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The Problem Of Maintaining Compliance Within Stable Coalitions: Experimental Evidence, David M. Mcevoy, James J. Murphy, John M. Spraggon, John K. Stranlund

John K. Stranlund

This study examines the performance of stable cooperative coalitions that form to provide a public good when coalition members have the opportunity to not comply with their commitments. A stable coalition is one in which no member wishes to leave and no non-member wishes to join. To counteract the incentive to violate their commitments, coalition members fund a third-party enforcer. This leads to the theoretical conclusion that stable coalitions are larger (and provide more of a public good) when their members must finance enforcement relative to when compliance is ensured without the need for costly enforcement. However, our experiments reveal …