9320937 Loehman This project is supported under the Career Advancement Award for Women Program. The grant will enable the investigator to work with a leading scholar at the University of Arizona to learn the techniques of experimental economics. In addition she will begin to apply these techniques in public goods situations. The goal of this research is too design and compare alternative cost sharing mechanisms for public goods. The tool of experimental economics will be used to compare alternative mechanisms in terms of social costs and equity for environments with varying group size, cost conditions, and initial endowments. This project will provide a case in which experimentation is used not only for behavior hypothesis testing but also as method of endogenous institutional choice. The object is to design rules and institutions for cooperative solutions to local public problems. ***
