Does the Endowment of Contributors Make a Difference in Threshold Public Games?

We investigate experimentally whether the endowment of potential contributors changes outcomes in threshold

public good games. We find that the variance in contributions is significantly reduced for low and high levels

of endowment when compared to an intermediate level of endowment. This difference emerges with

experience. Evidence on whether the level of endowment influences the success rate at providing public goods

is more mixed. We provide, however, a measure of endowment size that correlates with success rate. Our

interpretation suggests that people find it hardest to coordinate on the provision of threshold public goods when

endowments are of intermediate size. By intermediate we mean that the endowment is small enough that people

need to contribute relatively a lot to fund the good, but also large enough that no one person is critical in

providing the good.