THREAT, SANCTION OR ADVICE? PROSOCIALS VS. INDIVIDUALISTS: WHICH INCENTIVE FOR WHOM?

In this article we investigate and compare the effect of a collective sanction (namely, an increase of the tax burden) with a recommendation, both from a third-party, in a public good game "a la Andreoni [1993]" where crowding-out is possible. Furthermore, we test for the correlation between the incentives and the social orientation of subjects on cooperation by using a social value orientation (SVO) test. Our results show that, in general, the sanction is more powerful than the recommendation but also that the threat of punishment has a disciplinary impact by enhancing cooperation. Moreover, we show that both sanction and its threat have a different impact according to the social orientation of subjects: contrary to individualists and competitors, prosocials are not significantly sensitive to both.