Levy, David MBennett, Paul Henry Malcolm2016-09-282016-09-282016https://hdl.handle.net/1920/10406This dissertation analyzes the behavior of participants in the class of economics experiments known as public goods games. It is well established that most participants in public goods games do not play the Nash equilibrium of zero contributed to the public good initially. By initially I mean either the first round of a repeated game or the only round in a one-shot game. The goal of this dissertation is to explain the observed behavior and to develop models that predict it.87 pagesenCopyright 2016 Paul Henry Malcolm BennettEconomicsEconomic theoryAltruismBet-hedgingExperimental economicsKelly CriterionPublic GoodsReciprocityDissertation