Gavin Andresen - 2014-11-02 13:55:55

I couldn't resist peeking at the literature; the first hit on a google search for "experimental economics free rider" turns up this 1984 paper:

Quote
Both conventional wisdom and economic theory have been called into question recently by a series of research papers which report experimental studies of collective decision-making about public goods. Almost without exception, these papers have reported results that cast serious doubt upon the importance - and, in some cases, even upon the very existence - of the free rider problem.