There is a a huge information problem with charity. Will Joe Shmoe give the money to charity or buy a car with it? If Joe promises to ride a bike across the country, publicity will lead to monitoring; thus, donors will feel confident that Joe will donote the money to charity. _________________________ John-Charles Bradbury, Ph.D. Department of Economics The University of the South 735 University Ave. Sewanee, TN 37383 -1000 Phone: (931) 598-1721 Fax: (931) 598-1145 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bradbury.sewanee.edu ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robin Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 8:55 AM Subject: Re: Charity and Races as Complements
> Alex Tabarrok wrote: > > > Races are public goods?! How do I benefit if some other people run > > > a race with each other? Is this just due to some externality that > > > healthy people produce in general? > > > >Recall that the definition of public goods is not a good that is good > >for the public! :) The definition is in terms of non-rivalry and non- > >excludability of which non-rivalry is the more critical component. My > >point was simply that the output produced by someone running a race is > >non-rivalrous. Thus, the charitable racer can collect donations from > >any number of people for running the same race. > > People could organize a race, and solicit donations to support the race. > People can also run some other charity, like for a cancer, and solicit > donations to support that charity. The question is why these two > charities are so often combined. Many people would not give > money to someone soliciting for a race by itself, or for someone > soliciting for a cancer charity by itself, but they do give money > to someone soliciting for a cancer run. Why the extra willingness to > donate to this combined solicitation? > > Robin Hanson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hanson.gmu.edu > Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University > MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444 > 703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323 > >
