101(4): 1601-15.
Show Article Details
DOI: 10.1257/aer.101.4.1601
Abstract:The literature on the private provision of public goods suggests an inverse relationship between incentives to contribute and group size. We find, however, that after an exogenous reduction of group size at Chinese Wikipedia, the nonblocked contributors decrease their contributions by 42.8 percent on average. We attribute the cause to social effects: contributors receive social benefits that increase with both the amount of their contributions and group size, and the shrinking group size weakens these social benefits. Consistent with our explanation, we find that the more contributors value social benefits, the more they reduce their contributions after the block. (JEL H41, L17, L82)
Additional links:
Download Data Set |
Online Appendix
Authors:
Zhang, Xiaoquan (Michael) (Hong Kong U Science and Technology and MIT Center for Digital Business)
Zhu, Feng (U Southern CA)
JEL Classifications:
H41: Public Goods
L17: Open Source Products and Markets
L82: Entertainment; Media
If you are an AEA member and do not have an AEAweb login, please
click here.
If you would like to become an AEA member, please see our
membership page.
If you arrived at this page via a journal article link, you will be redirected to the pdf after successful login.
If your first login attempt fails, and you have recently signed up for access or have recently changed your password, you may need to wait a few moments and try again.
Please contact us at
notify@aeaweb.org with any problems or questions.
Contents of Current Issues
June 2013 AER
Spring 2013 JEP
May 2013 AEJ: Policy
May 2013 AEJ: Micro
April 2013 AEJ: Macro
April 2013 AEJ: Applied
March 2013 JEL
Virtual Field Journals
In the News:
An article in the Journal of Economic Perspectives entitled, "The Growth of Finance" by Harvard Business School professors, Robin Greenwood and David Scharfstein, was recently explored by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. News & World Report cites Princeton-based Burton Malkiel's article in the Journal of Economic Perspectives as a preferred source of "sound financial advice" for investors.
The Huffington Post reports on a study addressing the influence of lifestyle factors on shrinking height in the elderly published in the April issue of AEJ: Applied Economics.
AEA in News Archive
Contact Us
