Abstract

"We discuss how standard public goods theory can explain a wider range of individual responses to changes in government funding of public goods than the literature suggests. For example, increases in volunteerism in national parks in response to increases in public parks funding are consistent with volunteers obtaining private benefits, such as park enjoyment, and contributing to environmental conservation within the model of  'impure altruism.' "

The ARE Update  is a bimonthly magazine published by the University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics for the purpose of providing wide dissemination of research results and expert opinion from faculty and graduate students in agricultural and resource economics at UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and UC Riverside.