Free‐Riding and the Provision of Public Goods in the Family: A Laboratory Experiment*
通过实验室实验，研究家庭中利他主义和资源共享如何影响公共品供给，检验贝克尔“坏孩子定理”的预测，发现孩子行为未达到家庭收入最大化。
We examine the provision of family public goods using experimental economics methods. With sufficient altruism and shared resource arrangements, families can provide the efficient level of family public goods. Becker's Rotten Kid Theorem asserts that transfers from altruistic parents will induce children to maximize family income even if children are not altruistic toward other family members. Consistent with altruism, parents and children contributed more to a public good when in groups with family members than when in groups with strangers. In contrast to the predictions of the Rotten Kid Theorem, however, children's behavior fell short of maximizing family income.