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Professor Bilodeau’s research centers on how public goods are provided. A public good is a commodity or service
that people must consume in common, such as national defense, street lighting, or medical research. Because it can be
difficult or impossible to force the consumers of a public good to pay for their consumption, private firms rarely
produce these goods. Most public goods are provided by the government or by non-profit organizations. Public goods
raise many strategic issues between the consumers, the donors, the government, and the individuals who set up and
manage the non-profit firms.
Professor Bilodeau has investigated the question of why an entrepreneur would found a non-profit rather than a
for-profit firm. At first glance there doesn't seem to be any advantage to doing so because even if a non-profit firm
could collect more revenues, the owner/founder would not be able to legally appropriate any of the surplus. However,
the legal bar to taking out any profits can be used by the founder of a charity to convince others to donate. If the
founder favors the objectives of a proposed charity, then the founder can accomplish more of that objective at a lower
cost to him or herself by founding a charity. Another issue concerns the various strategies that non-profit firms can
use to raise more revenue. For example, a non-profit opera company might purposely price its tickets below average cost
to reach a wider audience, and threaten its patrons with bankruptcy and cancellation of the concert series if they
don't donate enough to cover its total costs. Trying to understand the behavior of non-profit firms and of the
different people involved in public good provision is an active research area in economics.
Selected Publications:
- “Donative Nonprofit Organizations,”with Richard Steinberg, Handbook on the Economics
of Giving, Reciprocity, and Altruism, Applications (volume 2). Edited
by S.-C. Kolm, and J. Mercier-Ythier, North-Holland, 2006, pp.
1271-1334.
- “Volunteering a Public Service, An Experimental Investigation”
(coauthored with Stuart Mestelman and Jason Childs) Journal
of Public Economics Volume 88, Issue 12, pages 2839-2855. December
2004.
- “Voluntary Provision of a Public Good and Individual Morality,”
with Nicolas Gravel, Journal of Public Economics, vol. 88:645-666,
2004
- “Rational Nonprofit Entrepreneurship,” with A. Slivinski, Journal
of Economics and Management Strategy, Vol. 7, No. 4, 551- 571, 1998.
- “Rival Charities,” with A. Slivinski, Journal of Public Economics,
Vol. 66, 449-467, 1997.
- “Volunteering Nonprofit Entrepreneurial Services,” with A. Slivinski,
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol. 31, 117-127,
1996.
- “Toilet Cleaning and Department Chairing: Volunteering a Public Service,”
with A. Slivinski, Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 59, 299-308,
1996.
- “Tax-earmarking and Separate School Financing,” Journal of
Public Economics, Vol. 54, 51-63, 1994.
- “Public Goods Provision Institutions,” in A. Breton et.al. (eds.),
Preferences and Democracy, International Studies in Economics and
Econometrics, Vol. 28, 135-155, 1994.
- “Voluntary Contributions to United Charities,” Journal of
Public Economics, Vol. 48, 119-133, 1992.
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