GENDER EFFECTS IN LABORATORY PUBLIC-GOODS CONTRIBUTION - DO INDIVIDUALS PUT THEIR MONEY WHERE THEIR MOUTH IS

Recent work by Carol Gilligan posits that females are more cooperative and community minded than males. We use a series of laboratory experiments to test for gender effects in individual contribution rates to a public good. Each member of a same sex group of four was given the opportunity to contribute his/her endowment to a group fund for a series of six rounds. We test for gender effects in contribution rates with a high and low group fund multiplier and with and without preplay interaction. We found significant gender, group fund multiplier and period effects and interaction between the preplay communication and the multiplier. Counter to Gilligan's hypothesis, males contributed at higher rates than females.