When communities are asked to contribute their time or money to shared goals—like running a school meal program—the success of these efforts often depends on how people respond to one another’s choices. If most people give more time and effort when others do, cooperation can spread. But if people hold back when they see others contributing, cooperative efforts may falter. In economics, this concept is called “conditional cooperation,” and it has been almost exclusively studied using laboratory games in wealthy countries, often with university students—far from the realities of rural life in places where public goods depend heavily on donations and volunteering.
Our recent IFPRI Discussion Paper fills this gap: We implemented a lab-in-the-field experiment assessing conditional cooperation for a new school meals program implemented by World Vision in Nampula and Zambezia provinces in rural Mozambique. Communities participating in the program are asked to help sustain it by donating small amounts of money or volunteering their time to cook and serve food. We asked households to describe their willingness to contribute depending on how many other households also decided to chip in and contribute to the program.