Abstract

Ensuring equitable access to swimming lessons is becoming increasingly crucial. With sharp income inequality, one in Iive parents cannot afford swimming lessons for their children (Winter, 2021). Using Bowles’ preference endogeneity framework (Bowles, 1998), the paper's authors explore whether Pay What You Can (PWYC) can improve access to swimming lessons by "crowding in" prosocial payment behaviour. The authors leverage original survey data and propensity score matching techniques to show that: (1) nobody has entirely self-regarding preferences. All respondents paid a positive price under PWYC. (2) The more self-regarding an individual is, the less they pay under PWYC. On net, other-regarding individuals did not compensate for this. (3) Income and reference prices remain crucial for price determination. The results cast doubt on the effectiveness of PWYC as a policy to improve access to swimming lessons. 

How to Cite:

Titov, L. & Davidson, S., (2025) “Principles of Poolside Pricing: The Preference Effects of Paying What You Can for Swimming Lessons ”, UCL Journal of Economics 4(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444.2755-0877.2078