Jackson M., Nicoló A. (2004).

The strategy-proof provision of public goods under congestion and crowding preferences. Journal of Economic Theory, Volume 115, Issue 2, 2004, pp. 278-308.

 

Abstract:

We examine the strategy-proof provision of excludable public goods when agents care about the number of other consumers. We show that strategy-proof and efficient social choice functions satisfying an outsider independence condition must always assign a fixed number of consumers, regardless of individual desires to participate. A hierarchical rule selects participants and a generalized median rule selects the level of the public good. Under heterogeneity in agents’ views on the optimal number of consumers, strategy-proof, efficient, and outsider independent social choice functions are much more limited and in an important case must be dictatorial.