By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.
Community contribution requirements are a ubiquitous but un-
derstudied feature of projects to provide local public goods in de-
veloping countries. A randomized experiment in rural Bangladesh
shows that cash contribution requirements strongly reduce take-up
and impact of safe drinking water infrastructure projects, compared
to a contribution waiver. Labour contribution requirements do not,
despite having similar value when priced at the market wage, be-
cause most households value their time below the market wage and
because labour contributions appear less costly to coordinate. Nei-
ther contribution requirement increases cost-effectiveness once we
account for coordination and monitoring costs, undermining a cen-
tral rationale for their imposition.