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Publication
In or out? Crowding effects in public goods with private gifts: evidence from crowdfunding
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Abstract(s)
How do cumulative contributions influence subsequent giving to public goods that offer private gifts? While prior research has examined contribution dynamics in fundraising, the role of excludability — the property of preventing noncontributors from accessing the good — remains largely unexplored. We use comprehensive data from a reward-based crowdfunding platform to show that the excludability of a project significantly shapes its contribution pattern. We introduce two novel measures of excludability: one based on a good’s inherent characteristics and another derived from the geographic distribution of backer-project distances. Our analysis reveals that more excludable goods (such as local projects and tangible products) exhibit stronger crowding-in effects, whereas less excludable ones (such as global projects and journalism) experience crowding-out effects. Although crowdfunding platforms systematically highlight cumulative contributions, our findings suggest that fundraisers should emphasize this information, particularly for excludable goods, but not for the least excludable ones.
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Keywords
Altruism Crowdfunding Excludability Fundraising Public good
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Bernard, A., & Gazel, M. (2025). In or out? Crowding effects in public goods with private gifts: evidence from crowdfunding. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 235, Article 107023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107023