On the possibility of efficient private provision of public goods through government subsidies

Abstract

This paper investigates the possibility of implementing an efficient provision of a public good through distortionary tax-subsidy policies in a simple one-shot game of voluntary contributions. Within the class of all linear tax-subsidy policies two cases are distinguished. The first is where individual taxes only depend on the sum of all other individuals' contributions. Although such policies may increase total supply of the public good, it is shown that the implementation of an efficient amount is not possible unless the government has complete information about individual characteristics. In the second case, where taxes depend on the distribution of contributions, the equilibrium supply of the public good is no longer unique. For any efficient interior solution there might also exist inefficient boundary solutions. Moreover, unlike the boundary solutions, the efficient interior solution is in general not stable.