We introduce preference and endowment heterogeneity into a multiple-threshold public goods experiment to explore policy selection in collective action.
Groups tend to coordinate on the public good preferred by their wealthiest member, demonstrating a wealthy-interest bias even in the absence of corruption, politics, and information asymmetries.
At the same time, groups divide costs in highly progressive ways, with the wealthy voluntarily funding a disproportionate share of the budget, especially when founding her preferred option.
As result, groups successfully funding the public good preferred by their wealthy are characterized by lower inequality and higher profits than those exhibiting lower ability to coordinate contributions. We discuss the implications of our experimental findings for policy selection, charitable giving, and public finance.
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