ABSTRACT
A public good is a product or service that can be “consumed” by members of a group, and its provision is almost entirely dependent on contributions by group members. The conflict between individual and collective rationality lies in the method by which the public good is provided. Economists have been interested in public goods-related issues since at least the 1930s, but the systematic study of public goods really began in the mid to late 1950s with a set of writings by C. D. Samuelson, R. A. Musgrave, and Head. Self-efficacy has long been thought to be an important variable in public goods behavior, and feelings of self-efficacy have been shown to exert a strong influence on a person’s tendency to free ride: When people have a low sense of self-efficacy, they are more likely to free ride than when their sense of self-efficacy is high.
