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

Contributions for a Community Good： Results from a Field Experiment in India 　　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. 　　Key words： Community good； Field experiment； VCM； social capital 　　Santanu Mitra， Gautam Gupta （2013）. Contributions for a Community Good： Results from a Field Experiment in India. Canadian Social Science， 9（3）， -0. Available from： http：///index.php/css/article/view/j.css.1923669720130903.5758 　　DOI： http：///10.3968/j.css.1923669720130903.5758. 　　INTRODUCTION 　　Theory suggests that public goods， that are non-rival and non-excludable in consumption， generate a free-rider problem and the unwillingness of the consumer to reveal his willingness to pay for such a good. The standard solution suggested in this case is the provision of such a good by the government and paid for by taxation. 　　A sub-class of such goods termed here as a community good motivates this paper. Such a good is exactly like a public good except for two important differences： 　　i） The good is non-excludable to members of a community but excludable to outsiders. 　　ii） It is impossible for the market to provide the good （same as a public good） and prohibitively costly for the government to do so. 　　The only way such a good can be provided is if members of a community come together and contribute time， money or other resources to create the good （or service）. Examples o