Public Choice 87: 185, 1996. 185 (~) 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

On "Group size and the free-rider hypothesis: Another hypothesis." by: Jody W. Lipford: Comment

GORDON TULLOCK University of Arizona, Tucson, U.S.A.

I have nothing to complain about the technical handling of data or analysis by Lipford in his article, but I think that he may have misunderstood the actual situation. I am an atheist, and I suspect he is too, but we must assume that most people who regularly contribute to churches are, in fact, believers. If they are believers, they could be purchasing a special type of fire insurance, which is a private good. In other words, they are making a bargain directly with God, and the size of the group that represents God's will in their immediate neighborhood is not of much importance to them. If this is so, and it seems quite plausible, public good considerations would be very minor in this case and, hence, the Lipford results would follow.

Reference

Lipford, J. Group size and the free-rider hypothesis: An examination of new evidence from churches. Public Choice 83: 291-303.