Publication: Journal of Economic Education
Volume: Volume 27, No. 3
Issue: Summer 1996
Pages: 238-257
Author(s): Ephraim Kleiman (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Yona Rubinstein (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Address (Principal Author):Ephraim Kleiman, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Economics, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905 Israel, 02 883067
Internet Address (Principal Author): msefraim@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il
Title: Sex and the Leuthold Free Rider Experiment: Some Results from an Israeli Sample
Abstract: To demonstrate the concept of free riding to students, Leuthold (1993) devised a classroom experiment in which participants in her class were asked to allocate a given sum of money between two investment assets: a private asset, bearing a rate of return of 5 percent on the individual's investment, and a collective asset, bearing a 10 percent return to be divided equally among all participants, irrespective of their own contribution. Leuthold's analysis of the propensity to free ride, as measured by the proportion allocated to investment in the private asset, pointed out some factors in determining free riding behaviour, but failed to yield statistically significant results. Repeating the experiment on a much larger population of students provided results that are statistically significant and shed some light on both the U.S. experiment and possible behavioural differences between American and Israeli students. They also suggest that the determinants of the decision whether or not to contribute towards a public good might be different from those affecting the sum allocated to it. The experiment also raises the question whether the results and the behaviour underlying them can be presented to students in a nonnormative mode.