Why Announce Leadership Contributions? An Experimental Study of the Signaling and Reciprocity Hypotheses

Why do fundraisers announce initial contributions to their charity?Potential explanations are that these announcements cause future donors to increase their contributions, either because they want to reciprocate the generosity of earlier donors, or because the initial contributions are seen as a signal of the charity's quality.Using experimental methods we investigate these two hypotheses.When only the first donor is informed of the public good's quality, subjects not only copy the initial contribution, but the first donor also correctly anticipates this response.While this result is consistent with both the signaling and the reciprocity explanations, the latter is unlikely to be the driving force.The reason is that announcements have no effect on contribution levels when the quality of the public good is common knowledge.Thus our results provide strong support for the signaling hypothesis.funds;information;public goods

Why Announce Leadership Contributions? An Experimental Study of the Signaling and Reciprocity Hypotheses

Why do fundraisers announce initial contributions to their charity?Potential explanations are that these announcements cause future donors to increase their contributions, either because they want to reciprocate the generosity of earlier donors, or because the initial contributions are seen as a signal of the charity's quality.Using experimental methods we investigate these two hypotheses.When only the first donor is informed of the public good's quality, subjects not only copy the initial contribution, but the first donor also correctly anticipates this response.While this result is consistent with both the signaling and the reciprocity explanations, the latter is unlikely to be the driving force.The reason is that announcements have no effect on contribution levels when the quality of the public good is common knowledge.Thus our results provide strong support for the signaling hypothesis.

After You - Endogenous Sequencing in Voluntary Contribution Games

We examine contributions to a public good when some donors do not know the true value of the good.If donors in such an environment determine the sequence of moves, two contribution orders may arise as equilibria.Either the uninformed and informed donors contribute simultaneously or the informed contribute prior to the uninformed.Sequential moves result in a larger provision of the public good, because the follower mimics the action of the leader, and in accounting for this response the leader chooses to contribute when it is efficient to do so.An experimental investigation of the game shows that the donors predominantly choose to contribute sequentially, and that the resulting contributions are larger than those of the simultaneous-move game.Although the gain from sequential moves is smaller when the sequence is set exogenously, our results suggest that the involved parties would benefit from having sequential moves imposed upon them.

Error prone inference from respons time: The case of intuitive generosity

Response time is increasingly used to shed light on the process by which individuals make decisions. As mistakes may be correlated with response time it could, however, be misleading to use this measure to draw inference on preferences. To demonstrate we build on a recent literature, which uses response time to determine whether individuals intuitively are generous or selfish. Examining public good games researchers have shown that fast decision makers appear more generous than slow decision makers and this has been interpreted as evidence that generosity is intuitive and impulsive while selfishness is a calculated response (Rand et al. 2012; Nielsen, et al. 2014). Modifying the public good game to have an interior dominant strategy equilibrium we ask if the negative correlation between response time and giving is sensitive to the location of the equilibrium and whether it may result from mistakes. When the equilibrium is located below the midpoint of the strategy space we replicate earlier findings. However, when the equilibrium is located above the midpoint of the strategy space we get instead a positive correlation between response time and giving. While contribution distributions vary significantly by treatment for slow decision makers, these differences are not significant for fast decision makers. Fast decision makers are in both treatments more likely to make contributions that simultaneously lower individual and group earnings. We argue that the negative correlation between response time and giving rather than reflecting ‘spontaneous giving’, results from confused participants quickly selecting contributions that lie, on average, in the middle of the strategy space. Our results demonstrate that inference on preferences from response time requires that we take into account how mistakes are correlated with response time

Matching subsidies and voluntary contributions: A review

This paper provides a synthesis of the experimental literature on matching subsidies in the context of charitable giving. We classify results according to four different outcome variables frequently considered in the literature and address (i) short-term effects of linear matching, (ii) the role of the matching rate, (iii) context-dependence of behavioural responses, (iv) the relevance of the price of giving, (v) long-term effects and (vi) nonlinear matching schemes. Based on this comprehensive review, we highlight several avenues for future research, such as putting stronger emphasis on competition in fundraising, long-term effects or heterogeneity in responses

Phenotypic Modulation of Smooth Muscle Cells in Atherosclerosis Is Associated With Downregulation of LMOD1, SYNPO2, PDLIM7, PLN, and SYNM

OBJECTIVE: Key augmented processes in atherosclerosis have been identified, whereas less is known about downregulated pathways. Here, we applied a systems biology approach to examine suppressed molecular signatures, with the hypothesis that they may provide insight into mechanisms contributing to plaque stability. APPROACH AND RESULTS: Muscle contraction, muscle development, and actin cytoskeleton were the most downregulated pathways (false discovery rate=6.99e-21, 1.66e-6, 2.54e-10, respectively) in microarrays from human carotid plaques (n=177) versus healthy arteries (n=15). In addition to typical smooth muscle cell (SMC) markers, these pathways also encompassed cytoskeleton-related genes previously not associated with atherosclerosis. SYNPO2, SYNM, LMOD1, PDLIM7, and PLN expression positively correlated to typical SMC markers in plaques (Pearson r>0.6, P0.8, P<0.0001). By immunohistochemistry, the proteins were expressed in SMCs in normal vessels, but largely absent in human plaques and intimal hyperplasia. Subcellularly, most proteins localized to the cytoskeleton in cultured SMCs and were regulated by active enhancer histone modification H3K27ac by chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing. Functionally, the genes were downregulated by PDGFB (platelet-derived growth factor beta) and IFNg (interferron gamma), exposure to shear flow stress, and oxLDL (oxidized low-density lipoprotein) loading. Genetic variants in PDLIM7, PLN, and SYNPO2 loci associated with progression of carotid intima-media thickness in high-risk subjects without symptoms of cardiovascular disease (n=3378). By eQTL (expression quantitative trait locus), rs11746443 also associated with PDLIM7 expression in plaques. Mechanistically, silencing of PDLIM7 in vitro led to downregulation of SMC markers and disruption of the actin cytoskeleton, decreased cell spreading, and increased proliferation. CONCLUSIONS: We identified a panel of genes that reflect the altered phenotype of SMCs in vascular disease and could be early sensitive markers of SMC dedifferentiation

Matching schemes and public goods : a review

Matching schemes, where a party matches the contribution of others, reduce the effective price of a good and aim to foster its demand. We review the empirical literature on the effectiveness of these schemes in the context of public goods, especially in the field of charitable giving. As different measures of effectiveness are used, we classify results according to (i) the level of public good provision, (ii) the amount of individuals' contributions, (iii) the likelihood to give and (iv) the contribution conditional on contributing a positive amount. Generalizing results is challenging, since context specific factors matter. Predominantly, a match is found to create a significant increase in public good provision without crowding out individuals' contributions, while the effect on the likelihood of giving and contribution condition on contributing a positive amount is nonnegative. The discussion reveals several avenues for future research, as putting stronger emphasizes on long term effects, public good competition or heterogeneity in responses