A free rider can be defined as a person who, being a member of a group, decides to take advantage of the consumption of a good, or use of a service, that is generated as a result of the common efforts by the group members, without bearing a proportionate (or, in pure free riding, any) share of its cost of production or without contributing to its direct realization. One [Page 947]simple way of representing free riding is to think of a member of a rowing team who fails to do his or her share by faking the rowing effort—consequently getting a “free ride” on the boat.

The possibility of free riding is not an exceptional case: On the contrary, according to economic and rational choice theory ...