From the lab to the field: An experimental investigation of the provision of a club good

• The club good performs significantly better in the lab than in the field.
• The club good increases the number of contributors in the lab and in the field.
• Subjects in the field contribute significantly more than those of the lab.
• The provision in the field is sustained for a longer period of time than in the lab.

Club goods are an important category of collective goods. However, unlike public goods, very few experiments address the issue of the provision of club goods, and no studies have specifically explored a field case. In this experiment, a membership fee is introduced to improve the successful provision of a threshold collective good. The experiment began in the laboratory with students, and moved progressively through controlled stages to the field with farmers belonging to an association managing an irrigation system. In the laboratory, the experiment reveals that the club good setting significantly increases the successful provision rate of the threshold collective good, and is significantly robust in the intercultural comparison. However, in the field, the club good setting fails to significantly improve the provision of the collective good. The cooperative behavior of farmers explains this difference. In contrast to students, farmers have a high level of cooperation that is sustained over a long period of time.

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