An experimental inquiry into the nature of relational goods, and their impact on co-operation

Our experiment studies the impact of two types of relational goods on the voluntary contributions for the production of a public good, i.e. acquaintance among the contributors and performance of a team work before the experiment. Our results show that: (1) both team work and previous acquaintance increase the average contribution to the public good, and (2) there is a relevant gender effect with women contributing more or less than men, depending on the treatment. Therefore, we conclude that both relational goods are important to enhance co-operation, that acquaintance and working together are rather complements than substitutes, and that different relational goods produce different effects on cooperation. Also, we find further evidence for women’s behaviour to be more context-specific than men’s.