BACKGROUND There is an urgent need for universal access to modern contraceptives in Nigeria, to facilitate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and other national goals. This study provides information on the potential role of community solidarity in increasing access to contraceptives for the most-poor people through exploration of the role of altruism by determining level of al...

Altruism is a type of non-use value which can have different definitions depending on the type of goods entering the utility function of the altruistic person and her expectations about the contributions of others. The purpose of this paper is to measure the trade-offs between different types of altruistic values originating from social and environmental policies. The environmental policies are...

Both laboratory and field data suggest that people punish noncooperators even in one-shot interactions. Although such "altruistic punishment" may explain the high levels of cooperation in human societies, it creates an evolutionary puzzle: existing models suggest that altruistic cooperation among nonrelatives is evolutionarily stable only in small groups. Thus, applying such models to the evolu...

Altruism is a type of non-use value which can have different definitions depending on the type of goods entering the utility function of the altruistic person and her expectations about the contributions of others. The purpose of this paper is to measure the trade-offs between different types of altruistic values originating from social and environmental policies. The environmental policies are...

The rarity of altruistic punishment in small-scale societies should not be interpreted as evidence that altruistic punishment is not an important determinant of cooperation in general. While it is essential to collect field data on altruistic punishment, this kind of data has limitations. Laboratory experiments can help shed light on the role of altruistic punishment "in the wild."