All or nothing: State capacity and optimal public goods provision

Abstract

We study public goods provision subject to ex post incentive and participation constraints. We also impose a requirement of anonymity. Different public goods can be bundled if sufficient resources are available. The analysis focuses on the all-or-nothing-mechanism: Expand provision as much as is resource feasible if no one vetoes - otherwise stick to the status quo. We show that the probability of the all-outcome converges to one as the capacity becomes unbounded. For a given finite capacity, we provide conditions under which the all-or-nothing-mechanism is ex ante welfare-maximizing - even though, ex post, it involves an overprovision of public goods.