On sequential and simultaneous contributions under incomplete information

When contributors to a common cause (or public good) are uncertain about each others’ valuations, early contributors are likely to be cautious in free‐riding on future contributors. Contrary to the case of complete information, when contributors have independent private valuations for the public good, the expected total contribution generated in a sequential move game may be higher than in a simultaneous move game. This is established in a conventional framework with quasi‐linear utility where agents care only about the total provision of the public good (rather than individual contribution levels) and there is no non‐convexity in the provision of the public good. We allow for arbitrary number of agents and fairly general distribution of types.