@inproceedings{18c2558db7ea4c1bbdb8abc47c8298d6,
title = "Overcoming free-riding in information goods: Sanctions or rewards?",
abstract = "Economic environments involving information goods suffer from an extensive free-riding problem. For example, social loafing and lurking on discussion forums, leeching on file-sharing networks, and pirating of digital goods. Despite their use, it is not clear what types of interventions result in the best outcomes for all players involved. We conduct a lab experiment using a public goods game to explore the role of rewards and sanctions or free-riding behavior at both the individual and group levels. Our results provide interesting insights on the behavior of free-riding and the use of incentives. Interestingly, sanctioning only the worst free-rider results in a significant decrease in free-riding for that player and marginal decreases in free-riding for all others. Rewarding only the highest contributor results in a significant increase in free-riding for everyone. Overall, our research offers significant insights for the design and implementation of interventions for environments having the free-rider problem.",
author = "Hashim, {Matthew J.} and Bockstedt, {Jesse C.}",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2015 IEEE.; 48th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2015 ; Conference date: 05-01-2015 Through 08-01-2015",
year = "2015",
month = mar,
day = "26",
doi = "10.1109/HICSS.2015.574",
language = "English (US)",
series = "Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences",
publisher = "IEEE Computer Society",
pages = "4834--4843",
editor = "Bui, {Tung X.} and Sprague, {Ralph H.}",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 48th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2015",
}