The Private Provision of Public Goods: a Perspective on Neutrality

Abstract

This article has two purposes. First, the bounds of the neutrality theorem for the private provision of public goods are more firmly established The focus is on the non-neutrality of non-Nash equilibria in which nonzero conjectures depend on the agent's own contribution. The non-neutrality of equilibria involving general externalities, nonlinear constraints, and joint products are also examined Second, it is argued that non-Nash behavior and joint products, induced by institutional design, may be behind the contribution patterns reported by some researchers who investigate charities.